Matt Rhule reflects on growth of Dylan Raiola: 'Our team's going to play for Dylan'

As a true freshman last season, quarterback Dylan Raiola led Nebraska to a 7-6 record and the program’s first bowl win since 2015. At the 2025 Big Ten Media Days, Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule raved about his standout QB and how he’s improved this offseason.

“I would not have brought Dylan [to Big Ten Media Days] if I wasn’t so proud of his work,” Rhule said. “He’s done a great job with his body. He’s done a great job with his knowledge of the offense, his growth with Glenn Thomas, our quarterback coach, and Dana Holgorsen, our OC.

“Make no mistake, it’s really hard to come in as a freshman with tremendous expectations, and have to go be the leader. You’re 18 years old telling six-year seniors now, by the new rules, you’re telling 25-, 24-year-old men, ‘Hey, I need you to do this.’ It’s so hard. So what Dylan did last year was really hard.”

Raiola completed 67.1% of his pass attempts for 2,819 yards and 13 touchdowns last season while throwing 11 interceptions. Raiola had the most passing yards and best completion percentage of all true freshmen in the country.

While Raiola occasionally struggled to avoid turnovers, he ultimately had a successful debut campaign that left Nebraska fans excited for the future. Raiola initially committed to Georgia when he was in high school. Alas, he ultimately flipped his commitment to Matt Rhule and the Cornhuskers.

Dylan Raiola has family ties to Nebraska and grew up a Cornhuskers fan. However, Rhule claims Raiola was also attracted to the challenge of turning Nebraska’s program around.

“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.

“I said, ‘Come to Nebraska, but it’s going to be hard. There’ll be adversity. You’ll be frustrated sometimes, but we will eventually do something great.’ And what I’ve seen from him, his maturity, he now embraces when he’s frustrated. He embraces when things aren’t going well, and he’s the one going back to the ownership… He puts it on himself. He says, ‘I’ll fix this.’ I think our team’s going to play for Dylan.”