ASCENDING THROUGH THE PACK TOP HUSKY DANIELS IS `SILENT ASSASSIN'.

Byline: Rich Hammond  Staff Writer

It's one thing to be anonymous on a college campus with 35,000 students, but a top-level Division I football player can usually count on some type of hometown hero worship.

Then again, there's a reason why Derrell Daniels is known as the ``Silent Assassin'' among his Washington Huskies teammates.

``A lot of times now I see people I went to school with,'' said Daniels, who starred as a prep linebacker at both San Fernando and Sylmar high schools, ``and they're like, `So what are you doing right now?' and I say, `Well, I'm going to school up in Washington.' And they say, `Oh, OK, do you still play football?' They really don't know too much about me.''

Which means his friends have something in common with a good percentage of college-football fans. Despite Daniels, a senior inside linebacker, being named defensive MVP of a Washington team that will face Purdue in Monday's Rose Bowl, he remains on the outside of college football's elite.

Except, that is, to those who have seen Daniels at work.

``He makes the tackle or he's close to the ball on every play,`` said Tom Williams, Washington's inside-linebackers coach. ``He's probably the most instinctive football player I've ever been around. Derrell just has an unbelievable knack for knowing where the ball is and making a play.

``He makes a lot of initial contacts, is the way we classify it. He makes the first contact, and then the rest of our guys swarm in there. But more often than not, Derrell is the first guy on the scene.''

National accolades have largely eluded Daniels, who was an honorable mention All-Pacific-10 Conference selection this year even though he had more total tackles (97) than four of the six players on the first and second teams. Really, he couldn't care less.

It's just a part of Daniels' personality. He's an affable young man, quick-witted and constantly smiling off the field, yet his game has all the pizzazz of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

The ``Silent Assassin'' moniker comes from the way Daniels eschews the flashy moves of some defenders for an efficient, workmanlike approach that doesn't draw much attention.

He might not make a pretty spin move, or jump over an offensive lineman the way LaVar Arrington did for Penn State last year, but Daniels' teammates know where to find him at the end of most plays: on the bottom of a pile, with his arms around an opposing running back.

``That's like the joke on the team right now, all the guys asking me how I do it,'' Daniels said. ``I really don't have an answer. I don't take on blocks too much, I slip by them, and the next thing you know, I'm on the ground and I have the ballcarrier wrapped up. So that's the big joke, especially with the big guys. They're like, `Man, you're about 5-10, 145 pounds, how do you make every tackle?' ''

Daniels is listed at 6-foot-1, 220 pounds - undersized for a linebacker but not tiny. He makes up for the slight size disadvantage with a tenacity that dates back to his high school days. Daniels, whose parents immigrated from the Central American country of Belize, grew up in a rough neighborhood near San Fernando High and transferred to Sylmar for his senior year.

``He's definitely old school,`` said Jeff Engilman, Daniels' coach at Sylmar. ``We used to have to tell him to tone it down in practice a little bit, because he was hurting people.''

Daniels made a quick, definitive impact on Engilman, and did the same thing at Washington. He appeared at outside linebacker in all but one game in his freshman and sophomore seasons, but Daniels' big break came in the spring of 1999, when coach Rick Neuheisel and his new staff of assistants came aboard to replace the fired Jim Lambright.

While selecting colleges, Daniels made it known that he felt more comfortable at outside linebacker, which made for an interesting meeting with incoming defensive coordinator Tim Hundley.

``(Hundley) drew a defense and asked me where I saw myself playing, and I pointed to the outside,'' Daniels said. ``He said, `Well, you can probably play that position, but I see you more right here, on the inside.' I was kind of in shock when he said that.

``Then on the first day of spring practice, I was with the inside linebackers in our position meeting, and I'm looking around the room like, `Wow, I'm the smallest guy in here.' ''

Daniels showed himself to be a quick learner by starting 10 of 11 games in his junior year and recording 81 tackles, including a team-high seven for a loss.

The Washington coaches say Daniels has a future in pro football, even if they aren't sure where. He lacks the speed to play safety, and his size will no doubt scare away some NFL teams looking to take a linebacker. Daniels, naturally, takes it in stride.

``To play at the next level,'' said Williams, his linebackers coach, ``he's going to have to continue to bulk up and keep his strength and his weight up, but gosh, I think teams would be stupid not to give him an opportunity because he's a tremendous football player.''

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2 photos

Photo: (1) Valley-area products Derrell Daniels and Elliot Silvers have risen to prominence at Washington.

Joe Binoya/Special to the Daily News

(2) DANIELS