Nebraska football is thrilled to have QB Dylan Raiola under center. Raiola quickly ingratiated himself with the Nebraska fanbase, dominating in a 40-7 victory over UTEP in Nebraska football's season opener. He also showed flashes of brilliance in his collegiate debut.
Raiola put up a monster performance against UTEP, logging 238 yards and two touchdowns in the winning effort. When interviewed after the game, Raiola praised the fanbase and stadium atmosphere for supporting him.
“To just feel the love for our team and the way they support our team… there's no place like it in the country,” Raiola said after the win. “To have that fanbase behind us, and doing what we love playing football, makes it easy for us to go out there and play.”
Head coach Matt Rhule wants Raiola to stay grounded and not lose himself in big moments. It seems that Raiola delivered in his first ever collegiate game.
“I remind him of this position, ‘You're the quarterback at the University of Nebraska,'” Rhule said on Friday, per The Athletic. “You better be ready to ride the highs and lows — and your life better not be about what other people think about you.”
Nebraska will ask Raiola to deliver another strong performance next week.
The Nebraska Cornhuskers will face the Colorado Buffaloes on Saturday September 7th at 7:30PM ET. Coach Prime's squad should be a much bigger challenge than UTEP.
Recapping Nebraska football's 40-7 victory over UTEP in Dylan Raiola's NCAA debut
Nebraska delivered a decisive 40-7 victory over UTEP on Saturday in a game that showed that Raiola could be the real deal.
The game was close heading into the second quarter, with Nebraska holding onto a 9-7 advantage.
Then Raiola threw a deep touchdown pass to Isaiah Neyor during the first few minutes of the second quarter which sparked the rout of UTEP.
The highlight throw even drew a response from Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes who replied “Lil cuzzo!!” to a post of the play. Mahomes is poking fun about an ongoing joke that he and Raiola are related due to their similar appearance.
Cornhusker's coach Matt Rhule did not want to go easy on Dylan Raiola, and so far it appears to be working.
“I'd rather lose the first game than the last game. So, we're not going to ease into it,” Rhule said via Husker Corner. “Dylan's going to play. He's going to play the plays. When we call drop back, he's going to drop back, he's going to go back there, and take his drop, go through his progression. Just how we want him to play when he's a junior, we're going to start day one that way. We're not easing into anything.”
Nebraska fans should be excited to see Raiola continue to develop throughout his rookie season.
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