Dylan Raiola

Toe said:
Agreed that we won't see 'great run blocking', but I think if we can stay healthy, we'll see 'pretty good run blocking'. Like 'solidly Big Ten average, and maybe a bit above that'. Ohio State and Iowa are likely the only teams that will really give the OL a major challenge.

But that could certainly change in a hurry with an injury or two, especially at OT.

As far as RBs who can make something out of nothing, Ervin might be last on that list from what I gather. Which might be why there was talk about him maybe getting the week 1 start, but not later on...
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Having an actual passing game should also help alleviate some of the pressure on the running game

 
If Adrian would have had Tony White's 2024 defense in 2018...

This is why I keep comparing predictions to this season for Raiola to that 2018 season. With good defense and at least not-terrible special teams we easily win 7 games in the regular season.

Not that 7 would be "great," but a hell of a lot better than being a perennial losing team.

 
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Undone said:
If Adrian would have had Tony White's 2024 defense in 2018...

This is why I keep comparing predictions to this season for Raiola to that 2018 season. With good defense and at least not-terrible special teams we easily win 7 games in the regular season.

Not that 7 would be "great," but a hell of a lot better than being a perennial losing team.
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Always having one terrible side of the ball, sometimes two, and never being able to our it all together is the common theme of the last 25 years.  I'm sure a lot of players could have performed a lot better with better team support.  Very interesting to consider.

 
I know we don't know yet how well Raiola will play in college, but I find it weird that people keep saying things like "he may have the best arm of any QB we've had in 20 years." or "best arm talent in 20 years."

The only QB I can think of is Ganz, so maybe he's the sole reason for it. He completed 65% of his passes. But the thing is Ganz is within the 20 years range, so with the comment you're already saying Raiola could be better than Ganz. Who are these other QBs past the 20 years mark that make you not give the statement a longer time period?

Other than Ganz, when was the last time we had a really good "throwing" QB? Berringer completed 59% of his passes. Tagge completed 59% of his passes. Why aren't we saying "ever" or "40 years."  Why not just make the leap instead of this weird 20 years thing. What good throwing QBs have we had? My pre-1990s knowledge isn't good and is almost non-existent pre-1980s, but we should just admit we have had great QBs who aren't great throwers.

Since Raiola isn't a runner, other than hopefully escaping a blitz when he needs to, he has to be better than all of those QBs at throwing if we're going to be successful. 59% isn't going to be good enough, so I really hope it's "best arm ever," and that shouldn't be hard when you look at our completion percentages.

 
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Moiraine said:
I know we don't know yet how well Raiola will play in college, but I find it weird that people keep saying things like "he may have the best arm of any QB we've had in 20 years." or "best arm talent in 20 years."

The only QB I can think of is Ganz, so maybe he's the sole reason for it. He completed 65% of his passes.

Other than Ganz, when was the last time we had a really good "throwing" QB? Berringer completed 59% of his passes. Tagge completed 59% of his passes. Why aren't we saying "ever" or "40 years."  Why not just make the leap instead of this weird 20 years thing. What good throwing QBs have we had? My pre-1990s knowledge isn't good and is almost non-existent pre-1980s, but we should just admit we have had great QBs who aren't great throwers.

Since Raiola isn't a runner, other than hopefully being a good scrambler, he has to be better than all of those QBs at throwing if we're going to be successful. 59% isn't going to be good enough, so I really hope it's "best arm ever," and that shouldn't be hard when you look at our completion percentages.
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I think most people are talking more about arm strength and the feel for different throws than accuracy - although ideally it's both. Ganz was great, but he did not have a great arm. Same story for Zac Taylor. Can't say that I've noticed the "20 years" thing, but probably just an arbitrary addendum to make it seem more believable. But in this case, I don't think there's really a doubt that Raiola has the best arm from a talent perspective we've ever had.

As far as who Raiola is beating out for that distinction - Tanner Lee is understandably someone we all try to forget, but he had an arm. His actual performance was mediocre to bad, but he still got drafted in the 6th round solely because he had a good arm. Armstrong's arm was, well, strong - but not a lot of feel for throws. I'd group 2AM along with him. There aren't a lot of good throwers further back for a lot of reasons - we had a run-heavy offense starting in the 80s, and when we threw the ball more than average in the 70s it was just a different game. QB development and training just wasn't a thing at the college level. 

 
Husker in WI said:
I think most people are talking more about arm strength and the feel for different throws than accuracy - although ideally it's both. Ganz was great, but he did not have a great arm. Same story for Zac Taylor. Can't say that I've noticed the "20 years" thing, but probably just an arbitrary addendum to make it seem more believable. But in this case, I don't think there's really a doubt that Raiola has the best arm from a talent perspective we've ever had.

As far as who Raiola is beating out for that distinction - Tanner Lee is understandably someone we all try to forget, but he had an arm. His actual performance was mediocre to bad, but he still got drafted in the 6th round solely because he had a good arm. Armstrong's arm was, well, strong - but not a lot of feel for throws. I'd group 2AM along with him. There aren't a lot of good throwers further back for a lot of reasons - we had a run-heavy offense starting in the 80s, and when we threw the ball more than average in the 70s it was just a different game. QB development and training just wasn't a thing at the college level. 
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I think maybe they are just afraid to say "ever" and sound hyperbolic or get told to slow their roll, even though Nebraska has had running QBs and "ever" doesn't mean the same here as it does most other places when talking about arm talent. Tanner Lee is the same problem with logic as Ganz; since he was within the past 20 years, there is no difference in saying 20 years vs. ever. Those ranges both include him.

 
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Moiraine said:
I think maybe they are just afraid to say "ever" and sound hyperbolic or get told to slow their roll, even though Nebraska has had running QBs and "ever" doesn't mean the same here as it does most other places when talking about arm talent. Tanner Lee is the same problem with logic as Ganz; since he was within the past 20 years, there is no difference in saying 20 years vs. ever. Those ranges both include him.
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True, and "best arm since Tanner Lee!" does not give me the warm fuzzies. I'd say "best arm ever at Nebraska" is definitely accurate for Raiola, and the only other guy who had a true above-NFL-average arm was 7 years ago with Lee.

I guess you can't argue that Vince Ferragamo (and maybe Dave Humm) didn't have NFL caliber arms, but it was a different time and QB play has changed dramatically since then.

 
Husker in WI said:
True, and "best arm since Tanner Lee!" does not give me the warm fuzzies. I'd say "best arm ever at Nebraska" is definitely accurate for Raiola, and the only other guy who had a true above-NFL-average arm was 7 years ago with Lee.

I guess you can't argue that Vince Ferragamo (and maybe Dave Humm) didn't have NFL caliber arms, but it was a different time and QB play has changed dramatically since then.
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I can't believe that was 7 years ago... 

 
runningblind said:
Always having one terrible side of the ball, sometimes two, and never being able to our it all together is the common theme of the last 25 years.  I'm sure a lot of players could have performed a lot better with better team support.  Very interesting to consider.
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I get we have been down for a long time but no reason to exaggerate the down period.  Our defense and offense was pretty dang good in 2000.  2008 was also pretty solid.  2009 was awesome until we had an injury at the wrong spot.  Again, in 2010, we were great on both sides of the ball until the injury bug bit again.  Few more examples but the reality is having one terrible side of the ball has only been a theme for the last 7 years.     

 
I think one huge thing that's getting lost in conversations about Raiola is that he can in fact also scramble. He can actually run a zone read.

Now of course the expectation on the staff will be to not do much zone read with him. But nevertheless, Rhule is pretty well known for typically putting an RPO-style offense together.

So this is what we were really missing in the Frost era, IMO. We needed a guy more like McKenzie Milton; a player who is pass-first but can also run if you need him to/need him to scramble.

For so many years we haven't been able to spread defenses out just from the mere threat of our QB's arm. Frost did it occasionally with X's & O's. But Raiola is the player to finally open up the field and just generally make things "easier" for our entire offense.

 
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