Dylan Raiola Enters the Transfer Portal

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Yeah, it's been quite a day. Here. We were taping
our own show here at Husker Online, and right in
the middle of our show, this news broke with Dylan
Riola announcing that he's going to enter the transfer portal.
And I think things this morning, from what we're hearing,
ended pretty abruptly. I mean, the locker was cleared out

(00:21):
this morning from everything we've heard, as this thing kind
of moved. And I don't know what actually led to that,
because you know, the last week or two it's been
kind of a cat and mouse game of you know,
it's not you, it's me, where everyone's happy, you're going
to move forward. But you got the sense that wasn't
always the case. There was definitely more going on behind

(00:43):
the scenes, and the elephant and the rum remained a
large financial commitment. Nebraska had Dylan Royola, which is rumored
to be not rumored, but reported to be three point
five million, and you just didn't know how he'd come
back from this and if this was the direction they
wanted to go into year three with him year four
from Matt rule year three for Royola or could could

(01:03):
he could he go in his own direction? Well, it
came to a close here today on Monday, and just
a very abrupt ending, nearly about a year from when
or two years from when Royola first picked Nebraska, and
that was a very abrupt way when he decommitted from
Georgia to land at Nebraska two years ago.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
So, since I'm not a sports guy, you know, my
understanding is that the athletes, of course, can do endorsements,
make tons and tons of money, especially somebody like a
Dylan Rala. So you're saying that the university itself is
paying him roughly reportedly three point five million, Well.

Speaker 1 (01:39):
Not just the university. I mean he's got Adidas, he's.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
Got Panini tra that's from yeah, okay.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
He's got obviously money from the revenue share from the
NIL and the NIL rules have changed a little bit now,
but he was in an earlier era of NIL where
it was essentially pay for play, and the boosters and
the collectives could put together these deals, and he had
one of the best deals in the country. I mean,
he lived like a king. Yet he had a one

(02:04):
hundred thousand dollars car he drove and.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
What was that What was that car? What was that
car he was driving.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
He had? I believe it was a really nice yukon
Ultimate Denali and but yeah, I mean he he was
the man. I mean he had he had everything at
his disposal, and you know, the injury happened against USC
and I just felt like things never were the same
from that point on. It started with his brother, His

(02:33):
brother Dayton was coming here as a recruit, and the
Friday of the bye week before or after the u
c l A game, so to that, TJ. Let Teeth
played really well at u c l A. And then
they had the bye week and the coaching staff went
out and Matt Rule went out to watch his brother play.
But are from our understanding, there was no dialogue or
interaction between the Rule and the royal was at all

(02:56):
at that game. And they were there and then they
left on the third quarter. Well then by Wednesday, this
is a Friday by Wednesday day and decommitted and went
his own way. And then the Iowa game and the
Penn State games were disasters for Nebraska. And then Donovan
Roola was fired. The brother, the uncle, the brother of Dominic,
the uncle of Dylan. And then here we are now

(03:18):
today with the latest development of Dylan, and it just
quite a turn. But there were three, Roola's going to
Nebraska or tied to Nebraska pre U C l A,
and now there are none.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
Yes, so that's a that's a big deal, and let's
talk about that a little bit. Do you think the
uncle being fired is the impetus for Dylan leaving Nebraska?

Speaker 1 (03:43):
No. I think the relationship between Donovan Raola, you know
in the father dominic, the two brothers, was a little
choppy as the year went on. I mean there were
just things that, you know, the way the old line played,
the sacks, some of the things, the thing go very well,
and so I don't know if that had as much

(04:04):
to do about it as anything. I think really just
had much. This whole thing has to do more about
probably the direction Matt Rule wants to go. I don't
think he wants going forward to have quarterbacks that can't run,
and especially when you have offensive line issues like Nebraska's had.
The lack of mobility at quarterback really showed when you
give up nine sacks to Minnesota, seven to Michigan, five

(04:26):
to Michigan State. Now at the end of the year
they were pretty good, but three of those games were
TJ the TF I think the O line only allowed
four sacks over the final five games of the year
or something like that. They were charged that many that
was in but they had that stretch in the middle
of the year where you know, they gave up twenty
one sacks as a team in three games.

Speaker 2 (04:46):
Do you think Dylan Royala made the right choice to leave.

Speaker 1 (04:51):
Again? If Nebraska is actively shopping for other portal quarterbacks
and you get wint to that, and my guess is
they are a little little bit kicking the tires, and
you know, the job is not necessarily going to be
guaranteed years when you come back from health. You know,
he's got to do what he's got to do at
that point. He wants to try to play in the
next level and things haven't gone well here, especially with

(05:14):
the injury and some of the things off the field
out of his control with his uncle and his brother.
So if Nebraska was going to bring another quarterback to compete,
which I think they were going to, I'm sure that
led to his thought process to you know what, maybe
it's best at just move on.

Speaker 2 (05:29):
At this point, how is Raila leaving going to impact
the team? And who do you think is the person
that they're eyeing? Who do you think it'll end up
being for his replacement.

Speaker 1 (05:38):
Oh, how does it impact the team? I mean it's
hard to say. I mean I think obviously guys like Dylan,
but then there was kind of this celebrity element of
him that when things aren't going very well, I don't
know how well received that is. So you kind of
hear mix things out there, because I mean, you can
play the celebrity element when things are going well, but

(06:00):
when things are not going well, it doesn't really have
the same weight. Now, moving forward, where do they go next?
I mean, there's a lot of big names already available.
I don't know which one makes the most sense at
this point, and there's gonna be more that go into portal.
The portal doesn't actually open January second. There's this kind
of some pre entries that have said they're going in,

(06:21):
so there's still a good you know, two plus weeks
before we really know all the names in there, and
then you essentially then have two weeks from January second
to bring in these visitors and get these guys on
campus and get Nebraska. Now, with the money of Dylan
Rayola available, they could be pretty aggressive and go after
somebody as far as some of the big names.

Speaker 2 (06:42):
Available, Okay, and then so I mean it seems like
a question I know the answer to, but it sounds
like when I want to ask this, what kind of
formance has Dylan had overall? In your opinion?

Speaker 1 (06:57):
What kind of performance? Well? Yeah, like it's a good moment. Yeah,
that he's delivered some moments, but maybe just the consistency
wasn't always there. I mean, there were moments where he
could have maybe brought this program forward and it just
didn't happen. I mean the Michigan game this year was
a great example. He was sacked nine times, it just

(07:18):
didn't go. I mean, he made some big throws in
that game. You go to back to the Minnesota game
when you know, again, was that him or the game
planner or the rest of the guys around him. But
that was a huge moment in this year. Then obviously
the usc game where he took the sack that broke
his leg. That there were just some moments that changed
things for him. But he delivered some great moments too,

(07:40):
to come from behind win at Maryland, to come from behind,
or the game winning drive to beat Northwestern, the way
he won in Cincinnati. I mean, there were some good
moments as well this year. But it just for whatever reason,
it never felt like it was going to take Nebraska
to where they needed to be long term. I five best.

(08:00):
We're all involved right now, if you're being honest.

Speaker 2 (08:03):
So he seemed to confirm Wow TV says today he
seemed to confirm Rala did that the ESPN report by
sharing the post on his Instagram story with the caption
God's Story. But then that Instagram story posts from.

Speaker 1 (08:16):
Rail, But there's current line with his father and there's
been no you know, no statement or any kind of
dialogue at all from the family right now. And like
you said, that initial Instagram or instat story was taken down.
And I think there's a lot to process right now.
There's a lot of money too. I mean, this is
this is just a small thing here. There's a lot

(08:39):
to sift through here on their end. As far as
what's next.

Speaker 2 (08:44):
With Raela, what do you think, I mean, do you
think he will end up on a better team quote
unquote do you think where do you think he'll end
up for his move? If you had to speculate and guests,
and how do you think this is going to affect
Rail's chances at the NFL ye.

Speaker 1 (09:00):
Billion dollar question, because the teams that he'd probably like
to go to, I don't know if they're interested. I
don't think Miami is interested. I don't think George is interested.
I don't think Texas Tech right now is interested. They
all kind of have their sights on some other names. Oregon,
you know, you just go down the line. I don't
know of those types of teams. I'll throw a random

(09:21):
one out that makes some sense to me a little
bit is North Carolina. I don't know if Bill Belichick
if he would kind of fit that system there.

Speaker 2 (09:28):
And who wants to work over there with his girlfriend
being in charge?

Speaker 1 (09:33):
Right, Yeah, that's what again, it's your Your guess is
as good as mine. He obviously will want to go.
I know Kentucky had shown interest in but I don't
know if that's where you want to go. I think
he wants to go somewhere with a chance to win.
And the problem is, there just aren't a lot of
quarterbacks in college football anymore that aren't that you know,
that can't run like so. I do think that hurts

(09:55):
him a little bit because teams do want mobility in
their quarterback to be able to pick up yardage and
that was obviously a weak point of his that might
hurt him now as he looks around, because it takes
a really good team around you to not be a
mobile quarterback and succeed in college football.

Speaker 2 (10:13):
Our Huskers insider, thank you very much Sean Callahan for
joining us with all this great information. And I guess
we'll have to wait and see where Dylan goes and
we're gonna have to wait and see what happens with Nebraska.
I mean, I don't know if you have any further
comments on where where we're going. Well, we're going to
see here with the football program before we say goodbye.

Speaker 1 (10:34):
All right, Hey, thank you