Nebraska Football Recruiting: Dylan Raiola seems solid on Georgia, but Huskers hanging in

Reading the tea leaves on a recruit is always hit or miss but things are seemingly more clear for Nebraska football recruiting target Dylan Raiola.

The good news is that Nebraska football recruiting has made enough of an impact on Dylan Raiola that the Huskers are still technically in there and fighting. The bad news is that it feels like Matt Rhule and company have little more than a puncher’s chance at this point.

The 5-star quarterback recently sat down with 247Sports‘ Steve Wiltfong about where his recruiting stood and who was in the lead and to many Nebraska football recruiting followers, the words he uttered probably sounded like a pretty big let down. While he clearly has a great deal of respect for what Rhule is trying to do in Lincoln, it sure sounds like he’s sold on what Kirby Smart has already done.

"“Getting back up there, seeing all the coaches, seeing everybody in the building, it was just so refreshing to be there. I felt the love from everybody. Being able to watch them practice with a closer lens and being able to hold a script in my hand and kind of follow that way was huge. Just understand the offense and see myself fit in.”"

When you compare those comments, especially about fitting in the offense to what he said about Rhule, it feels more like a “good luck in your future endeavors” to Nebraska football recruiting efforts.

"“Being able to sit down with Coach (Matt) Rhule and really understand his vision for that program and where he’s headed with that program, and he’s proven it at Temple and Baylor and he’s going to win at Nebraska as well.”"

Hard not to see that as “he’ll win at Nebraska, just not with me” isn’t it?

Nebraska football recruiting still hanging in

If someone wanted to see a silver lining in those comments, it would be that he is still talking about the Cornhuskers. That’s an accomplishment when talking about the literal top recruit in the 2024 class.

However, Nebraska football fans were hoping they were going to be the Bell of the Ball in this contest rather than a runner-up. That’s still a possibility but it sure doesn’t feel like a big one. That’s a heck of a shift for a program that looked like a front-runner for a little while.

Gotta wonder how much of that was real and how much was misplaced excitement over Nebraska football recruiting.