When Dylan Raiola laid out the differences between Oregon and Nebraska, he may not have realized his comments would draw so much fire. Maybe he did (I tend to think he did). But what we can take away from what he said about his time in Lincoln and his new team, and what the new Husker quarterback said about his previous schools and his new one, is that Raiola could learn a thing or two.
The Ducks' new backup quarterback was asked during his media day what stood out to him between Lincoln and Eugene. He first brought out an old stereotype of his former home before taking a swipe at his former teammates. “I'll start with the landscape of outside. And there's not cornfields here. There's mountains and trees. I love the nature. As far as football, it's different. With coaches and players, we have a lot more talent than we did at Nebraska. And I don't say that to knock on them, but I think everybody will know that. But I'm very grateful for my time there. Learned a lot from my coaches and teammates. Still have those relationships, but…”
Your mileage may vary on whether those comments were as offensive to Nebraska and the Cornhuskers as some believe. What isn't really up for debate is that Dylan Raiola could have found a better answer. Especially since the question was about the differences in culture and vibe between the two football programs. Not what he saw when he looked outside. Nor was it about who had more talent. It's not hard to argue the questioner was more respectful of NU than its former quarterback was.
Adding fuel to the fire of Raiola's finding a way to say the wrong things when the right ones were right in front of him are the comments by his replacement, Anthony Colandrea. The newest Nebraska quarterback has been talking often about the differences between his new school and his old ones.
Dylan Raiola’s Oregon comments contrast sharply with Nebraska football QB Anthony Colandrea
Some have pointed out that his comments about the Huskers' offensive line and UNLV's—in which he said his new protection unit is "the best five I've ever been behind"— are in the same vein. However, since the discussion is about phrasing things better, Colandrea's decision not to make a direct comparison and instead praise his current teammates makes it... better.
There were also Colandrea's comments in a recent interview with Adam Brenneman about why he left UNLV. Nebraska fans who weren't paying attention to the beginning of that saga might have missed that he initially said he was sticking with the Rebels before eventually entering the portal. He attempted to explain that to Brenneman.
"I wanted to go back up right to the Power Four level because the G5 it was awesome. I loved playing for Coach Mullen and everyone but I honestly wanted to get back up to the Power Four."
Obviously, Dylan Raiola didn't have the luxury of using a jump from the Mountain West to the Big Ten. But "Oregon has been to the College Football Playoff more recently than Nebraska and I felt they were positioned to go there again" was right there. Could Nebraska fans argue that's not a factual statement? At the very least, Husker fans would have had to work harder to get offended. That is the goal of doing these kinds of interviews, to cause as little offense as possible.
It's not that Dylan Raiola's comments were beyond the pale or over the top. It's just that in a week where Nebraska had a quarterback who handled similar questions in a more professional fashion, perhaps the former Husker could have asked for pointers.
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