Matt Rhule is starting a freshman quarterback for Nebraska, but the head coach is not facing the usual concerns related to a true freshman under center. In fact, Rhule said at his Monday press conference that he’s calling on the rest of the offense to match Dylan Raiola’s level moving forward.

Through 2 games, Raiola looks impressively efficient while completing 73.7% of his passes. That includes the electric win over Colorado when Raiola was 23-for-30 throwing the ball for 185 yards and a touchdown.

According to Rhule, those numbers could have been even higher if certain players were handling their duties to the level that Raiola is playing at. Rhule mentioned multiple times that Raiola tried to throw the ball to certain players only to find those players out of position.

“I told the offense a lot of them have to pick their intensity up to (Raiola’s) level, not the other way around. He’s tried to throw the ball to guys that are supposed to be in certain places and they’re not there,” said Rhule. “He’s at a whole other level, and those other guys better pick it up. That’s said respectfully and with love.”

Rhule’s only criticism of his young QB is that Raiola is sometimes too aggressive, but he can live with that. As for throwing the ball less in the second half, Rhule pinned that on some of Nebraska’s players not playing to the level they wanted and not anything Colorado was doing.

“I only say that because sometimes you guys will ask me ‘Did you not throw it as much in the 2nd half because of them?’ No, it’s because of everyone else. Other guys weren’t playing at the level we wanted,” described Rhule. “We had guys running wide open, we could have scored a lot more points. We threw a lot of shots in that game, but a lot of them didn’t get thrown because he had to run. We had no sacks because he avoided guys.”

The head coach also challenged the older players on the team to know the intimate details of the game plan. If a true freshman can do that, there’s no excuse for veterans to have lapses in regard to the game plan.

“I need everyone else to understand if a freshman knows all 120 plays in the game plan, then as a junior, I better know all 120 plays and be able to operate them,” Rhule challenged.

The good news is Nebraska is averaging 34 points per game to open the year, even with the need for certain players to hit the same level as Raiola. Now, the Huskers will get a game against Northern Iowa in Week 3 before ramping up into Big Ten play.