Matt Rhule analyzes Dylan Raiola's first start

In one of the most anticipated debuts of the 2024 season, true freshman quarterback Dylan Raiola made his first start for Nebraska and head coach Matt Rhule.

That opening game ended up being a 40-7 win over UTEP. Following the game, Rhule broke down what he saw from Raiola in his first start, including some great intangibles at the line of scrimmage that may not show up in a quarterback’s stats.

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“There was some good and there was some bad,” Matt Rhule said. “The best one was he three-way checked the long run by Emmett [Johnson], right, like he checked it and they kind of moved and he checked it back. So, then he checked it again and got us to that run. So, when you have a freshman that’s checking and reloading things, a that’s an unbelievable job by [Marcus Satterfield] putting those things in, great job by Glenn [Thomas] teaching it, great job by Dylan learning it, and then the o-line and all those other guys need to be on the right call.”

Dylan Raiola came to Nebraska as a five-star recruit and the 21st-ranked recruit overall in the Class of 2024, according to the On3 Industry Ranking. He quickly entered a quarterback battle in Lincoln, which he won during Fall Camp.

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“There was some other things. Like there was third and two where he heard RPO, the receivers didn’t. So, there were some of those moments,” Rhule said. “I thought the biggest thing was until that last one, we were 11 of 16 on third down. I think we probably finished 11 of 17 on third down. A lot of those were runs late in the game but I think we had some really big third down conversions.”

In that first game against UTEP, Dylan Raiola completed 19 of 27 passes for 238 yards and two touchdowns. Much of that production came in the second quarter before he’d later turn the offensive reins over to Heinrich Haarberg and Jalyn Gramstad later in the game.

“Then, I told you guys…with eight seconds left and a timeout to take a shot in the endzone,” Rhule said. “That is saying that we’re gonna play the way we want him to play someday. I didn’t call a timeout and say, ‘Now remember.’ Get it up, get it down. He took a shot and boom. So, I was really happy with that. So, I thought for a first game for Dylan a lot of great things. I think there’s a lot of things we have to clean up as a staff and we will.”

Next week, Dylan Raiola is in for a stiffer test when Nebraska hosts the Colorado Buffaloes in what promises to be one of the most anticipated games of the weekend.