Breaking down the commitment of Dylan Raiola and what it means for the Huskers. Nebraska pulled off the flip of the 2024 recruiting cycle on Monday afternoon, as Dylan Raiola, the No. 2 overall player in the 2024 class announced he was committing to Nebraska.
Mike Schaefer, Brian Christopherson and Michael Bruntz break down the commitment, the days leading up to the commitment and what it means for Nebraska’s 2024 recruiting class. The guys also discuss what Raiola’s addition means for the quarterback picture for the Huskers this spring and beyond.
Raiola commitment has no rival in fanfare in modern Husker recruiting history
The Dylan Raiola commitment, as rankings go, is in its own territory for Nebraska football.
Viewed as a fourth-quarter stunner when news of its possibility became public last Monday, it’s now a reality one week later. Your F5 key needs a replacement but perhaps those with emotions heavily invested will find it worth it with Dylan Raiola announcing he’s committed to the Huskers.
As far as recruiting goes, this one doesn’t have a rival for Nebraska football in terms of a prospect’s ranking combined with national attention it brought since recruiting has become what it is in the Internet era.
Certainly Baker Steinkuhler, Marlon Lucky and select others came with high rankings status. But this is the QB spot. This is a recruitment Husker fans tracked for 2 1/2 years. This one is different than the rest in fanfare.
Rated the No. 2 player overall in the 2024 recruiting class by 247Sports, Raiola’s flip from Georgia to Nebraska in the final days before Wednesday’s early signing day was a headline grabber not just here but throughout the college football world. Raiola had been committed to the Bulldogs since May 15.
In what seems like a long time ago as this recruiting cycle goes, Raiola took visits to Nebraska in February and then a month later before that commitment to Georgia.
“People that spent time with Raiola this weekend in Lincoln, they just said that have been around him at other places say that there’s just a different kind of smile on his face when he’s at Nebraska,» 247Sports’ Steve Wiltfong reported after one of those visits.
Husker fans rolled out the red carpet when he attended a Husker hoops game last February, chanting his name as he walked down to a seat by the floor. It wasn’t that long ago. It just seems so.
There were days when the Huskers seemed like they might be the favorite. And then they weren’t. Georgia was it.
«I’m attracted to the culture and the standard at Georgia and the more time that went by the stronger I felt about it,» Raiola told 247Sports after committing to the Bulldogs. «There was a lot of silence and a lot of quiet, and I just learned a lot throughout this whole process of who I can lean on and depend on and another thing I loved, Georgia is not built on one person or one position group. It’s a complete program I get to be part of.»
That was then. Now, with the cycle closing down, Nebraska is on top of a recruitment that in may ways goes back to June 18, 2021, when Raiola dazzled at a Friday Night Lights event and earned an offer before everyone went to bed.
Since then, Husker fans have followed his recruitment with interest – sometimes with great fervor, other times at a distance suspecting it wouldn’t end up as it now appears. This fall, for sure, it didn’t seem to be a Nebraska recruiting win – even if the Raiola family did pop back into Lincoln for Nebraska’s game against Northwestern on Oct. 21. Pictures were taken pregame with Dominic, Dylan, Dayton and Donovan.
But Husker fans didn’t seem to get their hopes up about that.
Because Raiola spent this past fall playing for Buford High School down in Georgia, close to what seemed like it would be his college home in Athens. During his senior year he completed 159 of 250 attempts (63.6%) for 2,918 yards. He threw 34 touchdowns with just one interception. Raiola ran for three scores, but it’s the lone interception Nebraska fans may look at first and foremost.