With the 2025 high school football season approaching, ESPN announced who will play in its primetime game to kick off the season, and a future Nebraska football player is getting the spotlight. Incoming Husker quarterback Dayton Raiola and his Buford Wolves face off against the Milton Eagles, a bout that gets national television attention as high school sports become much bigger in the era of NIL.
This is the second straight season that Buford starts the season against Milton. Last year, Dayton Raiola and company lost a close battle 13-10. Milton went on to win the Georgia state championship for their class level.
Future Nebraska QB Dayton Raiola gets ESPN spotlight in 2025 season opener
Dayton Raiola is preparing for his final year of high school before jumping to Nebraska football. He’ll be playing in a new $62 million facility in the process.
This is also Dayton’s second year as a starter. He does so for the Wolves after backing up his brother and current Cornhuskers quarterback, Dylan, during his freshman and sophomore seasons.
The younger Raiola decided to follow his brother to Lincoln during the 2024 season while finishing his first season as the starter, throwing for 1,953 passing yards and 19 touchdowns. He also led the Wolves to their own championship game at their level.
Nebraska's 2026 class currently consists of Raiola, 4-star safety CJ Bronaugh, 4-star wide receiver Dveyoun Bonwell-Witte and 3-star linebacker Jase Reynolds. Raiola knows it will take more than that quartet to see success in Lincoln.
"I am recruiting some certain guys that I try to stay on about every other day," Raiola told Sports Illustrated earlier this spring. "There’s so many guys that we want, it would be hard to put a list on it."
It’s expected that the Nebraska football team will start hauling in more commits soon.