Matt Rhule addresses how Dylan Raiola reacted to OC change, Dana Holgorsen promotion

Dylan Raiola isn’t even done his freshman season and already saw an OC change from Marcus Satterfield to Dana Holgorsen.

Head coach Matt Rhule announced the change Monday as Holgorsen will call the plays for the final three games. Raiola, who’s nursing a nagging back injury, just wants to get better and win.

That’s how Rhule put it, as well as seemingly challenging his players to make plays once they’re in position.

“Dylan trusts me and trusts the program,” Rhule said. “What are we doing moving forward? He just took it as ‘what are we doing today?’ He’s trying to get his back healthier. I think all the guys had a positive reaction to it. Go back to what I said last week. Players need to play. Players need to go make plays. You watch on Saturdays, players have to go make plays. Dana and the staff will give the players the best opportunities to make plays and then we need the guys to go make them.

“The whole pay calling thing is, ‘we handled that’ now go make some plays. Football is a game where players win games. We got good players and we expect them to win some games.”

It was a solid start to the season for Raiola and Nebraska, but the offense sputtered in recent weeks. On the year, the freshman QB has 1,921 yards, 10 touchdowns, eight interceptions and a 64.7% completion percentage.

Raiola did not practice over the bye week due to the injury that he had in the fourth quarter against UCLA. It’s also unclear if he would have been ready to go for this past weekend had Nebraska actually had a game.

“I’ll know after Tuesday’s practice if he can play or not,” Rhule said.

If he can’t go, Heinrich Haarberg and Daniel Kaelin will be the options for Nebraska’s QB1. Haarberg has made six appearances as the backup this fall, including the end of the loss to the Bruins in place of Raiola, and put up a stat line of 10-17 (58.8%) for 101 yards and a pick. Kaelin has yet to play this season as a true freshman at QB3.

With that, Holgorsen takes the headset now after initially coming in to consult to end this season. He does so after just over a decade and a half as a head coach, offensive coordinator, and quarterbacks coach at Houston, Oklahoma State, and West Virginia while also previously being at Texas Tech. 

In that time since 200, Holgorsen has had his offenses averaging 37.9 ppg., good for an average finish just outside the top 30 but with five finishes in the top 10 and nine in the top 25, and 491.8 yards.