What landing Dylan Raiola means for the Nebraska program, Matt Rhule

Nebraska made waves on Monday when it flipped five-star quarterback prospect Dylan Raiola from Georgia.

It’s a move that could send shockwaves throughout college football. It’s exactly the kind of move that can jump-start the rebuilding process for a second-year coach like Matt Rhule.

“It’s so important, not for just Matt Rhule, but for the entire state, the entire program,” said HuskerOnline’s Sean Callahan on the Andy Staples On3 show on Monday night.

“I mean Trev Alberts is trying to push forward a $450 million stadium renovation project. Nebraska is trying to push forward their NIL and their fundraising for that. Matt Rhule’s trying to sell what he’s doing, and it’s pretty easy to now appeal to offensive recruits when you have a five-star quarterback that you can sell to them. Receivers, running backs, etc. So there’s a lot now moving forward.”

The addition of a five-star quarterback prospect typically is an immediate boon to a recruiting class, as other top prospects want to play with someone who can lead them to championships.

But the Huskers might have to wait until the 2025 recruiting class to realize most of those benefits with the early signing period beginning this week.

Still, it’s a big lift for recruiting generally speaking

“All bets are off. They had some other players in town but they weren’t offensive players,” Callahan said. “They had a couple linebackers, a portal corner. Their numbers are fairly set already for 2024. They’re looking at a potential transfer portal running back.

“The problem, and I think Nebraska is in the spot a lot of people are in, but the numbers situation for everybody right now with the COVID and all the other things, it’s so hard. I used the analogy, a car only has five seats, well that’s a college football roster. And you’re trying to squeeze a sixth person into a car right now when there’s not a sixth seat, and that’s every college football roster in the country.”

Still, there are plenty of more immediate benefits for the Nebraska program, too.

“You talk about just the fundraising efforts it will jump start, because the Peed family has been instrumental in getting Nebraska to where it’s at right now with the 1890 Initiative Collective,” Callahan said. “But it’s got to be more than them. There’s got to be a much stronger booster push, and this is the type of stuff that does that. It raises money for Trev Alberts for the football stadium and so many things. There’s a major windfall for everybody with Dylan Raiola. And obviously he’s got to produce and live up to his end of the bargain.”

But even just having Raiola can immediately provide some exposure boosts for the Huskers. Callahan explained how.

“Having Dylan Raiola makes Nebraska more attractive to the Big Ten television partners,” he said. “I mean NBC, CBS, FOX, you might want to put a Nebraska game on now if there’s a decision just because Dylan Raiola is a sensational freshman guy that can move the needle. It’s big for so many reasons when you look at it for a place like Nebraska.”

So is Raiola good enough to live up to the hype? There’s certainly plenty of it.

He checks in as the No. 16 overall prospect in the nation and the No. 3 quarterback recruit in the class.

“I’ve seen him several times and watched a lot of his tape. His arm is as good as you’re going to see,” Callahan said. “Can Nebraska build a team now around him to be competitive? They’ve got a great schedule for their first seven games next year, which will be nice to build in potentially a freshman starting quarterback if he is the guy next year.
“There’s a lot to be optimistic about as Nebraska tries to claim its — the joke here is their offseason national championship, they’re the defending offseason national champions and they might carry that belt on again this offseason.”