Nebraska coach Matt Rhule has made his first, big, public win-loss-affecting decision.
The Cornhuskers announced Wednesday that Dylan Raiola, a Nebraska legacy player – and more importantly than that, a true freshman – will get the start at quarterback on August 31 in their season opener at home against UTEP.
Raiola, a 6-foot-3, 230 pounder from Buford, Georgia, is loaded up with Nebraska. He’s the son of former offensive lineman Dominic Raiola, and the nephew of the current offensive line coach (Donovan Raiola). He was also a five-star recruit.
Raiola threw for just under 8,500 yards and did throw 88 touchdown passes at Buford High School, and completed 16-of-22 passes for 239 yards and two scores in the Cornhuskers’ spring game.
By the way: Nebraska was dead last in passing yards in the Big Ten Conference a year ago.
The Cornhuskers went 5-7 overall and won just one road game all season, Rhule’s first year.
Rhule’s a tough guy, though. A New York native and former walk-on at linebacker at Penn State under Joe Paterno, he was an offensive coordinator at Temple, served as an assistant at the New York Giants, came back to Temple as the Owls’ head coach, led the program to its only two 10-win seasons since the 1970s, and then went to Baylor after the mess that coach Art Briles made.
He went 8-17 his first two seasons, but cleaned it up in year three, going 11-3 that year, and then moved on to the Carolina Panthers, where he didn’t exactly burn it up, but some of that could have been a proactive owner that is known for liking to make changes.
