Nebraska Football: Donovan Raiola reels in transfer offensive lineman

The Nebraska football team had a great signing day on Wednesday, but the program wasn’t finished. On Friday, Matt Rhule and company got themselves another transfer commit. Ben Scott is an offensive lineman from Arizona State who could actually be the biggest pickup of the transfer portal.

That the Nebraska football team nabbed Scott is big news. But how the coaching staff did it is newsworthy in and of itself. That’s because the offensive lineman – who started 28 games for the Sun Devils – was reeled in by none other than Donovan Raiola.

Since Rhule announced that he’d retained Raiola, there have been questions about how he arrived at a decision. For his part, the new Huskers head coach said he just felt as though the first-year offensive line coach was a perfect fit for what he’s trying to build in Lincoln. It’s almost the assistant, who is the only holdover on the staff from the Scott Frost era wanted to make sure he provided something of value.

Raiola was the primary recruiter for Scott, and it turned out that the coach had something in common with the Nebraska football coach at his position.

The two are both originally from Hawaii and as Raiola pointed out when speaking about Scott after the transfer was official, the newest Husker actually went to the same high school that brother Dominic attended.

The Husker coach also pointed out that not only is Scott talented enough to start his college career at Arizona State but, he’s a three-year starter. He spent his first two years at ASU at guard but lined up at center in 2022. That kind of versatility will be quite useful as the Nebraska football team starts looking at how all the puzzle pieces fit together. That Donovan Raiola was the man that brought him in is certainly a strike in his favor, even if there are some fans out there that are going to need more proof he deserved to stick around.