Minnesota Football: 3-star safety Zahir Rainer commits to the Golden Gophers

Richmond (Va.) Trinity Episcopal School three-star safety Zahir Rainer has committed to the Minnesota Golden Gophers.

Rainer is the No. 830 overall prospect and No. 80 safety in the 2024 cycle, according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He is also the No. 18 player in Virginia.

The 5-foot-9, 187-pounder narrowed his list of top schools down to Duke, Minnesota, North Carolina, Stanford, Virginia, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest on March 10.

Minnesota extended an offer to Rainer on February 17, 2022 and he’s visited campus three times. Two of those visits have come this year as he visited on Jan. 16 and March 30.

He had also taken multiple visits to North Carolina Penn State, Virginia and Virginia Tech. His other spring visits so far Stanford (April 7), North Carolina (April 1), Virginia Tech (March 20) and West Virginia (March 4).

“Honestly, what I look for in a school is the chance to come in and compete for a job immediately and play early and often,” Rainer told On3 last May. “Obviously with the (NCAA) transfer portal, I want to go somewhere that fits me as a person and player and sees me as a can’t-miss prospect and I can compete for a job and play early.”

Rainer currently has an On3 NIL Valuation of $24K. The On3 NIL Valuation is the industry’s leading index that sets high school and college athletes’ projected annual value (PAV). The NIL valuation does not act as a tracker of the value of NIL deals an athlete has completed to date. It rather signifies an athlete’s value at a certain moment in time.

Rainer adds to Minnesota’s 2024 class

Minnesota signed 21 recruits during the 2023 cycle finishing with the No. 47 class in the country and the No. 10 class in the Big Ten. While the 2024 cycle still has a long way to go, the Golden Gophers are headed in a direction where they’ll finish higher this time around.

With Rainer’s commitment, Minnesota now has nine commitments in its 2024 class with eight of those commitments ranked as three-star prospects. The class ranks as the No. 36 class in the country and the No. 9 class in the Big Ten.

The Golden Gopher’s eight other commitments are Savage (Minn.) Prior Lake defensive lineman Jide Abasiri, Kindred (N.D.) interior offensive lineman Riley Sunram, Brownsburg (Ind.) wide receiver Corey Smith, Gaylord (Mich.) linebacker Brady Pretzlaff, Detroit Lakes (Minn.) linebacker Mason Carrier, Kankakee (Ill.) Bishop McNamara running back Jaydon Wright, Clearwater (Fla.) Clearwater Academy International wide receiver Dallas Sims and Hugo (Minn.) Hill Murray School athlete Simon Seidl.