Rainey-Sale Was At His Best in Nebraska Shadows

While Alex McLaughlin and the rest of his pass thieves drew a lot of credit for the University of Washington defensive effort that produced a 17-10 victory at Nebraska, not so obvious was the player lurking in the shadows and making everyone flinch.

The guy who registered a sack on the fourth defensive play of the game.

The defender who piled up four tackles in 10 snaps on the third defensive series.

The always promising sophomore who looked even more engaging in this trek through the American heartland.

Saturday night's game in Lincoln not only was an epic Husky victory for how it was decided over the final frantic 90 minutes, it was yet another coming-out party for linebacker Zaydrius Rainey-Sale in doing his thing over four quarters.

The 6-foot-2, 240-pound sophomore from Tacoma, Washington, came up with a career-high 10 tackles to top his team against the Cornhuskers. His previous best was 8 against Minnesota in late September at Husky Stadium.

Once more Rainey-Sale showed off his impressive mobility by running 35 yards with Nebraska tight end Luke Lindenmeyer to knock away a deep pass with a perfectly timed lunge as the football arrived.

He also put all ball carriers on notice when he caught up with Nebraska quarterback Anthony Colandrea, gave him a healthy shot right as they hit the sideline and wasn't penalized for it, other than hearing hometown boos.

Rainey-Sale was a ready presence as the UW limited the Cornhuskers to 132 yards rushing before a raucous and black-shirted crowd of 86,097 that sat and expected a lot more offense.

"It's very important," the linebacker said of getting a road win before traveling to Nebraska to earn another one after beating Purdue. "We have a chip on our shoulder."

Zaydrius Rainey-Sale looks over the Iowa offense. | Dave Sizer photo

Heading into this week's conference home game against Penn State (4-4 overall, 1-4 Big Ten), Rainey-Sale currently ranks third among the Huskies (5-3, 2-3) in tackles with 40, trailing only strong safety Alex McLaughlin with 57 and fellow linebacker Jacob Manu with 45.

Again showing his range, the second-row stalwart finds himself among the UW's top coverage guys with 4 pass break-ups, leaving him one shy of the team leaders in cornerback Manny Karnley and McLaughlin and tied with cornerback Dylan Robinson.

Zaydrius Rainey-Sale made his first career start against Oregon in 2025. | Dave Sizer photo

With eight appearances, he's matched the number of Husky games he played as a freshman in 2025, when he made his debut at midseason after recovering from a high school knee injury. He's nearly doubled his tackles from last season to this one.

All in all in Nebraska, Rainey-Sale looked like the elite player he is expected to be by coming up with big numbers in a very big setting.

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