College Football

With Dylan Raiola, Nebraska's Matt Rhule earns first big win

Updated Dec. 19, 2023 2:34 p.m. ET

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RJ Young

FOX Sports National College Football Analyst

The biggest win of the Matt Rhule era at Nebraska did not come during his inaugural season as head coach, it came deep into the offseason cycle, on the same day that the last FBS head coaching vacancy was filled (Gerad Parker, Troy) and just two days before the early signing period opened.

It came when Rhule successfully convinced the No. 2-ranked QB in the 2024 class — No. 6 player overall — to flip from Georgia to Nebraska. That player, Dylan Raiola, had just spent the weekend in Lincoln, where his uncle Donovan is the offensive line coach and where his father Dominic was an All-American center and a Rimington Award winner.

[5-star Dylan Raiola flips from Georgia to Nebraska]

The biggest win of the Matt Rhule era came mere hours after Georgia quarterback Carson Beck announced he'd return to the program in 2024. Perhaps it didn't much matter to Raiola that Beck announced his return, but he had to be paying attention to just who he would be competing against on the depth chart.

With former five-star Georgia quarterback Brock Vandagriff choosing to transfer to Kentucky, it's an open question as to whether Raiola would've stuck with his commitment to UGA if Beck decided to enter the NFL Draft next year. 

Add to this that nearly half of the top 50 QBs in the 2022 class have already transferred at least once, and you can see how Raiola was always likely to sign where he had the best chance to play right away. 

But Raiola is also a player who once committed to Ohio State before flipping his commitment to Georgia, moving from Arizona to the Peach State to play his final season of high school football. He's a man who posted a recruiting graphic to his social media announcing his May commitment to Georgia with the word "Home" atop it.

Still, most folks — most of all Rhule — believed that Nebraska wasn't out of the Raiola sweepstakes until he signed with someone else. One of the clearest indications that Rhule was all-in on Raiola was that he kept Raiola's uncle Donovan on staff upon his hiring. 

This isn't to say that Uncle Donovan isn't one hell of an offensive line coach — he is — but it seems telling that Donovan Raiola was the only on-the-field assistant Rhule chose not to replace.

Dylan Raiola flips in ‘biggest win for Matt Rhule in 2023’

And while the Huskers finished the 2023 season 5-7, they also squandered three opportunities to earn their first bowl game appearance since 2016. Their woes can be attributed to many deficiencies, even outright failures in execution and injury. But even the most ardent Husker fan would admit that Nebraska was awful at throwing the ball last season.

Nebraska started three quarterbacks in 2023 — Jeff Sims, Heinrich Haarberg and Chubba Purdy. None of them finished the season with a completion percentage higher than 59.6%. They combined to throw just 10 TDs while also tossing 16 INTs.

Like it or not, Nebraska was a running team in 2023, ending the season with a quarterback — Haarberg — leading the Huskers in rushing (477 yards). All three starting QBs finished among the top six rushers on the team. 

With Raiola's commitment, the Huskers will have a QB many already believe is the most talented passer the Huskers have ever had. That's not a shocking statement given that the Nebraska teams that inspired terror were option teams led by quarterbacks who were just as deadly as tailbacks on the ground.

But in this latest era of the sport, it's become clear that good programs in the best conferences can run it and throw it. They pride themselves on being multiple in their offensive scheme as well as their defensive scheme. They're anything but one-dimensional — as Nebraska was in 2023. 

With the new Big Ten arriving in 2024, where Nebraska will not only have to compete against Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State and Iowa, but UCLA, USC, Oregon and Washington in a division-less league, the Huskers might've been relegated to the bottom of the league once more.

Indeed, we live in a world in which Rutgers has reached bowl eligibility and Nebraska has not — twice in three years. And now the Huskers have landed their first five-star since 2011, their fourth in the recruiting rankings era. In fact, he's the highest-rated recruit they've ever had in the recruiting rankings era. 

Don't look now, but Nebraska might have found a player in Raiola who not only makes it a credible threat to win games but a legitimate threat to challenge the upper half of the Big Ten for the first time since it joined the league in 2011.

RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports and the host of the podcast "The Number One College Football Show." Follow him on Twitter at @RJ_Young and subscribe to "The RJ Young Show" on YouTube.

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