2025 4-star LB Zaydrius Rainey-Sale decommits from Washington

Spanaway (Wash.) Bethel 2025 four-star linebacker Zaydrius Rainey-Sale has decommitted from Washington, he announced on social media.

“With the uncertainty surrounding the UW Football program I have decided to de-commit and open back up my recruitment,” Rainey-Sale wrote. “Please respect my decision.”

His decision comes after reports that Washington head coach Kalen DeBoer is leaving to accept the head coach position at Alabama. DeBoer informed his school he is accepting the job, per ESPN’s Pete Thamel.

Rainey-Sale had committed to the Huskies just four days ago on the day Washington played for a national title. He is the nation’s No. 136 overall prospect and No. 15 linebacker in the 2025 cycle according to the On3 Industry Ranking — a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. Rainey-Sale is also the No. 1 recruit in Washington.

Rainey-Sale currently has an On3 NIL Valuation of $61K. 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.

More on Kalen DeBoer to Alabama

DeBoer is a fast-rising star in college football who will now be handed the keys to the premier and dominant college football program of the 21st century. Of course, he comes from Washington, where he coached for just two seasons, 2022 and 2023. But in that time, he flipped the Huskies from a 4-8 record program in 2021 to an 11-2 mark, Alamo Bowl win over Texas and a No. 6 final CFP ranking in 2022.

After returning star quarterback Michael Penix Jr. and his slew of elite pass catchers, Washington came into this past season with immense hype. And in a loaded Pac-12, it was DeBoer’s group who stood head and shoulders above the rest, finishing a perfect 12-0 in the regular season before completing a season sweep of a Top-10 ranked Oregon team in the Pac-12 Championship game.

That win completed a 13-0 mark and booked Washington’s bid to the College Football Playoff, their first since the 2016 season, where, coincidentally, that group led by QB Jake Browning and then-coach Chris Petersen, lost to Alabama in the national semifinal.

However, in this year’s semifinal, Washington broke through and toppled Texas for the second straight postseason to earn a spot in the national title game, something no Pac-12 program had accomplished since Oregon participated and lost in the very first College Football Playoff title game.