When 5-star defensive end Sav’ell Smalls committed to the Washington Huskies it was a much different college football world. The 15th-ranked Huskies were a day away from knocking off USC, 28-14, at Husky Stadium.
The day before, Smalls announced his intention to sign with Washington. A landmark recruiting moment on Montlake.
That was Sept. 27, 2019. Covid 19 was months from first appearing in the United States. Chris Petersen was still the Huskies’ head coach.
The competition for Smalls was robust. Alabama, Ohio State, Clemson and Notre Dame were among 31 schools to reportedly make an offer to the Kennedy Catholic product.
Smalls was “loyal to the soil” and opted to stay home and play for UW.
Then the pandemic happened.
Smalls quite literally stayed home from the onset of the pandemic until the 2022 Spring quarter.
“My parents didn’t want me to leave the house,” he said. “They wanted me to isolate by myself. I was 18 at the time.”
He “attended” college online for the first two years.
“No actual classes. All on Zoom,” he said. “I didn’t take a class in person until this past spring quarter.”
Then Montana happened.
In the span of the 705 days — from when Smalls committed to Washington before the raucous home win over USC in 2019 to the loss to Montana at an empty Husky Stadium — the UW football program was experiencing an unexpected downturn.
The mighty had fallen.
“We were excited before last season. We thought we could do some things,” he said. “We thought we could be special last year. We had a lot of good dudes that could play football. We thought we could be Pac-12 champs.”
“People were scattered around,” he recalled of looking into the stands after the loss. “It was completely silent. The atmosphere was dead. It was a weird experience. It was embarrassing. We were shellshocked. Even after the game, I couldn’t believe it happened. It was almost surreal.”
The loss reverberated throughout the program.
“The vibe was off,” Smalls said.
The Huskies did go on to win four of the next six games, evening their record at 4-4.
Then Oregon happened.
The boost that the Husky Stadium crowd normally gives the defense in a rivalry game wasn’t quite there. In large part because of an ineffective offense. Washington lost to one of its biggest rivals, 26-16.
The John Donovan-orchestrated offense failed to give the defense a break with sustained drives against the Ducks.
Outside a 1-play drive to end the first half, the offense was only able to hold the ball longer than 2 minutes and 16 seconds twice in 10 drives. Then the offense was able to engineer an 11-play touchdown drive to bring the Huskies within 8 points late in the 4th quarter.
Smalls had 4 stops that afternoon.
Nine games into the 2021 season, after a sideline incident with a player and that tough loss to Oregon, Jimmy Lake was suspended and eventually fired by Washington. Defensive coordinator Bob Gregory was named interim coach.
“Tough” is a word that Smalls used several times to describe the circumstances and sequence of events of the past two years. But he also used the word to describe himself and his teammates after facing the challenges head-on.
“We’re tired. We’re on the stairs. It’s finishing our last two reps on the stairs strong,” he said. Adding he now sees a fire in his teammates. “What is it, do you want to be 9-3 or 6-6? How much do you want it? Do you really want to win that game?”
He is beginning to feel the close bond that college teammates normally have on and off the field. The bond that he had heard of from the players under Chris Petersen. But because of Covid, the comradery with his teammates was limited.
“It was really tight when they were going to the College Football Playoffs. When they were going to the Rose Bowl they really loved each other,” Smalls said. “They cared about each other. Guys like Alex Cook, Julius Irvin, Dom Hampton — they were all there in 2016, 2017, 2018 and know what the brotherhood was like.
“We couldn’t even be around each other,” he recalled of how the team culture fractured during the pandemic shutdown. “We weren’t supposed to hang out outside of the facility. When people get distant, the culture is going to fall.”
He didn’t have the opportunity to experience normal college life until recently.
“I never got to attend class in person until this past spring,” he said. “As a team, we were fractured. We practiced for 2 hours and then we went home.”
Now much savvier, Smalls better understands the ways of the college football world.
“I don’t wish no more,” Smalls said. “I’ll still aspire and dream, but I’ll stay in the moment.”
And he’s envisioning coming off of the edge in front of a roaring home crowd at Husky Stadium on a big third down.
“I got chills just thinking about it,” Smalls said. “Because of Covid, I didn’t get to feel the community here (for the greater Washington football community). My first year we didn’t even have Fall Camp.”
He hasn’t just changed his mindset, he’s also changed his body, adding 9 pounds of muscle from his playing weight of 250 last season. Even with the added weight, Smalls appears to be far more explosive this year.
“It’s Coach Mac (strength and conditioning coach Ron McKeefery),” he said. “It was (done) in the weight room. Getting my legs stronger and getting my core stronger and getting everything working together,” he said.
Sav’ell’s new look includes a single digit on his jersey. going from 17 to 0. A number he shares with receiver Giles Jackson. He will be the first Washington defender to wear 0.
Zero is also the number of sacks he has through 16 games in the purple and gold, although he nearly had one on his first play as Husky against Oregon State.
“I was coming off the edge Zion got to the QB first,” he recalled.
During the 4-game 2020 season, Smalls was unable to unload on QBs, with ZTF arriving a fraction of a second before him on many occasions. Tupuola-Fetui racked up 7 sacks and All-America honors that season.
Smalls’ best game is a 5-tackle performance against Utah in his first season on Montlake. He started the next game against Stanford but was a marked man as the Cardinal often double-teamed him. He registered a single tackle that game. He feels that Kalen DeBoer’s defensive scheme suits his skill set.
“The scheme is it little more free-flowing,” he said. “Think less and play more. (It) also allows us to have more responsibility.”
Smalls also has taken on the responsibility of helping to rebuild the program after a tough season.
“It’s pushed us, it’s motivated us,” he said of losses in 2021. “It’s put a fire in us. I feel like the new guys, the transfers, the coaches — they feel our vibe and our pain. The coaches have something to prove as well. I feel that it’s all coming together pretty well.”
He is now embracing the challenge of bringing the Husky Stadium crowd back to its usual roaring roots–especially on 3rd downs coming off of his edge rush position.
“It’s an opportunity to get this place rocking,” he said before a brief pause to look up at the stadium. “Not just this place but this city. This city really loves UW football. We have an opportunity to bring a lot of people together — to do something special.”
