Inside The Huskies

Huskies Land State's Top Player in Zaydrius Rainey-Sale

The linebacker chose the UW over Florida State and UCLA.

Dan Raley

Zaydrius Rainey-Sale chose to stay home and play for the Huskies.
Zaydrius Rainey-Sale chose to stay home and play for the Huskies. / UW

The University of Washington football program had the state's top recruit, linebacker Zaydrius Rainey-Sale, committed for barely a week in January.

He offered his pledge on the day the Huskies played against Michigan in the CFP national championship game and withdrew it four days later within an hour of coach Kalen DeBoer leaving the UW for Alabama.

Often times, you don't get a second chance to nail down a highly regarded recruit when other schools move in to take advantage -- see Josiah Sharma -- but on Monday Rainey-Sale from Bethel High School in Spanaway, Washington, announced he has re-committed to his home state school, choosing the Huskies over Florida State and UCLA.

"Washington is home and I want to put on for the hometown," Rainey-Sale told 247Sports.

Rainey-Sale resisted going to Florida State, which has one of the best game-day atmospheres anywhere with a horseback rider throwing a flaming spear into the ground before opening kickoff, and UCLA, which has former Husky player and assistant coach Ikaika Malloe as defensive coordinator.

New Husky coach Jedd Fisch tried everything he could to land the 6-foot-3, 225-pound Rainey-Sale by sending seven coaches, including both of his coordinators, to Bethel in May in a show of good faith interest, which didn't immediately restore the player's commitment, but kept this staff firmly in the running for his services. 

"Coach Fisch and coach (Robert) Bala have made me feel like a priority from the time they got there," Rainey-Sale told 247Sports, referring to the head coach and his linebacker coach.

This past season, Rainey-Sale appeared in just six games for the 4-6 Bison in the east Tacoma area because he got injured. He finished with 65 tackles, or more than 10 per game, which included 6 tackles for loss and 4 sacks. Yet people saw enough of him to know how talented he was.

Once they received recent commitments from a pair of south-end recruits in Spanaway Lake cornerback D'Aryhian Clemons and Auburn-Riverside linebacker Jonathan Epperson, the Huskies held out hope that Rainey-Sale might not be far behind.

The idea of sending Rainey-Sale and Epperson, both 4-star recruits, out on the field together as speedy starting linebackers some day was another strong selling point.

Rainey-Sale is the Huskies' 18th commit, with six of them rating 4 stars.

For the latest UW football and basketball news, go to si.com/college/washington

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Dan Raley

DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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