Post-vacation thoughts on Washington's recruiting surge, stadium rankings and more

Don't look now, but the Huskies have a top-20 class.

I take a few days off from writing, and all of a sudden the Washington Huskies have a top-20 recruiting class.

The Monday (re-)commitment of four-star Bethel High linebacker Zaydrius Rainey-Sale, the top-rated 2025 recruit in the state, vaulted the Huskies to 19th in the 247Sports Composite rankings — and that was after they’d climbed to No. 23 by adding 11 commitments since June 23. Jedd Fisch’s first recruiting class at Washington now includes 18 players.

Rainey-Sale also becomes the fourth in-state prospect to commit in this class, in addition to two commitments from Oregon prospects — that’s exactly one-third of the class hailing from the Pacific Northwest. It’s a departure from last year, when Kalen DeBoer’s staff hadn’t signed a single in-state recruit as of mid-January; defensive back Rahshawn Clark, from Garfield, wound up following Fisch and his staff from Arizona to UW. I don’t have strong opinions on whether either approach is good or bad. But it is true that Fisch is taking more local prospects. 

It was nice to take a breather over the past couple weeks. My wife and I visited local restaurants, saw some movies and walked the dog. We picked our daughter up early from school and took her to the zoo. Over the weekend, she saw her first circus. On a related note, I later found myself reading the Wikipedia entry on sword swallowing.

Anyway, I’ve got some thoughts on Washington’s recruiting surge, and other matters that arose during my time off.