Sav'ell Smalls is moving on. Should the Huskies move Voi Tunuufi over?

Washington's junior defensive lineman could be a fix for the Huskies' inexperienced edge-rusher depth behind Trice and ZTF.

Voi Tunuufi has eight sacks in his first two college seasons. (Photo courtesy of UW Football)

SEATTLE — Pop quiz: Bralen Trice (11) and Jeremiah Martin (9.5) led the Washington Huskies in sacks the past two seasons. Who is third on that list?

Is it Zion Tupuola-Fetui? Tuli Letuligasenoa? Faatui Tuitele? A linebacker? 

The guy whose name is in the headline, and whose photograph appears atop this story?

Yes! Washington’s third-most-frequent tackler of the quarterback from 2021-22 was indeed a 6-foot-1, 249-pound defensive lineman who could well turn out to be the most productive college player from UW’s 2021 recruiting class.

I believe Voi Tunuufi, the former three-star prospect from Salt Lake City (Utah) East, becomes an intriguing figure in the wake of Sav’ell Smalls’ decision to enter the transfer portal. Smalls, the former five-star recruit from Seattle, had been hurt for part of spring practices and announced Monday that he’ll spend his final two college seasons somewhere else. He was far and away the Huskies’ third-most-experienced edge rusher, and seemed likely to occupy a rotational role as a junior.

Smalls’ departure is a blow to the Huskies’ experience at a position that appears stronger than ever on the top line of the depth chart, but now lacks anybody with a significant college resume behind Trice and ZTF. Sekai Asoau-Afoa is a senior who played 17 snaps last season, per Pro Football Focus, after transferring from a junior college. Maurice Heims is a promising young athlete who played 29 snaps in six games last year as a redshirt freshman. Lance Holtzclaw redshirted last year. Sioux Falls transfer Zach Durfee might possess the most upside of the bunch, and Smalls’ departure could thrust him into the spotlight, too … but like Holtzclaw (and Tunuufi), Durfee missed a few practices due to injury before returning this week.

One 2023 signee, Anthony James, is in spring camp, and another, Jacob Lane, will join this summer. Sophomore walk-on Milton Hopkins Jr. also has seen some reps with the No. 2 defense and made a handful of plays.

Bottom line: unless the Huskies dip back into the transfer portal post-spring — a distinct possibility, considering the lack of veteran bodies — two of the aforementioned players are likely to wind up on the depth chart this fall, and could end up playing critical roles in the event of even a single injury. There are some promising names on that list, but their combined FBS experience is essentially de minimis.

It’s why Tunuufi is one of the first players I thought of when Smalls made his announcement. He’s still listed as a defensive lineman, and still accompanies the d-linemen during drills, though he was out with an injury for most of spring (he did take some d-tackle reps on Wednesday morning). Even before Smalls’ decision, coaches seemed torn on where exactly to play Tunuufi. He’s always been undersized but slippery and tenacious, tying for the team lead with three sacks as a true freshman before logging five last season, good for third on the team.

In fact, this is what Kalen DeBoer said about Tunuufi just last week, when asked if he still considers him a defensive lineman: “Your question is a good question, because we will definitely move him around. That’s probably the one part with his injury that is a little bit of a disappointment, is that we aren’t getting a lot of opportunities to play him at the edge spot and get some reps there.”

That echoed what edges coach Eric Schmidt told me earlier this spring.

“We’ve met in the offseason, and he’s definitely a guy where we feel, especially certain game weeks, where he’s probably better as an edge guy than he is as an interior guy,” Schmidt said. “There’s other weeks where we really want to use him in there (on the interior).”

Tunuufi already played a significant role in UW’s third-down packages last season, Schmidt said, and Schmidt even went so far as to say he “could be one of our top guys” off the edge, if that’s where they line him up.

“He’s got a lot of horsepower,” Schmidt said.

Tunuufi even changed his number this year, from the interior-feeling No. 90 to the more linebacker-ish — dare we say, edgier? — No. 52. It all just makes too much sense, doesn’t it?

It’s not as if the Huskies should become desperate in the wake of Smalls’ departure, and it’s possible someone like Durfee or Holtzclaw would have pushed him for snaps, anyway. I could just as easily have written this column about Durfee’s potential, considering the burst he has displayed in the few practices we were able to watch before he got hurt. Coaches seem high on the third-year sophomore from Minnesota. 

Tunuufi, though, is the one edge-rushing candidate who already has produced in a UW uniform, to the tune of eight sacks the past two seasons. There are other considerations, such as the Huskies’ d-line depth, and, as DeBoer said, he likes getting some pass-rush production out of the interior, too. Tunuufi provides that, even at his size. 

But if Letuligasenoa and Tuitele are healthy, and Ulumoo Ale and Jacob Bandes continue progressing, and twins Jayvon and Armon Parker really are the players the coaches believe they are … what’s lost by bumping the smaller, quicker Tunuufi outside? Give him the summer to focus exclusively on edge technique and hone his body however the staff sees fit. At 6-1 and 249, he already mostly fits the profile. And there’s no reason he couldn’t kick back inside in certain packages, or to help out in case of injuries on the interior.

Tunuufi was one of the players I was most interested to watch this spring, and for this very reason: which position does he ultimately wind up at? His injury prevented coaches from making any meaningful progress toward answering that question this month. But I wonder if Smalls’ departure hasn’t forced their hand in a way that will lead to Tunuufi’s name appearing behind Trice or ZTF on the depth chart come late August. 

You could make the argument that Tunuufi was the Huskies’ third-best pass rusher from 2021-22, after all. Here’s one guess that he still is.

Big-picture wise, I’m not tremendously surprised that Smalls decided to move on, considering the Trice-ZTF duo ahead of him on the depth chart. Most guys don’t want to wait until their senior year for a chance to start. I am a little surprised he made the call mid-spring, but the transfer window did just open, and I assume his injury would have kept him out of these final three practices, anyway.

I first met Smalls in January 2019, when he was a junior at Garfield. He was a five-star recruit and one of the Huskies’ most important in-state targets in years. I think he really enjoyed the recruiting process at first, but you could tell he was sick of it by the end. Smalls told a story at his commitment press conference later that year, in September: he was at a camp with Ale Kaho, the four-star linebacker recruit who signed with UW in 2018 but instead enrolled at Alabama. Kaho showed Smalls his phone, the screen filled with direct messages from college coaches and reporters. Smalls was impressed, but Kaho told him: “I don’t open them.”

“I was like, huh? Because I didn’t have as much. I had some, but I didn’t have as much yet,” Smalls said. “So I was like, ‘man, if I had all that, I’d be opening all of them. That’s cool.’

“But then as I got into it, and I started getting older … I thought, man, this is a long process. So many of these coaches hitting you up and people wanting things from you. A lot of people don’t have your best interests at heart, as well. It’s definitely a cutthroat business at times. But that did play a part in helping me grow, as well.”

At one point, Smalls eliminated Washington from consideration, but Huskies coaches stayed on him — especially defensive coordinator-turned-head coach Jimmy Lake — and ultimately convinced him to sign with UW. Smalls’ parents were thrilled. They wanted him to stay home. It meant a lot to them to be able to watch him play in Seattle. I think it meant a lot to Sav’ell, too. He also looked forward to playing with five-star quarterback Sam Huard, his Kennedy Catholic teammate. 

Like Huard, Smalls will attempt to jumpstart his college career elsewhere in 2023. I thought he got off to a strong start in 2022, notching six tackles against Kent State in the opener. His 31 snaps that night wound up being a season high. I thought he flashed a couple times in the Alamo Bowl, too, and was interested to see if he’d keep building this spring. Now, I’m interested to follow his next steps.

— Christian Caple, On Montlake