TIME TO
GET TO
WORK
With the 2019 season behind them, Washington's new coaching staff is fully focused on 2020 — starting with a recruiting class that may be the program's best to date
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BY BRIAN BEAKY EDITOR • GOHUSKIES MAGAZINE
hen Husky quarterback Jacob Eason took a knee at the end of a 38-7 win over Boise State in December's Las Vegas Bowl, and players and staff swarmed outgoing head coach Chris Petersen at midfield, it was easy to think of it as the end of an era. For the 23 student-athletes who signed letters of intent just a few days prior, though, it's just the beginning. Having ended 2019 with a bang — and sent off coach Petersen in style — it's now time to begin looking ahead to 2020. And, if new head coach Jimmy Lake's 2020 recruiting class is any indication, it's going to be an exciting year. Headlined by five-star linebacker Sav'ell Smalls from Burien's Kennedy Catholic High School and a pair of four-star wideouts, California's Jalen McMillan and Nevada's Rome Odunze — all of whom were recruited by just about every major college program in the country — the Huskies' 2020 class was ranked in the nation's top-15 by the major college recruiting sites, and was ranked No. 1 among all Pac-12 schools. PAGE 24
Most notably, Lake and his UW staff managed to hold on to every one of the recruits who had committed to Washington prior to Petersen announcing his resignation, an early indication that players share fans' enthusiasm for the Huskies' new top Dawg. "With all that's going on with [Coach Petersen] and myself, to be able to hold on to these 23 excellent players – we're all just thrilled as a staff," Lake said. "Just a huge kudos to our operations staff, our recruiting department, and our assistant coaches." Lake said that the Husky coaches may have had some help in keeping the class together from the players themselves. "Those guys get really, really tight. It's part of the uncommon unity that we have here at Washington," he said. "They forge these really cool relationships, and we try to foster that as much as we can. Certainly, once they arrive on campus, we're just going to pour gas on that fire and these guys are going to get that much closer. Our best recruiters are our current players and our [recruits] that are committed because they know that if we all band together and come here, something special is going to happen." GoHUSKIES
