No Dante Moore, no Aaron Flowers, and likely no Evan Stewart. Nebraska’s chance to make a statement with a big win over Oregon has never looked quite so set up for success. Now add recent reports that the starting quarterback won’t be former Husker QB1 Dylan Raiola; instead, it will be Brock Thomas, who entered the season as the third-string signal caller.
Chris Hummer and Matt Zenitz reported on Friday night that Oregon head coach Dan Lanning is expected to make the change. The report comes after a week when Lanning said Thomas, Raiola, and Akili Smith Jr. were all taking snaps with the first-team offense in an accelerated quarterback battle.
Of course, before Nebraska fans start licking their chops and dreaming of a blowout win over Oregon because the third-string quarterback is starting, it’s worth pointing out that Thomas almost led a comeback win against the Top 25 UCLA Bruins last week.
Thomas entered the game last Saturday after Raiola had a career-worst outing and was eventually benched. The former third-string quarterback completed 11 of 15 passes for 156 yards and a touchdown that made the score 17-15. Had Oregon scored a two-point conversion on their final score, Thomas might have fully led the comeback and delivered a big win for the Ducks.
Brock Thomas expected to start for Oregon against Nebraska football with Dante Moore out
The bigger news story for Oregon than who is at quarterback is the potential loss of leading wide receiver Stewart, who started the week listed as questionable and was bumped to doubtful on Thursday. He was doubtful again Friday night. Only one more availability report remains until Nebraska vs. Oregon kicks off at 10 pm on Saturday.
Stewart, like former starting quarterback Moore, seems to be recovering from a concussion. Moore suffered his against USC on a dirty hit. Stewart’s was a much more “run-of-the-mill” type of head injury against UCLA.
Talk that Nebraska might face its former starting quarterback began even before Moore was injured, as some of Oregon’s early-season struggles were pinned on him. Some reporters began spreading rumors that Raiola might move into a starting role because he’d played very well as a backup in mop-up appearances.
Raiola's chance of facing his old team this year now looks extremely slim after that abysmal first start. Of course, he could come in if Thomas struggles, but that would be the best-case scenario for Nebraska, as it would likely mean the Huskers had built a massive lead.
Confusion and conjecture over who Oregon starts at quarterback will almost certainly continue until the late-night kick against Nebraska. For their sake, the Cornhuskers are hopefully just focusing on winning the game.
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