Dylan Raiola

The way he said it though.... Like walking around egg shells. And a lot of stuttering. Rhule is usually very confident when he speaks.
Nothing strikes me as a smoking gun, and there's nothing he could say in that scenario that would be a surefire "ahhh, okay, thank you I feel great now", but "I haven't seen that so I don't know about that" isn't a confidence building response.

I mean, it's tough to be confident when you don't know what the report said. More confidence would be great, but without knowing what the report did or didn't say what's he supposed to do? I think in hindsight he'd answer more concisely and move on. But for all he knew when the question was asked the report could have been a reliable source confidently saying Raiola is moving on. And I don't know what answer you're supposed to give when that is a possibility. I'm sure he wanted to say "we're focused on Iowa," or "I'm not going to answer questions around players potentially leaving until after the season," but both would be taken as confirmation that Raiola is gone. And I don't think he can stand up there and say for sure that Raiola will be back. It's just a lot of engagement farming.
 
IF, and a big IF, the reported story is true that Dylan will be commanding north of $4 mill to stay….I’m certainly ok with parting ways and putting all energy into bumping TJ’s pay some and making TJ the best player he can be while using the difference in funds to pay for much needed defensive line offensive line help.

If both QB’s will be commanding roughly the same pay package then commit to DR and let TJ walk away. However, having DR be noncommittal to a team basically every year since freshman year of HS is a mark worth considering. Pay the QB you see being committed to the program and the coaches see as giving the team the best chance to win the most amount of games next year given the schedule.
 
I mean, it's tough to be confident when you don't know what the report said. More confidence would be great, but without knowing what the report did or didn't say what's he supposed to do? I think in hindsight he'd answer more concisely and move on. But for all he knew when the question was asked the report could have been a reliable source confidently saying Raiola is moving on. And I don't know what answer you're supposed to give when that is a possibility. I'm sure he wanted to say "we're focused on Iowa," or "I'm not going to answer questions around players potentially leaving until after the season," but both would be taken as confirmation that Raiola is gone. And I don't think he can stand up there and say for sure that Raiola will be back. It's just a lot of engagement farming.


All of that is fine, if he's telling the truth.

"I'm not aware of that" is a common go-to tactic for people in political/public facing positions to avoid talking about something.
 
I mean, it's tough to be confident when you don't know what the report said. More confidence would be great, but without knowing what the report did or didn't say what's he supposed to do? I think in hindsight he'd answer more concisely and move on. But for all he knew when the question was asked the report could have been a reliable source confidently saying Raiola is moving on. And I don't know what answer you're supposed to give when that is a possibility. I'm sure he wanted to say "we're focused on Iowa," or "I'm not going to answer questions around players potentially leaving until after the season," but both would be taken as confirmation that Raiola is gone. And I don't think he can stand up there and say for sure that Raiola will be back. It's just a lot of engagement farming.
Hmm, okay.

However, DR has started 22 games until injured, has been the player's face of the program, and Pat Mahomes' lil bro.

My point is that M.Rhule has always answered or addressed the tough questions since he was hired, which I admire a lot.

Hopefully it's a nothing burger. Just wonder why he struggled to get the words out.

(Although he did kinda dance around the PSU head coaching questioning before the Minnesota game.)

 
IF, and a big IF, the reported story is true that Dylan will be commanding north of $4 mill to stay….I’m certainly ok with parting ways and putting all energy into bumping TJ’s pay some and making TJ the best player he can be while using the difference in funds to pay for much needed defensive line offensive line help.

If both QB’s will be commanding roughly the same pay package then commit to DR and let TJ walk away. However, having DR be noncommittal to a team basically every year since freshman year of HS is a mark worth considering. Pay the QB you see being committed to the program and the coaches see as giving the team the best chance to win the most amount of games next year given the schedule.
The rumor and the reaction/response from M.Rhule could just be a tactic to leverage even more NIL for DR. I mean, the uncertainty got the HC a nice extension. And they all have agents in their ear holes lol.
 
The reality is Dylan can't excel at Nebraska if there is excelling to be had. Nebraska can not excel with him either. Those reasons are why this has legs. It's like, the obvious best case scenario for all parties involved. Dylan would be selling himself short to not look to fulfill the hype he brings somewhere else. He believes he is elite and his numbers have him as slightly above average, if that, here in the Big10. I believe he will be gone and we will be 8-4/7-5 next year. I believe if he stays we will be 8-4/7-5 next year. So, wash it and use the progress he has helped us gain over the past 2 years to build, and let him take what we've given him over the past 2 years and hope he builds. Us fans can hope he looks mid somewhere else so we can convince ourselves that its not NU, its the Raiola's. The reality is, the program has a long way to go before it is anything near what we hope it can be and we just may never get there.
 
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Ultimately, Dylan is probably going to go down as a cautionary tale for other talented QBs. Taking your talents to a sub-par program with bad offensive coordinators is a risky gamble. It's hard to develop and prepare yourself for the NFL as a 5* player if:

1. The Offensive Coordinator is out of their depth in a sidewalk puddle, which Satterfield and seemingly Dana both are in the B1G. Play calling by the coordinators, exacerbated by a Head Coach who isn't great at the macro strategic part of football, has cost Nebraska several wins over their last few seasons.
2. The receiver talent is sub par, which was the case Dylan's freshman year. It has improved dramatically this season, which is why Dylan's numbers were a lot better than last year.
3. The OL treats pass blocking as optional, which was largely the case in conference play this season. Nebraska has improved since they've had to play their 3rd and 4th string tackles, which says a lot about how the coaches evaluated the "1st string" tackle.

I do think Dylan has gotten better at Nebraska from last year to this year, but I think that has a large part to do with having better receivers to throw to. I think he's regressed in B1G play, largely because his OL has failed him and got his leg broken. He was seeing ghosts and seemed spooked every time he dropped back to pass, because the clock in his head made him think that he was about to get ragdolled by an opposing DE.
 
The reality is Dylan can't excel at Nebraska if there is excelling to be had. Nebraska can not excel with him either. Those reasons are why this has legs. It's like, the obvious best case scenario for all parties involved. Dylan would be selling himself short to not look to fulfill the hype he brings somewhere else. He believes he is elite and his numbers have him as slightly above average, if that, here in the Big10. I believe he will be gone and we will be 8-4/7-5 next year. I believe if he stays we will be 8-4/7-5 next year. So, wash it and use the progress he has helped us gain over the past 2 years to build, and let him take what we've given him over the past 2 years and hope he builds. Us fans can hope he looks mid somewhere else so we can convince ourselves that its not NU, its the Raiola's. The reality is, the program has a long way to go before it is anything near what we hope it can be and we just may never get there.
8-4/7-5 next year?! We will be lucky to be bowl eligible with the schedule we have. Hoping I’m wrong, but this year was the year to really get over the hump.
 
I think it would be naive to think that daddy Dom isn’t floating the idea of DR leaving.

And don’t forget it’s that time of year-financial commitment time. This will happen every year at this time.
 
The reality is Dylan can't excel at Nebraska if there is excelling to be had. Nebraska can not excel with him either. Those reasons are why this has legs. It's like, the obvious best case scenario for all parties involved. Dylan would be selling himself short to not look to fulfill the hype he brings somewhere else. He believes he is elite and his numbers have him as slightly above average, if that, here in the Big10. I believe he will be gone and we will be 8-4/7-5 next year. I believe if he stays we will be 8-4/7-5 next year. So, wash it and use the progress he has helped us gain over the past 2 years to build, and let him take what we've given him over the past 2 years and hope he builds. Us fans can hope he looks mid somewhere else so we can convince ourselves that its not NU, its the Raiola's. The reality is, the program has a long way to go before it is anything near what we hope it can be and we just may never get there.
🤣
 
Two major things in my opinion that greatly skew fans' perspectives of how this season went (that I don't think anybody is talking about):
  1. With an actual defense, we beat Michigan, all other things being equal. Dylan threw for 308 yards and 3 touchdowns.
  2. The Minnesota game was almost entirely on Holgorsen (IMO); the game plan to not lean on Emmett was insane and was the root of our terrible offensive performance.
Winning those two games, everybody's perspective of Raiola would be totally different. We really should have 9 wins right now and not 7.

When I look at Dylan's performance in that Michigan game, I just don't know how anybody can have the take that "he can't excel here and we can't excel with him, either."
 
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