Matt Rhule shares expectations for Dylan Raiola in 2024
It was an up-and-down first season with the Nebraska Cornhuskers for head coach Matt Rhule. A big part of that was because of issues at the quarterback position that Rhule addressed in the off-season, largely by recruiting Dylan Raiola to Nebraska.
At the same time, Rhule wants to keep expectations reasonable at this point. As he shared on the College GameDay Podcast, Rhule wants the focus to be on where players go in their development and not on where they currently are.
“I’m really passionate about, like Coach [Joe] Paterno used to say, ‘Better a play too late than a play too soon,'” Matt Rhule said. “Like, put guys in when they’re ready, and so we have Heinrich Haarberg who went 5-3 as the Nebraska starter last year, and really the third game he lost he only played two series and got hurt. So, really, I look at it like 5-2. We have Danny Kaelin, who’s an Elite 11 quarterback coming in. We have Dylan coming in.”
As of now, there are six quarterbacks on Nebraska’s roster. Only Haarberg is listed as older than a sophomore. He also brings some in-game experience, having played in at least part of 10 games last season. During that time, he threw for 967 yards and seven touchdowns.
“So, I told Dylan the moment he got here, ‘Don’t worry about being the five-star quarterback. Don’t worry about being all these things. Expectation weighs us down. Just play ball.’ And I’m way more interested in where Dylan, Danny, Heinrich, where all of our guys end up. Not where they are in year one. That’s one of the things I think that’s stressing out our young people is they’re so worried about like, ‘Am I gonna play?’ Worry about where you are as a senior. Worry about where you are when the time is over.”
Dylan Raiola was one of the most anticipated recruits in the Class of 2024. According to the On3 Industry Ranking, he was a five-star recruit and the third-ranked quarterback within his class. Initially, he had been committed to Georgia before deciding to go to Nebraska instead.
“So, based upon what I see, he’s in here all the time. I mean, he’s committed to doing this and doing this at a high level. So, I want to see him compete. I want to see him have fun. I want to see him play fearless. You know you’re gonna make mistakes. We had so many turnovers last year. We were -17 on the year. Really you should be 2-9 or 2-10. That’s kind of the narrative and that’s last year,” Rhule said.
“We have to improve that as coaches, but I want to see Dylan come here and rip the ball and go try to make plays and go try to have fun and see Danny do that and see Heinrich do that, and I would say there’s a pretty good chance we will have to play all three. That’s kind of modern college football.”
Why it’s hard to imagine Dylan Raiola not starting for Nebraska in 2024
Nothing is given or guaranteed. However, as Sean Callahan of On3’s Husker Online explained, it would be hard to imagine Dylan Raiola not starting for Nebraska next season.
“It’s all set up for Raiola,” Callahan said. “If he comes in and does what everyone thinks he can do, it’s hard to not see him as the starter. The arm talent — they just haven’t had that in the program in a really long time.”