UTEP sticking its head in Nebraska football lion's mouth with Dylan Raiola taunt

With Week 0 officially in the books, it’s time for Nebraska football fans to turn their attention to the season opener against the UTEP Miners. The good news there is that it won’t be too hard to focus on the Conference USA squad considering its fans keep trying to poke the bear.

Despite the fact that the Cornhuskers are almost four touchdown favorites, UTEP fans felt the need earlier this week to take a shot at NU’s starting quarterback. And it’s not as though the fans took shots at his talent. They took shots at his body.

A fan account called UTEP News decided it wanted to see in just how many points Nebraska football could put up on the Miners next Saturday by making a joke post. The post included a picture of a very fan Husker player it claimed was Dylan Raiola.

Nebraska football just given another reason to whoop UTEP

“First look at Freshman Dylan Raiola, the starting QB at Nebraska in uniform,” the account wrote alongside a picture of a morbidly obese Husker quarterback. “The chunky true freshman who grew up a Husker will lead the scarlet and cream this year.”

While these kinds of posts are often dismissed as being “all in good fun,” this particular joke is one that has taken off for some reason. Some people have noticed that Raiola doesn’t seem to have washboard abs.

Not that a quarterback needs that in order to be very, very good. In fact, one needs only to look at the future Hall of Famer the Cornhuskers signal-caller has patterned his approach after in Patrick Mahomes.

It simply feels like there are fanbases that simply should not pipe up ahead of the season opener. It’s clear that UTEP supporters are excited about the 2024 campaign. They might even see NU’s struggles over the last decade as an opening.

But Nebraska football is expected to be a team that will romp all over the Miners. And the last thing a team that is as big a dog as the CUSA squad is should do, is make sure NU has a reason to lay it on.