If and when Dylan Raiola ever gets to play against Nebraska now that he’s at Oregon, his comments on Monday’s Ducks Media Day will go a long way to make sure there’s no love lost between him and Husker fans. The two-year starting quarterback departed Lincoln this past winter, and while it seemed like the writing was on the wall well before that, his exit was still a bit strange because a man who had been such a strong ambassador for the program said almost nothing once he hit the portal.
Considering his comments on Monday, maybe it was better he kept quiet as often as possible.
Raiola was asked the usual layup question any transfer at any team is asked. “What's the difference between Nebraska and Oregon?” The quarterback was even offered up a kind of out when the question was asked, as the reporter called the Huskers a “hard-nosed midwestern team” and said that Oregon had more swag. But Raiola couldn’t help himself from taking some parting shots.
“I'll start with the landscape of outside. And there's not cornfields here. There's mountains and trees. I love the nature,” Raiola said.
Dylan Raiola’s Oregon comments give Nebraska football bulletin-board material
Breezing past comments like “the landscape of outside,” it’s pretty annoying to hear someone who lived and went to school in Lincoln for two years bring up cornfields immediately. It’s such low-hanging fruit. It takes no imagination at all to take a shot at cornfields. Never mind that the Big Ten, before it inexplicably expanded too far east and west, is a midwestern conference. There’s agland in just about every state in the conference.
Also, not for nothing, someone should tell Dylan that Nebraska is the birthplace of Arbor Day.
So, despite spending years talking about how much he loved the state and the Cornhuskers, he started his comments by pretending Nebraska doesn’t have any scenery. But that’s not really the part that helpfully offered bulletin board material for guys he claims are still his friends.
“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, teammates. Still have those relationships, but…”
On its face, his comments about Oregon having more talent are inarguably true. The Ducks are one of the best teams in the country. It’s still the kind of thing a player doesn’t say if he still has friends on the team.
It’s also the kind of thing that someone who has demonstrated media savvy before should know is not something you say about a team you’re playing this season. It’s especially gross considering the only way he’ll have to face his old teammates this year is if Dante Moore is hurt.
He threw some bombs at the Huskers knowing he won’t be held responsible for backing any of it up.
In the grand scheme of things, did Dylan Raiola say anything deeply egregious? No. Absolutely not. Did he show class or maturity in what he said about Nebraska? No. Absolutely not.
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