More Crisis Confirmed for Dylan Raiola After Matt Rhule’s 8,000-Yds Weapon Puts Nebraska QB on High Alert

As the Nebraska Cornhuskers gear up for the fresh 2025 season, it’s no surprise they are betting the dime on Dylan Raiola. The starting quarterback showed huge flashes of promise at the beginning of the season. But despite having secured a record 2819 passing yards for the Huskers, his 2024 stint has been marred by several loopholes under his belt. Remember his performance against UCLA Bruins (27-20) in the mid-season where he dropped back, read the defense, made a lot of inaccurate throws, and got sacked? It was everything wrong that you could have imagined for a QB’s image.

Raiola has had his peaks and valleys in a tumultuous season. If he can do tremendous work on his issues with play-caller Dana Holgorsen and quarterback coach Glen Thomas during the prolonged off-season and create some good chemistry with the new weapons in the receiver room, Rhule might be able to trust him for another year again. But his role is a question mark for now. There are two outright different narratives running the drama right now. One puts Raiola on a pedestal demanding the biggest offensive story out of him, another one is watching him lose grip on the QB1 spot, slowly and rationally.

Is Dylan Raiola’s QB1 spot under threat?

Well, while David Pollack might say that Dylan Raiola is going to turn the page in 2025, there are a lot of layers waiting to unfold for the potential dismay of a brand-new season. The Huskers’ 6’3″ 233 lb recent signee in the class of 2025,

Marcos Davila, can be a threat to Raiola’s QB spot. Davila has been a silent workhorse so far. The former Purdue QB and a four-star recruit bagged 93 touchdown passes and 9,101 career passing yards, both school records, serving as the starter in his final three seasons. Even scoring touchdowns seems like a plaything for the 19-year-old. 30 touchdowns so far, for 3,303 yards on 219-of-339 passing in his senior season, averaging 254.1 yards per game and 16.8 yards per completion should make Raiola worry.

Davila’s hustle, grit, and passion certainly lit up Matt Rhule’s face as he will see it as a value for money. And you can’t really blame Rhule for wanting the best for the Huskers. QB, being the most important player of the hoard, demands change if seen unfit because of the high stakes it has on the game. So far, it seems Rhule is envisioning Davila as the ideal fit for a Holgorsen-style attack, a true asset for the short passes and air raid concepts. This is not necessarily an ultimatum, but definitely a wake-up call for Dylan Raiola to get quick on fixing his issues.

Why is Dylan Raiola falling behind?

Connor Harper, while evaluating how Raiola is unleashing the off-season with the unascended hope to take the next step out there, becoming the blueblood finished product he is always meant to be, said, “Well, there’s definitely some pressure to do that, and I think they felt that, you know, at the end ending point of last year when they got rid of Marcus Satterfield as the offensive coordinator.” The Satterfield argument made a lot of sense as the five-star freshman QB, Raiola, had a strong adjustment with his style of coaching. So, the unforeseen demotion of Satterfield made him visibly uncomfortable in between the seasons. ”He’s still on the staff as the tight ends coach, and they brought in Dana Holgorsen and for the last three games of last year, it was a sort of about making things comfortable and finding the right Synergy with Dylan Raiola and Marcus Satterfield is in the offense and now they’ve had to retool under the tollage of Dana Holgorsen,” Harper continued. Recruiting Holgorsen was reportedly a strategic move to keep Raiola home as they two share very close working chemistry. The host of departures also made the job a little difficult for the Huskers and Raiola to keep up the pace. ”They’re going to turn over a lot, they’re losing a few guys who, you know, were around the program for five and six years,” Harper dished out a stern warning for Matt Rhule and Raiola. Guys like Nash Hutmacher, and Ty Robinson are projected to inflict a deeper void in the Nebraska depth chart as well as Raiola’s comfort zone.

But guess what? Falling under the radar in his tenure with the Huskers for another year isn’t the real concern Raiola is dealing with.

With Marcos Davila in the scene, the real pain in the neck is whether or not he will retain the starting position down the stretch.