3 thoughts on Dylan Raiola leaving Nebraska for transfer portal

After weeks of rumors, Nebraska football fans finally got some clarity on the future of Dylan Raiola, as the quarterback will enter the transfer portal, according to ESPN’s Pete Thamel.

I wrote earlier on Monday that a decision was coming or an announcement. A decision seems like it was made dating back to Dayton Raiola. That commitment was always a gift to the Raiola family, so once Dayton decommitted, the writing was on the wall.

Here are some thoughts on Dylan Raiola’s departure.

Dylan Raiola didn’t live up to his word

The Raiola’s can blame Nebraska, which they are. Thamel indicated that Raiola wanted to go somewhere he could be “developed.”

Nebraska needed a better offensive line, although that was kind of the fault of Dylan’s uncle, but it’s not like the kid took a dramatic step forward in his two years in Lincoln. He was 6-9 as a starter in Big Ten games with 17 touchdown passes, 15 interceptions and 206 passing yards per game.

Say what you will, but Raiola didn’t live up to what he promised. He came to Nebraska football to turn it around. He compared himself to Eric Crouch and Tommie Frazier, then left after two seasons with a 13-8 record as a starter. He didn’t beat a single top-25 team in two years, or a Big Ten foe that finished with a winning record in league play.

It wasn’t all his fault, clearly. But to cut bait and leave — that’s disappointing, even if it might be better for Nebraska.

The game-winning drive against Maryland was probably the highlight of his career, if you forget that he threw three interceptions to put Nebraska football in trouble in the first place.

His legacy won’t be a complicated one because he doesn’t have one.

Hindsight is 20/20

Looking back to the quarterback decision of 2023 (post-season), signing Dylan Raiola was a mistake. It forced Matt Rhule to hang onto an offensive line coach who was incompetent. It also forced him to take a QB recruit who simply isn’t up to snuff.

Now, that’s an issue with Rhule. He shouldn’t have allowed the Raiolas to take the program hostage as they did. But after being patient through the freshman struggles, instead of taking a veteran QB like Kyle McCord, who could have won more games and helped turn things around quickly, Nebraska is up the creek without a paddle.

The juice wasn’t worth the squeeze.

Nebraska can’t rely on TJ Lateef

While Lateef was impressive in the start against UCLA, completing 13 of 15 passes, Lateef needs to have someone push him to be the starting quarterback.

He might be ready. Yet, Nebraska can’t rely on maybes, not after waiting on the development of Dylan Raiola only to get nothing out of it.

At least they should have more NIL money, now that Raiola is gone. They need to put all that was allocated for Dylan Raiola toward getting the best QB possible in the portal

Dylan will probably end up at Miami. He will play well, but it’s still disappointing, and everything the rival fans said about him turned out to be true.

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