Matt Rhule claims Dylan Raiola is underappreciated in college football: 'I think he's one of the best players in the country'

Plenty of quarterbacks have been discussed at length already so far this season in college football. One that maybe hasn’t been as much, though, is Nebraska’s Dylan Raiola, which Matt Rhule doesn’t understand, considering the developments he has made in playing the position.

Appearing on ‘The Pat McAfee Show’ on Thursday, Rhule praised Raiola for his play through the 2-0 start for the Cornhuskers. He thinks he’s playing better overall just as a quarterback as a sophomore right now, rather than all the extra he has in his game that he showed last season as a true freshman.

“I love it. I think he played – the big thing is, you know, I said to our media, and I think nationally? Like, it’s just so easy to be like, ‘Oh, you know, the Mahomes thing!’. Like, I want him to come out with amazing numbers and not a lot of highlight plays,” Rhule said. “I don’t want you to see him, you know, running around and throwing the ball behind his back and under. You know, he can do all that stuff. I want him just to play quarterback.

“I mean, you know, last year, early on, he had some plays where he ran around, made some crazy throws – throws that you’re like, ‘No, no, no…oh, yes! Alright, cool.’ And so, that was kind of the storyline. Like, hey, look at these exotic plays. But now, it’s like, he’s playing quarterback the way you need to play it,” Rhule later added. “He’s getting the ball to the right guys. We completed balls to 14 different people this game, so it’s not like we’re just throwing to one guy. He’s doing quarterback play at the highest level through two games, and now we’ll have a chance on Saturday to do some things we maybe haven’t done as well – push the ball down the field maybe, some no-huddle. We’ll see how the game plays out.”

Still, that’s no surprise to Rhule. These are the progressions that he expected for Raiola to make as he comes into his second year, with many forgetting how young he still is.

“That was game 15 for him – 12 games, a bowl game, and then this will be game 16 (this weekend),” Rhule noted. “He’s not even, like – I mean, he’s so young. I mean, he’s going to be so good, dude.”

Through a two-game sample so far this season, Raiola has all his numbers up across the board. He has posted 78.1% completion for 607 yards with six passing touchdowns, along with no picks or turnovers to this point this fall.

That has Raiola fourth in completion percentage nationally and third in completions on the fifth-most attempts in the country, while being Top 15 in total passing yards and passing yards per game. That’s coming off a career-best game in a 68-0 blowout against Akron where Raiola was 24-31 (77.4%) for 364 passing yards and four touchdowns.

Again, a ton of quarterbacks have gotten their due — or, worse, their criticism — through two weeks of this season. That said, when it comes to Raiola, Rhule thinks his quarterback will have to wait for his until they begin conference play, despite, to this point, having been playing like one of the best in the sport in his eyes.

“I think he’s so underappreciated nationally,” Rhule said. “But, you know, we’ll have to do it in the Big Ten. But, I think, as time goes on? He’s throwing the ball from under center. He’s throwing the ball from the gun. I mean, he’s doing everything you’re going to do on Sundays. I think he’s one of the best players in the country.”