Andy & Ari On3 - Nebraska QB Dylan Raiola is entering the transfer portal | What's next for Raiola and the Huskers?

Episode Date: December 15, 2025

Nebraska quarterback Dylan Raiola has decided to enter the transfer portal, On3’s Pete Nakos reports. This is a huge move not just because Raiola was a productive QB at Nebraska but because of what his signing two years ago meant for the program. Where could he land? Also, what do the Cornhuskers do now? Our show is presented by BetMGM! If you haven’t signed up for BetMGM yet, use bonus code CFB and you will get up to a $1500 First Bet Offer on your first wager with BetMGM! Here’s how it works: 1. Download the BetMGM app and sign-up using bonus code CFB.2. Deposit at least $10 and place your first wager on any game.3. You will receive up to $1500 in bonus bets if your bet loses! Just make sureyou use bonus code CFB when you sign up! Make this college football season one for the history books. Make it legendary. See BetMGM.com for Terms. 21+ only. US promotional offers not available in New York, Nevada, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER (Available in the US). Call 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY). Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP (AZ), 1-800-327-5050 (MA), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-800-981-0023 (PR). First Bet Offer for new customers only. Subject to eligibility requirements. Rewards are non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire in 7 days. In partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel.  This show is also sponsored by Modelo! Some things in life are just made for each other. Peanut Butter and jelly. Macaroni andcheese. Modelo and college football. If you’re watching this, it means you live and breathe football. All season long. You know what that makes you? A Full-Time Fan. Which means you deserve a Modelo. Because football wouldn’t be the same without you. Modelo is the official beer sponsor of The College Football Playoff. Join On3 today and get one full year of access to The Athletic included! https://www.on3.com/subscribe/C Watch our show on YouTube! https://youtube.com/live/9PdAhjoawAc Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey Interested in partnering with the show? Email [e-mail] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to Annie and Ari on 3, presented by VETMGM. And you hear the horns. You know what that means. Emergency show, Dylan Raola, Nebraska quarterback, entering the transfer portal. R. Pete Nacos reports it on three. This is a big one. And it's not even the only one today, Ari, because you've got DJ Lagway doing it at Florida. You've got Brennan Sorsby doing it at Cincinnati.

But this one, even bigger than the Lagway one, because of what Dylan Raola's signing meant to Nebraska two years ago. Right. Like, I don't know where we would put Dylan Rayola in terms of, like, most expensive or most sought after assets. And somebody got mad at me earlier today by referring to them as assets, but that's exactly what they are. You know, Brendan Sorsby and DJ Lagway are also going to be high. highly coveted, but it's so crazy to me because I view Dylan Rayola as synonymous with Nebraska's build under Matt Rule. And I don't know what occurred or what changed, but we can't forget that this is a person that's not even 100% healthy right now. You know, he injured himself at the

end of the year in the middle of the end of the year. And I don't know how that's going to impact where he goes. I just don't understand, you know, what happened at the same time. this is also a person who was committed to three different places during his high school process and people would joke that this was going to happen eventually and then it did. So there's a lot to unpack here, Andy. There's definitely a lot to unpack. And I think, you know, this is a guy who he went to a lot of different high schools. So this actually shouldn't be totally shocking that this is happening.

But again, there was so much mythology attached to him going to Nebraska. You know, the son of a great Nebraska center. Now, there's also the fact that his uncle was the offensive line coach and he got fired. Yeah. And then his younger brother also decommissioned from the program a few weeks ago. Right. So that's also an important piece. And I see a lot of people putting together like, oh, Texas Tech's going to need a quarterback next year.

Is he going to follow in Mahomes' footsteps, you know, the joke with, you know, Mahomes and, you know, all those things that are just kind of laying out there. Mahomes, of course, tore his ACL. on Sunday, which is another important piece of news in the football world. But, man, my head's kind of spinning right now, Andy. I'm not going to lie to you. Yeah, it's crazy. So does this mean one that T.J. Lateef is your new starter in Nebraska, or does this mean that Nebraska is going to go in the portal and find somebody else to be QB1

next year? I think that they have to go in the portal, Andy. And I don't know if that's necessarily that. that Lateef can't win the job if he has a good offseason and, you know, competes. But I think that Nebraska's only response to this has to be a heavy investment and a proven entity at the quarterback position because, like, if you remove Dylan Rayola from from the equation, let's not forget that Matt Rule just signed an extension because of a flirtation or, you know, a potential that he could be a coveted coach in this

crazy carousel. And, you know, this was supposed to be an important year for them and it kind of, you know, teetered out at the end. Like, This is a very important offseason for Nebraska and Matt Rule. You don't want to go back to an 8 and 4-75 type scenario with the extension hanging over their heads. And this is supposed to be a gradual build, a year-over-year improvement. And like next year was supposed to be a year where Nebraska was a legitimate Big Ten contender and potential CFP contender with Rayola in his third year as a starter. So, you know, the thing that is interesting about this is that they lost Rayola,

but on the other hand with another week of these reports coming every two hours a big name at the quarterback position there's going to be other options to replace him too and then the question becomes can they go out and get somebody who's even better than him because I think that he is improved and I'm very curious now that he's no longer on Nebraska's roster what my criticisms of him will be taken as by the Nebraska fans that wanted to kill me in the off season oh they love you now this is this is Tennessee Nico all over again I just don't know like now that it's no longer protect our guy if you look in the mirror and say, hey, this is somebody who cannot be replaced because I don't know that's what I saw. So let me ask you a question. Just using the guys today. Just using the guys today.

You are an offensive coordinator. You're looking for a quarterback. Just the guys today. Dylan Riola, DJ Lagway, or Brendan Sorsby. Who would you like? Who you got? Don't double down in a lagway take.

Don't double down in a lagway take. Don't double down. I would take DJ Lagway. Okay. And I would put my money on the roulette wheel of, hey, we can fix them. You know, I showed Andy, there was this mugshot of this beautiful, beautiful woman who got arrested for, you know, robbing somebody or something. and it was just her mugshot and all the comments from the dudes in the chat were like,

oh, she didn't do anything wrong. I can fix her. I can save her from that life. That's me with DJ Lagway. So I don't know. I would take Brendan Sorsby, I think. Brendan Sorsby is by far the most proven in terms of like you know what you're going to get. And I guess it also depends too on like if you're Nebraska,

you're probably not in the market for a boom or bust. You just had a boom or bust guy on your roster. Like the person who's leaving was boom or bust. You might want somebody who is. just really good and consistent. And I think that, like, if you ask me who I would take, I would take DJ and hope that the light turns on. But I think if you're Nebraska, you would probably want to take Sorsby, right?

I would think so. And I wonder if you would have asked that question yesterday to Nebraska fans, if they would get mad at you. They would have absolutely gotten mad yesterday. And today they're like, today they're the Alonza morning gift. Yeah. It's like, oh. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

But Sorsby is is a good player, too. So, and here's the thing. There's going to be 500 other names probably that pop up that are going to. Now, the question really is Nebraska is an attractive portal destination as much as they are, you know, in pain right now that they're losing. Like what kind of quarterback can they attract from a, you know, I'm assuming. I think Nebraska can, Nebraska can pay that scrella. Now, here's the thing. Watching Nebraska this year, and this may have had something to do with Dylan Raola's decision, well, in two different ways.

Nebraska did not protect Dylan Ryola well at all. Now, again, I mentioned earlier, his uncle was, his uncle was just fired as the O-Line coach. Yeah. We don't, this isn't a pile on Rayola thing. I thought he got much better this year from last year. I agree. So if he got better, then do you anticipate that he takes another big step and becomes a star as a junior?

Well, what I'm saying is if you put him behind a better offensive line. Yeah, yeah. You put him on a team that has a better offensive line and then maybe a, you know, Dane Key's pretty good, but like a really good receiving core and running game. I mean, he had a good receiver and good running back this year. Let's not forget. Like, their offensive pieces weren't terrible. So it's not like he was like, excellent.

Yeah. But, yeah, I don't know. I don't know. And anyway, it calls in a question, too, a little bit of, like, is this the beginning of the end of building a program through high school recruiting at the quarterback position? Like, everything's always an overreaction with me, but it's just like, this is supposed to be the person that, like, brought Nebraska back to the

promised land with his bare hands. And I was like, now they're just going to go find somebody else and he's going to go play some more that he may or may not have any connection to. It's just crazy. And yes, Andy did just say, scrella, everyone. He does that from time of time. I did say, yeah, yeah. And they can pay that Scrilla.

So, also, like, they're probably paying him a pretty penny, which means that they're probably in a position to, you know, pay top dollar for whoever, you know, is out there to. Right. You should be financially. You're not going to have to pay him. And, you know, it's the same thing with Florida and Lagway. Like, if Florida wants to go get somebody that they're going to have, they're going to have the resources.

Ken in the chat, should Tavian St. Clair transfer? So Tavian St. Clair is the freshman back. up at Ohio State, who's behind Julian Sayan, and Julian Sain has to play at least one more year in college. And this is tough, Ari, because I have a hard time speculating about people who haven't in their transfer portal yet, but it feels like we kind of have to at this point. Should a five-star player from the state of Ohio who is on Ohio State's roster and definitely has to sit one more year transfer, like I would probably do that if I were him you would transfer or sit i would probably transfer i mean if you're good enough to start

like i mean i because the thing that that's interesting is that you could say julian sayan has one more year but like there's never a guarantee that the human being is going to leave after next year right julian sam may play two more years yeah exactly so like for me it's hard because he's from ohio and i'm sure that he grew up loving ohio state but like if you think about somebody who is of his stature he's really tall he's got a big arm. It's a five-star kid. He would have a tremendous market. And like, if you threw him into the, you know, question that you asked me about those

three, I think he would hold his own as somebody that you would be like, hey, yeah, I'd pay some money for that guy. So, you know, I think that the question more than anything is it's not just a game player, are you limiting your earning potential because you're kind of in the relative shadows and haven't proven yourself yet? Like, I don't know. I mean, it's a difficult, but again, if he's happy at Ohio State and is willing to wait and is fine being the starter in two years like it'll probably work out great for him there what do we say about Dante Moore

making the decision when he left UCLA to choose to go to Oregon where he knew he'd have to sit it worked out well for him the only thing that that sucks about the St. Clair situation and I don't know how we got off under this tangent but I think it's a good one is if you stay

and then Julian Sane comes back for a third year to start then you've already wasted a year year of earning potential and quality game reps for a decision that you would most certainly have to make next year. So like that that's, you know, all the things that you have to take into account. But, you know, I'm very curious too about like what Dylan Rayola's command is going in the market in terms of how much people want him, Andy. Yeah. Where do you think he winds up? Because this is one, you know, sometimes people enter the transfer portal and we have a real

good idea where they're going. I don't with this one. I don't. I don't. I don't know that anybody does with Dylan Rayola. I don't know that anybody knows where he's going yet. He's also coming off. I'm trying to figure out where. Serious injury, Andy. So, and I know Carson Beck. He had a broken leg, which I think he should be able to recover from before next season.

Yeah, I don't, I don't know. He should be ready to play, but like, also when you're paying top dollar, do you want to pay top dollar for somebody who hasn't been sensational and is coming off of a broken leg? And the same thing kind of happened with Carson Beck, and he still got paid, right? Right? Maybe you wait it out and find the right situation, but he was also a late entry. So, like, being a late entry to a team that needs somebody can also be advantageous. So I don't know, I don't know.

Arizona State is going to need a quarterback because Sam Levitt's leaving. We don't know if Kenny Dillingham's leaving. Yeah. But, like, that's where Riala was when he started his high school career. Now, he eventually went to Georgia and finished into Georgia. but he started it in the Phoenix area. So that might be a potential destination. I'm trying to think of other places.

We mentioned Baylor as a potential landing spot for Lagway because there's a school that recruited him out of high school. So would one of the Texas schools where Raola trains, I believe, in Dallas, so would one of those Texas schools runs one of those offenses? Yeah. Miami's going to need a quarterback. Tennessee needs a quarterback, though.

The whole chat says sores me to Tennessee. So, but we could, like, Texas Tech's going to need a quarterback, too. And I don't think we're putting Riola at Texas Tech. I think I think Texas Tech's probably going to be a little more targeted. Yeah. And I know there's some speculation about what's going to happen with Michigan's quarterback. So, you know, that would be another. Michigan, I guess we have to hire a coach first, probably before we figure out where everybody goes.

Yeah. So, um. I always get more sad, more, I don't know if sad's the right word, but like, these move me more when the person is so connected to the place he's leaving from a fabric standpoint. Like, it's like one thing to just leave a place, but like I felt like they were intertwined in their journeys. And it kind of feels like that, that story wasn't able to get completed.

And that sucks. So, I don't know where, how Nebraska fans feel. I don't know, are they, I went and I looked at their message board. Husker online, and, you know, it's kind of 50-50 on like, why would he leave and good riddins? But, you know, it's wild, wild sport. I suspect that they will not be nearly as defensive of Dylan Raola as they have been. I think they're, this is, this felt like a case of, oh, he's on our team, so we're going to, we're going to protect him and, and yell at you if you say anything. He was our guy.

Like, he saw something in Nebraska. through the time it wasn't cool to commit there. And I still think that that means something. Yeah. I saw somebody in the chat asks, what about Baron Morton for Texas Tech? Baron Morton is going to be in the NFL next year. Yeah.

He's out of eligibility. So this is going to be a lot of, a lot of movement. So I was talking to somebody at the office. They pointed out the date. It is December 15th, last checks probably arrived today this is why we're seeing a lot of movement today

yeah and we may see more yeah so who knows it's a financial world everybody catch up like I know you might present it but this is what it is that's right our daily show has a big DJ Lagway segment

so 3 p.m. Eastern Time if you just watch this one live three-fume Eastern time, big DJ Lagway segment. Plus, we're picking all the college football playoff games. That was the whole show originally. And then the quarterback market just started pop, pop, popping. So get used to this.

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