Tad Stryker: Stress-Free Start for Husker Nation

Dylan Raiola shines as Nebraska football wins its first season opener in five years

Nebraska wide receiver Isaiah Neyor gathers in a Dylan Raiola pass for a 59-yard touchdown catch during the second quarter vs. UTEP on Aug. 31, 2024. / Kenny Larabee, KLIN

A good friend of mine — let’s call him Formerly Enthusiastic Husker Fan — was a very young man when Nebraska football was at its peak, but has become quite guarded in his attitude after he experienced The Slide, NU’s depressing downturn of the past two decades. It had reached the point where he refused to get too excited about much of anything related to Cornhusker football, including the signing of five-star recruit Dylan Raiola. He responded with skepticism when the Huskers were declared 28-point favorites over UTEP and was bracing himself for a disappointing home opener.

Maybe you know someone, or maybe a half dozen, like him. It’s hard to find fault, but you could almost hear them collectively exhale a few minutes after 4 p.m., when Jahmal Banks made a spectacular leaping catch in the south end zone to give Nebraska a 30-7 lead at halftime.

Going into Saturday, Nebraska had lost four consecutive openers, although none were at home. You have to go back to 2019, when Scott Frost and the Huskers launched their season with a blah 35-21 win over a South Alabama team that eventually finished 2-10, to find the last time NU was 1-0.

Will a 40-7 season-opening thrashing of the UTEP Miners, a team that likely will prove to be at least a step above the 2019 South Alabama Jaguars, do the trick? Will Raiola’s 19-for-27 passing performance with two touchdowns and no interceptions in a little over half a game, cure someone like Formerly Enthusiastic Husker Fan? Probably not, and we shouldn’t expect it so quickly. There’s a lot of proving to do for Matt Rhule and the Big Red, but what used to be known as a typical Husker home opener just might create a foundation of optimism that simply hasn’t been available to a lot of recovering fans like my friend.

Dylan Raiola handled his first postgame TV interview after leading the Huskers to a win over UTEP. / Tad Stryker

It apparently was therapeutic for the graybeards on the Husker roster, at least.

“Some of the older guys were really happy,” Rhule said after the game. “They said they had never really experienced a game that was over at halftime.”

Imagine that. A stress-free second half on a sunsplashed football afternoon in Lincoln.

Not to mention the benefits of getting your second-string offensive line on the field in the third quarter and piling up the reps in the fourth. That’s the sort of thing which pays dividends in 2025 and beyond.

Speaking of reps, Nebraska ran 83 offensive plays, after averaging only 60 per game last season. That’s a lot of film to dissect and learn from. Piling up 30 first downs and 507 total yards and going plus-one in turnovers will do wonders for a team with a young quarterback.

It would’ve been hard to expect a better debut for Raiola, who except for one lucky bounce on a deflected pass early in the second quarter was never close to throwing an interception. And that play certainly didn’t rattle the true freshman, who turned around and promptly tossed his first career touchdown pass on the next snap — a beautiful 59-yard bomb to Isaiah Neyor, who displayed tremendous balance as he stayed upright after contact and trotted triumphantly into the south end zone.

Neyor, who seems to have regained the form he had several years ago at Wyoming after an injury-plagued term in Austin, Texas, served notice that he will be a reliable third-down option for the young quarterback. Of Neyor’s team-high six catches, four went for a first down, including a pair of third down conversions, which helped NU to a an overall 11-for-17 performance on third down.

Aug 31, 2024; Lincoln, Nebraska, USA; Nebraska Cornhuskers running back Dante Dowdell (23) runs against UTEP Miners linebacker Dorian Hopkins (41) and safety Xavier Smith (2) during the first quarter at Memorial Stadium. / Dylan Widger-USA TODAY Sports

Raiola appeared to move smoothly through his progressions. On his first drive, he looked at two receivers before throwing to his third option, Janiran Bonner, for a seven-yard reception, setting up a 5-yard touchdown run by Dante Dowdell. He may have been fighting Texas-sized butterflies for all I know, but the youngster looked self-assured from the moment he led the team onto the field during his first regular-season Tunnel Walk.

It wasn’t a walk in the park, but it was the first time Nebraska has scored 40 points since the 56-7 thrashing of Northwestern in 2021. That has to count for something.

Raiola played only briefly in the second half. leading an 11-play, 73-yard scoring drive before Heinrich Haarberg and Jalyn Gramstad took over at quarterback.

He is Nebraska’s national story, for better or worse, taking attention away from the Blackshirts, who allowed just 205 total yards and recorded their eighth straight performance allowing 24 or fewer points and less than 400 yards. Those figures will be tested next by Shedeur Sanders, Travis Hunter and the Colorado Buffaloes, a game that Formerly Enthusiastic Husker Fan doubtless will use as a benchmark to judge the progress of Rhule’s rebuild. CU will need to score a lot of points to win if Raiola displays the same type of calm competence that he did in the opener, especially if the Husker offensive line can spring another 200-yard running game.

Nebraska quarterback Dylan Raiola hands off to running back Rahmir Johnson during the second quarter. / Kenny Larabee, KLIN

Rhule and assistant coach E.J. Barthel used all four of their leading running backs, although nobody got even a dozen carries. They started with Rahmir Johnson, and followed up Dowdell. The Oregon transfer looked superb, gaining 55 yards on eight carries with a combination of power and speed, and all was well until he fumbled while straining for extra yardage inside the UTEP 10-yard line with 10:48 left in the second quarter.

“It was a shame that Dante had that fumble, but he was really running well,” Rhule said. “Dante has done such a good job. At the end of the spring, I probably would have put him fourth. He was the second back in the game today. I thought he was really playing well, running the ball well, and then had that fumble.”

Despite the praise from Rhule after the fact, Dowdell never saw the field again after he fumbled. Maybe a silent message from the coach?

Emmett Johnson and Gabe Irvin both had their good moments, especially when the former blazed 47 yards on a draw play to set up a 3-yard touchdown run by Ervin to put Nebraska ahead 23-7 with nine minutes left in the second quarter.

“They all made plays,” Rhule said.

The Husker running game will be the key to the Colorado contest. Nebraska’s offensive line has more than 130 combined career starts, and it’s high time for it to shine in a contest that already is drawing a lot of national attention. Sanders will likely use a fast tempo to attack the Blackshirts after watching film of UTEP’s first-quarter scoring drive. Nebraska needs to counter with a gut-punch running game to steal the Buffs’ momentum.

If 1-0 seems foreign to some recovering fans, imagine what a 2-0 start could do for Husker Nation.

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