LINCOLN — Dylan Raiola is building a catalogue of terrific quarterback plays. His best might have come in the first half against Michigan.
It was his first touchdown pass of the game to Jacory Barney, right up the seam of the Wolverines’ defense, after Raiola saw UM bluff blitz and changed Barney’s route to beat the defense at hand.
He didn’t look to the sideline for guidance. He assessed the defense and made his own call.
“Watch from Dylan’s perspective the throw to Jacory on the touchdown,” coach Matt Rhule said. “It is just — guy running down his face, throws it around, just throws it to a spot and the kid runs and gets it. Those are the things like, when I have to get up in the morning, I say to myself ‘You’ve got a lot build on.’ That’s way better than it was.”
Raiola’s pace — 3,400 yards and 33 touchdowns in the regular season — would be historic in Husker terms. We’ll see if he keeps it up.
Even if he does, he wouldn’t be guaranteed All-Big Ten honors. The league is that deep, and that good at quarterback. Better than I can ever recall it (Though who am I to lecture any Big Ten vet about the 1985 season, when Chuck Long, Jim Harbaugh and Jim Everett slung it around?)
Going strictly on ESPN’s total QBR — a flawed but notable metric — Raiola ranks ninth in the Big Ten at 77.2. Mind you, that’d rank ahead of Ohio State’s JT Barrett and Michigan State’s Connor Cook a decade ago, and a full five points ahead of Adrian Martinez from 2021. Still, ninth so far in 2025.
USC’s Jayden Maiava ranks first. Nebraska will see him in month. Michigan State’s Aidan Chiles ranks seventh — the Huskers will see him next week. Penn State’s Drew Allar is down at 15th — NU visits Happy Valley in two months.
Consider those games signposts — what’s right in front of Nebraska, halfway down the road and all the way down the road.
Nothing about USC or Penn State’s performances on Saturday — in close losses — suggest either team could outpace Nebraska by more than a touchdown, if at all.
The Trojans’ defense, in a 34-32 defeat at Illinois, couldn’t get off blocks while the Nittany Lions’ offense, in a 30-24 loss to Oregon, spent three quarters collapsing under the weight of a mediocre run game and great expectations.
It’s been that way all year for PSU’s attack, which explains, to some degree, Allar’s QBR rating. Penn State hasn’t been efficient or “on time” the way Nebraska and Raiola have. Guys aren’t open the way NU’s receivers are. PSU has two better backs than the Huskers’ Emmett Johnson, but they’re facing a lot of defenders.
USC, meanwhile, moves the ball at will while still finding a way for the untimely fumble or curiously called, slow-developing screen pass that gets swallowed up. Maiava puts the ball in harm’s way a ton — it’s stunning he has, still, just one interception.
UCLA and Northwestern, both still on NU’s schedule, engaged in a rock fight you won’t soon remember. Wildcat quarterback Preston Stone has more picks (six) than scores (four) and the Bruins’ Nico Iamaleava looks so rudderless in a talent-deprived offense that you wonder whether he’ll still be the starter by the time 25,000 folks in red populate the Rose Bowl. He’s running the ball a lot — as he should — and getting hit hard for his efforts.
Minnesota has a quarterback of its own, big and strong Drake Lindsey, who threw his way to a comeback win over Rutgers — 324 yards, three touchdowns. In some ways, Lindsey is the most like Raiola and Allar, a passer who runs mostly to buy time and whose arm fits balls into tight windows. The Gophers’ defense tends to be leaky at the start of most seasons before tightening into shape right around the time Nebraska visits in mid-October.
The Huskers head to Minneapolis Oct. 17.
In nearly upsetting Indiana — thankfully not on Nebraska’s slate — Iowa did Iowa things until it didn’t, curiously calling for a seven-man blitz at midfield that turned into Indiana’s game-winning touchdown pass. Quarterback Mark Gronowski got hurt — Iowa starting quarterback injuries are an annual tradition — and gave way to backup Hank Brown.
That’s six of Nebraska’s opponents. Two almost certain wins. Zero — yes, zero — certain losses. Four tossups. Plus Michigan State and Maryland, games I’d put closer to wins than jump balls.
The Huskers appear to avoid the league’s best, Ohio State, Oregon and Indiana. Whether the Hoosiers would have been on that list before the year, they are now; their current resume is better than Penn State.
There isn’t any game, left on the schedule, Nebraska’s out of or even a double-digit underdog in. NU’s taken a jump on special teams, held it together on defense and built an identity around Raiola on offense. Which, when you have the quarterback, makes sense.
Raiola takes flak from mostly online football analysts for some of his throwing mechanics and pregame mannerisms, which mirror that of NFL star Patrick Mahomes. These discussions tend to take up more space in sportswriters’ minds than they do the fans, many of whom couldn’t pick a CBS college football podcast out of a list.
My two cents: Some of the flak Raiola gets is as the face of a program that, one, doesn’t normally get five-star quarterbacks, two, doesn’t win the biggest games and, three, has a head coach everyone is reluctant to razz because Rhule is transparent, accessible and relatable.
There are also the programs Raiola spurned, Ohio State and Georgia and their reputations. (OSU’s own quarterback, Julian Sayin, is Raiola’s equal in talent and poise.)
College football is full of gatekeeping and gatekeepers who patrol the sport’s culture looking to enforce unwritten rules.Raiola has a NFL dad and celebrity friends, and he can really spin the football. The latter matters much more to Nebraska than the former.
“Let’s not just do the Mahomes thing,” Rhule said. “I get the Mahomes thing, but that’s just such an easy — let’s talk about the football. And I think he’s playing football at a really, really, really high level.”
He is. And if he continues to do so, take some heart. After a weekend viewing teams, Nebraska’s goals are all still out there. A three-point loss, to a likely 10-win team, won’t change that.
On with the Rewind.
I See You
Quarterback Dylan Raiola: Off to a terrific start, especially on third down. Defenses, with four games of film, will adjust, and Raiola has to adjust with their adjustments. We’re betting they will.
Running back Emmett Johnson: Workhorse who has improved the no-nonsense portion of his runs, where, after the first cut, he’s getting vertical and trying to hit a big run.
Receivers Jacory Barney, Dane Key and Nyziah Hunter: Nebraska’s best trio since at least 2017 (Stanley Morgan, JD Spielman, De’Mornay Pierson-El) and more likely 2014 (Kenny Bell, Jordan Westerkamp, Pierson-El)
Tight end Luke Lindenmeyer: On pace for 54 grabs! He’ll probably slow down in Big Ten play, but he’s become a nice security blanket for Raiola when the wideouts aren’t open.
Safety DeShon Singleton: Leader of the secondary and perhaps the defense’s MVP at this point. It’s close among those coverage guys.
Defensive end Williams Nwaneri: It’s odd to deem a five-star guy a pleasant surprise, but he is. Nwaneri has done more than merely contribute in 2025; he’s been an above-average starter.
Jack linebacker Dasan McCullough: NU’s best pass rusher to this point, with two sacks. Also, clearly, an adult in the room.
Cornerbacks Ceyair Wright, Andrew Marshall and Donovan Jones: Elite so far. At least one of them would be All-Big Ten at this point, but it’s hard picking.
Kicker Kyle Cunanan: He’s made six of seven field goals. That’s ahead of recent pace.
Michigan’s Justice Haynes and Jaishawn Barham: Great players bring clarity, and it’s possible Nebraska can learn from what a superior opponent — Haynes and Barham were that — did in competition. NU will face more good backs and pass rushers.
Five Stats
+7.05: Yards per point differential through four games this season. That’s a good — not great — differential given the two blowouts NU had vs. Akron and Houston Christian; the Huskers aren’t likely to be higher than this at any point in 2025.
Let’s break it down. Nebraska has needed 11.41 yards to score a point so far this season, while opponents have needed 18.46 yards to score a point. Low is good on offense, high is good on defense. It speaks to efficiency and special teams excellence, for one thing.
In this metric, for example, Iowa (+5.16) currently scores better than USC (+3.95) because the Hawkeyes score on special teams and do a better job of preventing points. Nebraska scores better than both, right now.
Indiana is at +11.80. Ohio State — and this is part of why OSU is No. 1 — is +29.5. That’ll go down, clearly, but the Buckeyes’ defense has been that good. It’s taking foes 41.7 yards to score a point.
.6: Points per play: Divide the number of points NU has scored (174) into the plays it has run (290) and you get this figure. This early in the season, it’s good, not great. The Huskers’ 72.5 plays per game ranks near the top of the Big Ten. At this point in the season, anything .7 or above is excellent — Texas Tech is at .71.
For a season, anything below .4 isn’t great. Nebraska was at .34 in 2024 and — hide your eyes — .29 in 2023. NU was last above .4 in 2021.
39.5: Points per game scored by Cincinnati’s offense through four contests. It should make you feel a little better about Nebraska’s defense, given the Bearcats have rolled through every other opposing defense, including Kansas, which Cincinnati beat 37-34 on Saturday. The Bearcats are averaging 288 passing yards per game, and that’s with the 69-yard game it had vs. NU.
154: Punt return yards so far in 2025, which is more than Rhule’s first two seasons combined (121). So far, so good for coach Mike Ekeler’s new approach, which has helped the Huskers shift the field position conversation. The Huskers last had this many punt return yards in, wait for it, 2016. Yeah. It’s been a minute. NU has cycled through five coordinators (Bruce Read, Jovan Dewitt, Mike Dawson, Bill Busch, Ed Foley) one special teams analyst (Jonathan Rutledge) and one hodgepodge (in 2017) before returning to Ekeler. Fun!
+26%: The differential between Nebraska’s third down conversion rate (50%) and its opponents’ third down conversion rate (24%). You’ll take that all day. In the Big Ten, only Indiana (+34.52) Ohio State (+27.36) are better so far. Third down defense was an emphasis for defensive coordinator John Butler heading into this season, and it’s gone well so far. Those numbers will come closer together as the season goes on, but NU is in good shape.
Forecast
A pep in our October step.
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Sam McKewon
Sports Editor
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