Matt Rhule shares honest assessment of Dylan Raiola's play entering bye week

After six weeks of grueling games on the gridiron, Nebraska has a bye this weekend. With a chance to finally catch his breath, Cornhuskers head coach Matt Rhule evaluated quarterback Dylan Raiola‘s performance thus far this season.

“I think he’s been great,” Rhule said of Raiola on Monday. “He’s had some wow moments. He gets us in the right checks. I think he protects the football. We had the one interception on the RPO this week, that’s a well-coached defense they’re physical. The wind was hard early in the game and so I think there were some lessons.

“We knew in the game that we needed to be the best way to win that game was for us to get up and make them play differently. Make them play a way they didn’t want to play.  Dylan and the guys led us to two touchdown drives. With three of the drives in the second half, we started inside the five, it was hard to get in the rhythm. That’s not an excuse, we have to get in the rhythm that way.”

It was far from Raiola’s best performance of the season on Saturday but it’s difficult to complain about a win. In the 14-7 victory over Rutgers, Raiola completed 13-of-his-27 pass attempts for 134 yards. He failed to record a touchdown pass but did throw an interception against the Scarlet Knights.

Raiola’s 134 yards were his lowest passing output of the season, with his second-least being 185 yards against Colorado. Through six games, Raiola has looked like perhaps the best true freshman quarterback in the country, amassing 1,358 passing yards and nine touchdowns while only throwing three interceptions.

Rhule believes Raiola’s not only shown off his talent this season but his leadership, too.

“I think Dylan is the guy who the others on offense look to,” Rhule said. “We can continue to help him improve his run game. I think he will get better every week.”

Nebraska will need Dylan Raiola’s leadership when it retakes the field in Week 8 against the undefeated Indiana Hoosiers. The Cornhuskers will square off against Indiana on Oct. 19 at noon ET. Indiana will also be coming off a bye.