Inside The Huskies

Ex-Husky Sawyer Racanelli Back in the Transfer Portal

He leaves Montana after three seasons in the Big Sky Conference.
Dan Raley|
Sawyer Racanelli comes up with a Montana reception.
Sawyer Racanelli comes up with a Montana reception. | UM

Sawyer Racanelli was one of those players who left the Montlake mess behind, a University of Washington wide receiver for Jimmy Lake's ill-fated staff who bailed fairly quickly following the 4-8 meltdown of 2021.

He spent the past three seasons in the Big Sky at Montana, doing a little of everything for the Grizzlies -- receiving, passing, blocking punts and rehabbing a season-ending injury -- and now he's back in the transfer portal for his final year.

The 6-foot-3, 208-pound Racanelli emerges from Missoula after starting 10 of 14 games for a 9-5 FCS playoff team and catching 30 passes for 409 yards and 2 touchdowns.

He finished with a flourish by hauling in a 44-yard scoring pass in his final Montana game, a 35-18 postseason loss to South Dakota State.

Racanelli arrived at the UW in 2020 from Brush Prairie, Washington, after sitting out his senior season at Hockinson High school with a knee injury, this after leading the school to a pair of state championships and catching 101 passes as a junior.

At the UW, Lake's staff eased him into action, using him against Arizona and Stanford during the 2020 COVID-shortened season. A year, Racanelli appeared in 11 games, mostly on kickoff coverage, coming up with 5 tackles.

He left the Huskies without catching a pass and joined Montana four months after the Grizzlies had pulled a monumental 13-7 upset of the UW in Seattle.

However, as luck would have it, he suffered another knee injury during spring football, returned to Seattle to have surgery and sat out the entire 2022 season.

Racanelli did a little of everything for his Big Sky team once he got healthy. In 2023, he threw a 15-yard touchdown pass against Idaho State, completed a 24-yard pass against Montana State, tossed a two-point conversion pass against Furman in the playoffs and blocked a punt against Delaware in the postseason.

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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