Nebraska Football: Dylan Raiola's spot in early Big Ten rankings spark hope

Quarterback play for the Nebraska Football team was, for lack of a better word, horrendous for most of the 2023 season. The hope, in and around Lincoln this season is that either Dylan Raiola or Daniel Kaelin or even a revamped Heinrich Haarberg can see vast improvements over the spectacle on the field last fall.

Perhaps some good news here is that it's not just Nebraska Football fans who think Dylan Raiola could awaken the sleeping giant that is the Huskers. Some national outlets believe the former 5-star quarterback could bring much higher-quality quarterback play in 2024.

The most recent example is the College Football Report. The account put together its very early ranking of all the projected starting quarterbacks in the Big Ten. While Raiola isn’t right at the top of the list, he earned quite a bit of respect, considering he’s never taken a snap in a college football game.

The list has the odds-on favorite to be Nebraska Football’s starting quarterback as the ninth-best quarterback in the Big Ten. There’s plenty of room for improvement there. There are some other untested quarterbacks ranked ahead of the Husker freshman for various reasons. 

We’ll have to sort that out as the season goes on. Chief among those is Millier Moss at USC. He’s ranked fourth despite Caleb Williams taking almost every snap for USC the last two seasons. 

Nebraska Football quarterback in the Top 10 of the Big Ten 

Also ahead of Dylan Raiola on this particular ranking is Dillon Gabriel for the Oregon Ducks who they have as the top quarterback in the conference. Will Howard (Ohio State), Drew Allar (Penn State), and Will Rogers (Washington) round out the Top 5.

Aidan Chiles (Michigan State), MJ Morris (Maryland) and Cade McNamara (Iowa) are the quarterbacks ranked just ahead of the presumed Nebraska Football starter. 

Those behind Raiola are a whos’s who of quarterbacks who have never really been tested such as Michigan’s Alex Orji or were just plain not very good last season such as Illinois’ Luke Altmeyer.

It’s a safe bet that when the Big Ten season really gets rolling, this list is going to shuffle. But if Nebraska Football can have the guy who qualifies as exactly middle of the conference in 2024 that has to be considered a win. 

That level of quarterback play almost certainly gives the Huskers a winning record and their first bowl bid in almost a decade.