Nebraska’s pursuit of a legacy recruit — who would have also been the Huskers’ top-rated commit in the era of recruiting rankings — fell short a second time. Dylan Raiola committed to two-time defending national champion Georgia on Monday.
Athens,GA is Home!!! I’m a Dawg!! Go Dawgs📍🐶 pic.twitter.com/VWN9Vf55sy
— Dylan Raiola (@RaiolaDylan) May 15, 2023
Raiola is the No. 1 overall recruit in the 2024 recruiting class and a 5-star quarterback. The son of Nebraska Hall of Famer Dominic Raiola committed to Ohio State last April after considering Nebraska. The generational quarterback prospect, as many scouts labeled him, decommited from Ohio State in December. That decision reopened options, including his father’s alma mater.
Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule stoked excitement with his reaction to Raiola’s decommitment. Rhule visited Chandler High School in Arizona in the first week of the January open recruiting period. The Huskers then sent the full-time assistant coaching staff to visit Raiola in Arizona. The Raiola family made a surprise weekend visit to Lincoln to visit Donovan Raiola, Nebraska’s offensive line coach and Dylan’s uncle. Dylan, now at Pinnacle High in Phoenix, visited Nebraska again in March as part of the star-studded VIP Junior Day. The highly coveted recruit initially planned to visit Nebraska for its April spring game but withdrew as Pinnacle’s spring football season began.
Meanwhile, Nebraska competed heavily with Georgia, Oregon and USC for Raiola’s commitment. Georgia head coach Kirby Smart video chatted Raiola from the locker room following its national championship win. USC head coach Lincoln Riley stood directly coached three Heisman Trophy winning quarterbacks, including Caleb Williams last season.
Raiola’s second commitment away from Nebraska leaves the Huskers still searching for a quarterback recruit. The program did not sign a quarterback in the 2023 class and the only offer to a 2024 class quarterback other than Raiola was to Bellevue West 3-star play caller Danny Kaelin. The Huskers are offering multiple quarterbacks in future classes.
Nebraska could dive into the transfer portal once again for a quarterback, as the program has for the last two cycles. (William “Pop” Watson, a 2023 quarterback, committed to Nebraska as a longtime confidant of former offensive coordinator Mark Whipple but reopened his commitment during the coaching change.) The portal remains a possibility as the Huskers enter the summer with three scholarship quarterbacks. Rhule’s preference, however, is to recruit and develop high school players. Nebraska offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield recruited multiple quarterbacks to South Carolina in his time there, some are members of the 2024 recruiting class. The Huskers could use those ties to secure a high school quarterback commitment once again.
