'Anonymous Big Ten Coach' slams Nebraska for losing Raioa

[John Papenhagen]

Last fall before Raiola was injured I was having a conversation with a friend of mine.

The subject was Raiola and if or not he will be back and finish his eligibility with the Huskers.  I told him it is hard to know with the way college sports is today.  I mentioned Raiola himself may not even be sure.  

He got half mad and told me Raiola is absolutely here all the way through.  He based that on Raiola's relationship with Rhule and that his father played here.  My friend said, "Raiola just won't leave".

Obviously he did leave.

John Papenhagen

**[nolan](https://huskerlist.tssi.com/u/nolan)**List Manager

[1h](https://huskerlist.tssi.com/t/anonymous-big-ten-coach-slams-nebraska-for-losing-raioa/124160/3?u=1493.papenhagen17 "Post date")

I agree, Raiola probably has a better chance at success at Oregon, in part because Nebraska just didn't (and still doesn't) have a great OL, but more importantly because Oregon runs the type of offense he is built for, Nebraska really doesn't and really didn't even when he was behind center here.

And though it wasn't a very widespread opinion, I thought Raiola was an imperfect fit when he signed with Nebraska. I think Rhule was lured by the dark side of the force and those five stars.

In some ways, the two years he was here were a departure from the program rebuilding Rhule was brought in to manage. Here's hoping he gets back on track in 2026. But ESPN just posted a list of the top 15 recruiting classes for 2027 and Nebraska wasn't one of them.

I also suspect the comments aren't as anonymous as claimed, and they're part of the constant jostling between teams for recruiting purposes.

Mike Nolan





---
[Visit Topic](https://huskerlist.tssi.com/t/anonymous-big-ten-coach-slams-nebraska-for-losing-raioa/124160/4) or reply to this email to respond.

Reminder:  When replying to this post via email, do not use 'reply all', it will copy the old listserver which is no longer accepting posts.

You are receiving this because you enabled mailing list mode or are receiving them from the legacy email listserver at romaine.tssi.com.

To stop receiving email from the legacy Husker List server send email to husker-unsubscribe at tssi.com.

If you are having difficulties unsubscribing, please contact nolan at tssi.com

Thanks for being a member.

This list is in transition to a new server, so if you have problems, contact nolan at tssi.com

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://romaine.tssi.com/pipermail/husker/attachments/20260522/c1fa6b4d/attachment.htm>