Matt Rhule’s $165M Gamble Turns Heads as Dylan Raiola Warned of Major Blunder

As Matt Rhule prepares for a big turnaround after the 7-6 record, a big program is already looming. As analyst Wilson Dittman stated, “This is none other than taking care that you are actually supposed to win every year we look at the schedule, and we get hyped up about the Michigan game, we get hyped about the Iowa game, the Penn State game.” The moral of the story? If Rhule wants to survive in the 2025 race, they have to WIN ALL THE GAMES. They cannot afford to take anyone easily.

For Nebraska, the first true road game of the year will occur on October 11 as the program will head east to face the Maryland Terrapins. As Rhule is yet to fix his mindset, the Cornhuskers’ head coach has channeled his energy and focus on something grand, which took a $165 million investment from Nebraska. And what is it?

During the week of June 6, Nebraska football fans got their first real look at the revamped Hawks Championship Center. The reveal offered a glimpse into what has been a major undertaking for the athletic department. And the analysts can’t stop swooning over it. On the June 11 episode of the 247Sports podcast, analyst Andrew Ivins shared his review. “We were there for the battle at the Boneyard, kind of a first of its kind event, a 7-on-7 tournament. This time of the year, they are welcoming high schools to the campus for competition, but Matt Rhule is a program builder. He [has] been an innovator. He is creative at every single stop. Whether it was at Temple, at Baylor, or with the Carolina Panthers at the NFL, he has tried to be a little bit different.”

He continued, “And the battle at Boneyard, to him, they wanted to get guys to Lincoln, Nebraska, really to show off the facilities. After we spent all of Friday there, getting the tour of that football building, a 165 million dollar complex, I would get back to my hotel room and kind of looked up to that Tom Osborne complex, there’s not much out there in the media about these things.” The facility is 315,000 square feet and features state-of-the-art amenities that include everything a football team would need or want. Rhule also gave a lot of thought to the naming process.

The facility was named after legendary Husker coach Tom Osborne. He is among the greatest names in Nebraska football history, winning three national championships and 13 conference titles. How did the analyst rate Rhule’s efforts? “My takeaway was, man, the infrastructure is there in Lincoln, everything is paid for with the facility. Matt Rhule’s player development is right, again, go to his time in Baylor, go to his time in Temple, taken some guys that slipped through the cracks that have NFL traits, in turning them into future players. I think for a program that prides itself in the offensive line play, and taking guys for a young freshman and turning them into NFL players, this is the building they need. There is no reason for a student athlete there in Nebraska to ever have to leave the complex. Tom, it’s all there.”

This list includes the training table, the recovery stations, and the swimming pools in the backyard. The players are going to walk through the room, the locker room, that leads right into the weight room. Rhule pulled off a successful “rebranding” act. So, as Rhule wanted to show the high school recruits how Nebraska offers every opportunity to train them, the mission has been accomplished. But what about Nebraska’s lifeboat in 2025?

The Dylan Raiola report card for Matt Rhule

Rhule’s quarterback mission was a big miss in 2024. Dylan Raiola gave Nebraska high hopes. Remember the day from the training camp at Omaha when Raiola made fans go like, ‘What’s Patrick Mahomes doing here?’ The same Oakley glasses, broccoli hair. But unfortunately, Raiola failed to pull off the Patrick Mahomes charm on the gridiron. There have been some hit moments too. For instance, Raiola, in that game against Purdue, turned in an efficient outing, completing 17-of-27 pass attempts for 257 yards, which included a touchdown pass to Jahmal Banks in the third quarter.

Moving into this season, while he is focusing on bulking himself up, here comes a reality check. As 247Sports’ Cooper Petagna sounded underconfident about Rhule’s quarterback. “I don’t want to sound redundant, but the quarterback position is a premium position for a lot of good reasons. It seems like Raiola, it’s kind of the lost man in the shuffle. Think about it, I’ve gone through, graded all these guys, and it starts like Cade Klubnik, Garrett Nussmeier, and Drew Allar, you go down the list, LaNorris Sellers, where was Dylan Raiola, who they had a lot of expectations for the former 5-star as a true freshman? Nebraska goes 7-6, they are building for a big year 3 under Matt Rhule, and I think for him it’s the natural progression.”

From afar, Dylan Raiola’s feat looked good. The quarterback completed 19 of 27 passes for 238 yards and two touchdowns in less than three quarters of action against UTEP. However, his biggest turn-down came with his struggle with sacks. For instance, against Illinois, Rhule’s quarterback took three sacks. Here came a suggestion from Petagna. “If you look at what he did as a true freshman, 67% completion rate, 13 pass touchdowns, and 11 INTs. So, he gotta work on that later statistical category that I talked [about]. He got to take care of the football, really kind of maximize the opportunities downfield.” The safety net is stitched tight with WR firepower and now Raiola, just need to light the match.