Nebraska Football: Was Marcus Satterfield the weak link for Dylan Raiola
At least one college football analyst believes that the Nebraska football team having Marcus Satterfield as their OC might have been a strike against.
Yes, this is one more article about a recruit that the Nebraska football team wasn’t able to land. It’s possible that there was no chance that they were ever going to be able to land Dylan Raiola.
However, on the most recent episode of the Cover 3 Podcast, Bud Elliott offered up a theory that is at least worth examining. What if it was Matt Rhule’s choice of offensive coordinator that sunk the Huskers’ efforts and drove the 5-star quarterback to the Georgia Bulldogs.
When talking to Husker247’s Brian Christopherson, Elliott floated the theory that a lack of love for Marcus Satterfield in the college football world might have been the problem. At the top of the list for reasons why this might have been the case, were the struggles of South Carolina quarterback Spencer Rattler last year.
Elliott made it clear that it wasn’t a situation where he had been told, Raiola didn’t like Satterfield. He wasn’t told that was the reason the quarterback turned his back on the Nebraska football team. But it’s a reason he seemed to think was believable.
Nebraska football OC the problem?
There’s at least one reason to believe it’s possible Satterfield at the helm played a part, even if it was a small one. When Raiola talked to the media about his thoughts on a school or coaching staff, he routinely talked about the relationship he struck up with Georgia’s new offensive coordinator, Mike Bobo.
When talking about the people he liked and felt like he had a relationship on the Nebraska football team, he often mentioned Matt Rhule. To my knowledge he never really mentioned Satterfield. Read into that what you want but it stands out in hindsight.
On the other hand, the idea that Satterfield’s offensive prowess of lack thereof was a factor in Raiola’s decision has a major flaw in it. While Rattler and the South Carolina offense did absolutely struggle early in the 2022 campaign, it caught fire late.
In Rattler’s last five games of the season, he threw for 1,389 yards and 13 touchdowns to just 3 interceptions. He had 5 touchdowns and 9 interceptions before that run.
It can certainly be argued that Satterfield helped Rattler turn his season around. That doesn’t strike me as someone a young quarterback would steer clear of if he was looking for good coaching.
We’ll never likely know if Rhule’s choice of OC played a part in the Nebraska football team losing out on Raiola, but it will certainly be interesting to see what kind of relationships Satterfield strikes up with his players and potential players from here on out.