SEATTLE -- Both Washington head coach Chris Petersen and Alabama head coach Nick Saban share unique ways of approaching their profession from seemingly every aspect.
They aren't huge fans of the media, each are known for their specialty - Saban with a defense and Petersen a mastermind at game planning for an opponent, especially with a month to prepare - and both view the state of college football recruiting with a degree of scrutiny.
"Guys are offering these kids earlier and earlier and just really a crap-shoot," Petersen said in August 2014 on the subject of recruiting. "So it's forcing everybody's hand to get into the mix earlier. And you don't know how that kid is going to develop so you're projecting and hoping his grades go well and stays healthy and keeps getting better."
Recently, Petersen extended a verbal offer to Sav'ell Smalls, a freshman defensive end from Garfield High School in Seattle, Washington. At 6-foot-4 and 230-pounds Smalls still has a chance to grow on the field and physically while UW will have to wait until February 2021 for his National Letter of Intent being a recruit for the class of 2020.
Smalls is the first 2020 prospect to receive an offer from the Huskies. The Crimson Tide, who have tailed seven No.1 recruiting classes under Saban according to Rivals.com rankings, have already offered five 2020 prospects with none being from the state of Alabama.
"When I first got the offer coach Pete was talking about the program and stuff like that. And then he was like 'you know I don't do this often for a kid your age, but I want to offer you a scholarship', you don't really know what to say," Smalls told Rivals on what the moment was like when Petersen extended the offer.
"It's mind-blowing because just the opportunity to play in college. Especially I know that I'm going to go, unless something crazy happens, if I stay the path I've been going on I'm going to play college football. The percentage of people who do it is so slim."
Smalls continued by acknowledging the rarity of the moment he was getting a chance to experience.
"The fact that I can go get further education and play football, and I already know that at 14, that's crazy," he said.
During the offseason Smalls plays as a tight end/wide receiver for RISE Football Academy, a 7-on-7 team based out of Washington led by former UW quarterback Johnny DuRocher and ex-Saints cornerback and Co-President/Founder Reggie Jones.
Being that he has a long time before having to worry about official visits and top five lists of college programs to choose from, Smalls isn't concerned about balancing his ability to focus on school and improving as an athlete with having the attention of holding an offer from a Pac-12 program as a freshman.
"I'm a prideful person," Smalls said on handing the attention moving forward. "So I'm going to work hard regardless. Even if I don't feel like working I'm going to work hard because I don't want someone else to look better than me. Even in the classroom, I'm a 4.0 student, so I don't want anyone to have better grades than me.
"On the field I don't want anyone having more catches or more sacks than me. So offer or not I'm going to be the same person and do the same things."
