Matt Rhule and his Nebraska staff did it, pulling off a big-time flip of 5-star quarterback Dylan Raiola ahead of Early Signing Day. Raiola’s extensive ties to the Huskers are well-documented, but his decision to flip even surprised Rhule.

In a conversation with 247 Sports’ Josh Pate, Rhule said the program was excited to get a call that Raiola wanted to check out the program:

“It was really not something I expected,” Rhule admitted. “I got a call last weekend that coach, hey I think I want to be a Husker. We were really excited to have Daniel Kaelin committed, an elite 11 QB and someone we believe in a great deal. When Dylan called, we were excited about that as well.”

As for the process of recruiting Raiola, Rhule believes the QB probably wanted to be in Nebraska to begin with. After seeing the progress of the program in 2023, Raiola was sold on making the move.

“The recruiting process for him I think is a little different. I think his heart probably always was here at Nebraska,” explained Rhule. “A lot of things have happened at Nebraska in recent years. Just kind of went through the course of this year, saw the progress that we made, saw the way that we did things and in the end, wanted to visit and then wanted to be one of us.”