Former Nebraska quarterback Dylan Raiola has spent most of the 2026 season backing up Dante Moore at Oregon. However, after one of the dirtier hits seen at the college level in quite some time, it was officially Dylan Raiola time late in the first half against USC.
Raiola entered a game for the second time this season after getting his first action in mop-up duty against Portland State. The situation here is quite different: he closed out the first half and will play the entire second half, since Moore was taken to the hospital after the aforementioned hit.
Raiola finished the half completing 6 of 8 passes for 64 yards and a 3-yard touchdown. That TD came just a few plays after Moore was knocked out of the game, and after he hit Evan Stewart for the score, the Oregon team as a whole celebrated by holding up five fingers, signifying Moore's No. 5 jersey number.
Dylan Raiola takes the reins for Oregon, setting up potential Nebraska showdown
Raiola had some very nice passes and was the beneficiary of some incredible catches. However, one of his nicest throws of the game was called back due to offensive holding by one of his linemen.
The real question for Husker fans now is whether this makes the rumored "early" reunion between Raiola and Nebraska much more likely. When those rumors started up earlier this week, they were due to Moore playing rather poorly in Oregon's first two games of the season.
In fact, the rumors were specifically not talking about the possibility of Moore getting hurt. Now that he has been, there has to be a question about when he'll be back. His reaction on the field was downright scary, especially when he was so out of it that his arms were sticking straight up in the air.
It's possible that Moore won't be back for a while. It's even possible he won't be back until very late in the season if at all. If that was just a concussion, it's still the kind that seemingly stick around for several weeks.
Nebraska and Oregon will play in Eugene in three weeks. While it's certainly possible that Moore could be back for that game, the hit he took and the way he left certainly doesn't make it a guarantee.
Should Raiola and Nebraska face each other this year, it would be the culmination of something that seemed like destiny, just destiny arriving a bit early. Most thought he'd be the starting quarterback for the Ducks when then visit Lincoln in 2027.
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