Subscribe
Follow Us
The level of expected success hasn't quite been there for Matt Rhule during his two seasons with Nebraska football, but hope is abound as the calendar approaches August and the 2025 season gets closer and closer.
If the Cornhuskers want to return to glory and compete for a Big Ten Championship this fall, it starts and ends with quarterback Dylan Raiola. Raiola was one of the top quarterback recruits in the country coming out of high school, and he showed flashes of why during his freshman year.
At Big Ten Media Days on Tuesday ahead of Raiola's sophomore year, Rhule revealed one of his messages to Raiola during his recruitment, via Grant Grubbs of On3 Sports.
“When you’re a five-star quarterback, you probably breezed through high school. You haven’t had a lot of adversity. Every time you go somewhere, people talk about how great you are,” Rhule said. “When I recruited Dylan, I said, ‘Hey, help me turn around Nebraska football, man. It’s going to be hard, and doing something hard is how we become great.'
“If not, you go somewhere, you go play on the best team in the country, which is pretty cool. And, every once in a while, they need you to make a throw to win the game, and then you go to the NFL and and the worst team in the worst city drafts you, and now you have to deal with all this adversity.”
The message certainly worked wonders, as the Georgia native flipped his commitment from Georgia to Nebraska to come play for Rhule.
Rhule went on to praise Raiola and talk about how his Cornhuskers team is going to play for its starting quarterback in 2025 after what he showed as a freshman.
The leadership element seems to be coming along nicely for Raiola, but the on-field performance needs to be more consistent in 2025 if Nebraska is going to take the leap and contend with the big boys in the Big Ten. He showed great traits as a pocket passer last season, but overall accuracy and decision making came and went throughout the season.
He will surely have plenty of chances to showcase his growth, and just how big of a leap he has taken could determine how many games this Nebraska football team wins this fall.
