Booger McFarland praises Dylan Raiola, Matt Rhule after 7-5 season: 'The future is so bright'

For the first time since 2015, Nebraska won a bowl game. The Cornhuskers defeated Boston College in Saturday’s Pinstripe Bowl, clinching a 7-5 season for the first time since 2016.

It was quite the way for Matt Rhule to end Year 2 in Lincoln. But as ABC’s Kevin Negandhi noted, Year 3 is when Rhule found his success at his previous stops, and Booger McFarland agreed.

At Temple, Rhule took the Owls from a 6-6 record in his second season to a 10-4 mark a year later. The trend continued at Baylor, where the Bears went 7-6 in 2018 to 11-3 in 2019 before Rhule left for the NFL.

Now, after his second season at Nebraska, he will look to keep it going in 2025 with Dylan Raiola still in at quarterback. To McFarland, the sky’s the limit.

“The future’s so bright for Year 3,” McFarland said on the Pinstripe Bowl postgame show. “You start with the quarterback, Raiola. His freshman year was absolutely outstanding. You add that to the defense that’s going to be really dominant – which is Matt Rhule’s background – the future is so bright for Nebraska. They have to be really, really ecstatic [about] where this program is right now.”

Nebraska continues to build for Year 3 under Matt Rhule

Raiola’s arrival was a seminal moment in the early part of Rhule’s tenure, and he lived up to the billing. He threw for 2,823 yards, which passed Adrian Martinez for the most by a freshman in program history. That includes a 228-yard performance in Saturday’s 20-15 victory over Boston College, and he’ll take plenty of momentum into 2025 with Dana Holgorsen also staying in the fold as offensive coordinator.

In addition to preparing for the Pinstripe Bowl, Nebraska has been hard at work in the transfer portal to build for next year. Rhule and the staff made quite a splash, too, to give Raiola some help. Kentucky transfer receiver Dane Key committed to NU on Christmas Eve, and he’ll look to provide a spark to the offense next year.

Key came in as one of the top transfers on the market this cycle. He is the No. 10 overall player to hit the portal and No. 6-ranked wide receiver to do so, according to the On3 Industry Transfer Rankings. Nebraska also landed former Missouri EDGE Williams Nwaneri out of the portal, giving the Huskers two Top-10 transfer additions through the fall window.