Joel Klatt analyzes the ups, downs of Dylan Raiola at Nebraska

In his still-brief time as the Nebraska starting quarterback, true freshman Dylan Raiola has shown a lot. For better, and certainly some for the worse.

But with the collection of talent and flashes he’s shown, FOX analyst Joel Klatt is bullish on where Raiola’s ceiling lies. To get there, though, Klatt thinks Raiola has a long ways to go with respect to playing on time, in structure and taking the easy completions within the flow of the offense.

“I personally believe that he needs to play with a more solid foundation in terms of his footwork and platform,” Klatt said. “All the off-platform throws are fabulous, I get it. He’s got talent for days and he can drop down and he can throw off platform and off balance and he’s got that talent. The problem is that you’ve gotta give me layups as well. So yeah you can hit the 360 dunk. You can dunk from the foul line. You can hit it from the logo. All these things, to make a basketball analogy, but you’ve gotta make layups. You’ve gotta hit the 18-foot jumper.

“And as a quarterback, you have to understand that there are moments that you need to play with your footwork and your platform connected to the structure of your offense. And when your platform and your footwork are connected to the structure of your offense, your mind is connected to the structure of the offense.”

In eight games in his college career, Raiola is completing 66.1% of his passes and has 1744 yards, but has thrown seven interceptions to go with nine touchdowns.

And sometimes Raiola has avoided turnovers but still missed with his throws, another effect of his, at times, overzealous freewheeling.

“Those things can’t happen,” Klatt said. “They just can’t happen and he has got to make sure that they hits those routes. For all the skills that he has and the arm talent that he has, he can’t miss those routes. And Nebraska fans, you know exactly what I’m talking about.”

For all the expected areas for the young quarterback to still improve, Klatt did make one point clear: He’s very, very bullish on what the future holds for Raiola, and that’s largely because of the physical ability that is leading him a bit astray early in his career.

“And by the way: This is why I still get excited about Dylan Raiola,” Klatt said. “It’s because not many quarterbacks can make plays off platform, unconnected, off-schedule as an eraser. Not many guys can do that. So when you have that ability, you have the chance to be great. But the problem is that you’ve gotta do the fundamentals as well. Someone needs to work with his footwork. Someone needs to work with his connectivity to the passing structure. Because too often he’s taking things that should be connected and he’s trying to make them unconnected. He’s a young player, I think that that can change and I think that it will change and I think that it’ll get better.”