Tag: Nebraska

Former Nebraska QB Dylan Raiola transferring to Oregon

Posted on | by Field Level Media

Former Nebraska quarterback Dylan Raiola is transferring to Oregon, he announced Monday on Instagram.

Raiola started 22 games for the Cornhuskers over the past two seasons, passing for 4,819 yards and 31 touchdowns.

Ducks starter Dante Moore has not announced whether he is entering the NFL draft or staying in school, so Raiola potentially could redshirt in 2026 if Moore returns to Eugene.

Raiola’s 2025 season ended with a broken right fibula in Nebraska’s loss to Southern California on Nov. 1. The injury is not expected to affect his readiness to start next season.

A five-star recruit in high school, Raiola completed 69.1% of his passes during his career with the Cornhuskers and threw 17 interceptions while compiling a 13-9 record as a starter.

Rumors of Raiola’s breakup with Nebraska started swirling in late November when his younger brother, three-star quarterback Dayton Raiola, decommitted from the Huskers’ 2026 class. His uncle, offensive line coach Donovan Raiola, was fired by Nebraska on Dec. 6.

The father of Dylan and Dayton is former NFL offensive lineman Dominic Raiola, an All-American and a Nebraska Football Hall of Fame inductee.

–Field Level Media

Reports: Notre Dame QB Kenny Minchey flips from Nebraska to Kentucky

Posted on | by Field Level Media

Former Notre Dame backup quarterback Kenny Minchey, who had committed to Nebraska a little over 24 hours previously, instead changed his commitment to Kentucky on Monday, multiple outlets reported.

Minchey, who entered the portal Friday, had lost an offseason competition to become the Fighting Irish starting quarterback to eventual starter CJ Carr over the summer.

His playing time, as expected, was subsequently limited, though he did appear in six games, completing 20 of 26 passes for 196 yards. He added seven carries for 84 yards and a touchdown on the ground.

He only appeared in four games over the previous two seasons, preserving an additional year of eligibility in the process. He will be classified as a junior in 2026.

Minchey had originally told ESPN on Sunday that he would be joining Matt Rhule’s Nebraska program. His flip Monday was reported by ESPN, CBS Sports, and On3.

Kentucky needed a quarterback once its previous starter Cutter Boley entered the portal and found a home with Arizona State. Boley paced the Wildcats with 2,160 yards and 15 touchdowns to go along with 12 interceptions in 2025.

Nebraska will now go back into the portal to look for a replacement for Dylan Raiola, who also entered the portal this offseason after guiding Nebraska for much of the past two seasons.

Kentucky had been one of two main pursuers of hot quarterback target Sam Leavitt, formerly of Arizona State, along with LSU. The Tigers, helmed by new coach Lane Kiffin, might well be the leader to acquire Leavitt now with Kentucky acquiring Minchey and the Tigers previously missing out on Cincinnati’s Brendan Sorsby, who chose Texas Tech.

–Field Level Media

Devon Dampier’s huge day leads No. 15 Utah over Nebraska in Las Vegas Bowl

Posted on | by Field Level Media

Devon Dampier accounted for five touchdowns and 458 yards of total offense and Utah scored 37 consecutive points to beat Nebraska 44-22 in the Las Vegas Bowl on Wednesday afternoon.

The Utes (11-2) ended a 5-game bowl losing streak and scored a win in Morgan Scalley’s coaching debut. Scalley, Utah’s defensive coordinator since 2016, was promoted to head coach after Kyle Whittingham resigned. Whittingham was expected to coach the game but left earlier in the week to join Michigan.

Dampier was 19 of 31 for 310 yards and two TDs and ran for 148 yards and three more scores for the Utes, which posted their third 11-win season in school history and first since 2019.

Nebraska (7-6) lost its third straight and fourth out of five after a 6-2 start, getting outscored 121-48 over the final three games. The Cornhuskers gained 157 yards on their first two drives, both resulting in TDs, then 186 the rest of the way.

Playing without Big Ten rushing leader Emmett Johnson, who declared for the 2026 NFL Draft, Nebraska got 88 rushing yards from Mekhi Nelson (who had 59 during the regular season) while quarterback TJ Lateef threw for 182 yards, a TD and an interception and ran for a score.

Up 10 at halftime, Utah made it 31-14 on the opening possession of the third quarter on a 3-yard run by NaQuari Rogers. Dampier added his third rushing TD, from five yards out, with 5:56 left in the third.

Dampier capped his performance with a 17-yard TD pass to Dallen Bentley midway through the fourth quarter.

Nelson got the scoring started with a 38-yard TD run for Nebraska less than four minutes into the game. Utah matched that score on its opening possession, getting a 2-yard TD run from Dampier.

Lateef hit Jacory Barney Jr. on an 8-yard TD pass to put the Cornhuskers up 14-7 with 2:20 left in the first. The Utes tied it again on a 20-yard TD pass from Dampier to JJ Buchanan just under five minutes into the second quarter.

A 28-yard field goal by Dillon Curtis gave Utah its first lead with 4:13 left before halftime, and Dampier made it a 24-14 game on an 11-yard TD run with 20 seconds remaining in the half.

–Field Level Media

Kyle Whittingham waves farewell as No. 15 Utah battles Nebraska in Vegas

Posted on | by Field Level Media

One of the longest and most successful college football tenures will be coming to an end when Utah and Nebraska meet in the Las Vegas Bowl on Dec. 31.

Utah coach Kyle Whittingham announced earlier this month he would be stepping down after 21 seasons. The 66-year-old Whittingham is 177-88 with the Utes as head coach but has been with the program in some form or fashion since 1994.

“The time is right,” Whittingham said, noting that he wasn’t retiring from coaching. “The opportunity to guide so many talented young men as they pursued their goals — both on and off the field — has truly been a blessing.”

Defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley, who has been with Utah since 2007, will take over as head coach after the Las Vegas Bowl.

The Utes (10-2) finished 15th in the final College Football Playoff standings and take a five-game win streak to Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. It’s the other way around for Nebraska (7-5), which has lost its last two games and three of four after a 6-2 start.

Since the regular season ended, the Cornhuskers have made numerous changes to their coaching staff, most notably hiring San Diego State’s Rob Aurich as defensive coordinator to replace John Butler. But coach Matt Rhule doesn’t consider this a program reset, not when Nebraska is set to play in a bowl game for the second straight year, the first back-to-back bowl appearances since nine in a row from 2008-16, after not going to a bowl from 2017-23.

“The program was dead for 10 years,” Rhule said. “We are moving forward, it’s just not as fast as Indiana did it.”

The Las Vegas Bowl will be just the fourth start for Nebraska freshman quarterback TJ Lateef, who stepped in after Dylan Raiola suffered a season-ending injury. Lateef has thrown for 722 yards and four touchdowns and run for three scores.

Utah is led by junior quarterback Devon Dampier, who has 2,867 yards of total offense and 29 total TDs, but freshman Byrd Ficklin has also contributed 10 rushing TDs and three through the air.

Nebraska will be without junior running back Emmett Johnson, who declared for the 2026 NFL Draft after leading the Big Ten Conference with 1,451 yards. No other player had more than 119 yards and Lateef’s 27 carries (including sacks) are the most left on the roster.

Utah also has some big holes to fill from draft declarations, particularly on the offensive line, as both left tackle Caleb Lomu and right tackle Spencer Fano are sitting out, as is edge rusher Logan Fano.

Nebraska is 27-27 in bowls but hasn’t won consecutive games since the Gator and Holiday Bowls, both in 2009. Utah, which is 17-9 in bowls, has dropped its last five, with its last win coming in the 2017 Heart of Dallas Bowl.

–Field Level Media

Reports: Nebraska QB Dylan Raiola hitting transfer portal

Posted on | by Field Level Media

Nebraska quarterback Dylan Raiola is set to enter the transfer portal, according to multiple media reports Monday.

Raiola, who has two more seasons of eligibility, plans to enter the portal when it opens on Jan. 2. ESPN reported Monday that the former five-star recruit is in search of a program that will let him tap into his potential while also helping him develop for the next stage of his career.

Rumors of a Raiola departure from Nebraska started swirling in late November when his younger brother, three-star quarterback Dayton, decommitted from Nebraska’s 2026 class. His uncle, offensive line coach Donovan Raiola, was fired by Nebraska on Dec. 6.

This is the second straight season transfer portal questions have come up around Dylan Raiola. He and his camp informally explored his transfer options at the end of the 2024 season before ultimately remaining with the Cornhuskers.

Raiola has not played since suffering a broken fibula in the Cornhuskers’ 21-17 loss to Southern California on Nov. 1. The injury ended his season but is not expected to prevent him from being ready to play at the start of next season.

Raiola is Nebraska’s highest-paid player — having made about $3.5 million this season, per CBS Sports — so any potential move would likely not be about money but rather about the current sophomore putting himself in the best position for the NFL draft.

In his second season with the Cornhuskers, Raiola completed 72.4% of his passes for 2,000 yards, 18 touchdowns and six interceptions.

He’s notched 4,819 yards, 31 touchdowns and 17 interceptions with a 69.1 completion percentage in 22 games (all starts) over two seasons in Nebraska.

The father of Dylan and Dayton is former NFL offensive lineman Dominic Raiola, an All-American and Nebraska Football Hall of Fame inductee.

–Field Level Media

Mark Gronowski accounts for 3 TDs as Iowa handles Nebraska

Posted on | by Field Level Media

Mark Gronowski ran for two touchdowns and threw for another and Iowa continued its dominance of Nebraska in a 40-16 win on Friday afternoon in a Big Ten game in Lincoln, Neb.

The Hawkeyes (8-4, 6-3 Big Ten) won for the 10th time in 11 meetings with their largest margin of victory in the series since 2017.

Gronowski, a sixth-year senior, extended his NCAA Division I record with his 57th win as a starting quarterback. He threw for 166 yards and a TD and ran for 64 with two scores, giving him 15 rushing TDs this season.

Kamari Moulton added 93 yards and two TDs for the Hawkeyes, who won for the seventh straight time at Memorial Stadium.

Nebraska (7-5, 4-5) lost for the third time in four games despite a career-high 217 rushing yards from Emmett Johnson. But 177 of that came in the first half as the Cornhuskers gained just 69 yards in the second half.

Up 24-16 at halftime, Iowa forced a fumble on a punt that resulted in a safety. Gronowski’s second rushing TD, a 6-yard run, put the Hawkeyes up 33-16 with 4:47 left in the third.
Moulton’s 1-yard run made it 40-16 with 13:40 to go.

A 70-yard run by Johnson set up his 1-yard score on the following play for a 7-0 Nebraska lead. Iowa responded with a 41-yard field goal by Drew Stevens and then took a 10-7 lead on a 35-yard TD catch by DJ Vonnahme.

Nebraska tied on a 31-yard field goal by Kyle Cunanan late in the first, and after the Cornhuskers recovered a fumble on the ensuing kickoff Cunanan hit from 29 for a 13-10 lead early in the second.

Iowa retook the lead on a 3-yard TD run by Moulton with 8:15 left in the first half. Cunanan hit his third field goal, from 35 yards out, to cut it to a 1-point game with 2:39 to go before halftime, only to see Gronowski score on a 1-yard run with 37 seconds remaining.

–Field Level Media

Iowa-Nebraska rivalry game concludes teams’ regular seasons

Posted on | by Field Level Media

A longstanding rivalry will be renewed Friday afternoon when Nebraska hosts Iowa in a Big Ten Conference game in Lincoln, Neb.

It’s the 56th meeting between the Cornhuskers and Hawkeyes, the 15th since Nebraska joined the conference in 2011. Known as the Heroes Game, Iowa has won 10 of 14 meetings as conference foes including the last two, both on walkoff field goals.

Another field goal at the buzzer propelled Iowa (7-4, 5-3 Big Ten) to a 20-17 win over Michigan State last week. Drew Stevens connected from 44 yards to complete a comeback from down 10 in the fourth quarter.

Iowa’s past three games have been decided by a combined 10 points, and for the season, the Hawkeyes are 2-4 in one-score games.

“Everybody’s tired right now, everybody is sore, it’s part of the territory,” said coach Kirk Ferentz, who has won 211 games in 27 seasons at Iowa. “It just seems like every year this game is back and forth.”

Nebraska (7-4, 4-4) got blown out 37-10 at Penn State in its last game. The Cornhuskers have dropped three of five since a 5-1 start.

“I’d like to win every game we play,” third-year coach Matt Rhule said. “We came here with an intention of building a program that will last. We don’t want short-term results. We’re not where we want to be. We want to be national champions.”

Nebraska’s Emmett Johnson, a semifinalist for the Doak Walker Award (college football’s top running back), leads the Big Ten in rushing with 1,234 yards. He has topped the 100-yard mark seven times this season, including the past four, but in two games against Iowa has gained only 98 yards on 29 carries.

The Hawkeyes are fourth in the Big Ten in run defense, allowing 101.6 yards per game.

Freshman quarterback TJ Lateef will be making his third start for Nebraska since Dylan Raiola suffered a season-ending injury. He’s completing 70.4 percent of his passes with four touchdowns and no interceptions.

Iowa senior Mark Gronowski, a transfer from South Dakota State, is the winningest quarterback in NCAA history with 56 victories. He’s thrown for 1,363 yards with seven TDs and six interceptions with the Hawkeyes.

–Field Level Media

Kaytron Allen, Penn State run all over Nebraska in blowout win

Posted on | by Field Level Media

Kaytron Allen and Nicholas Singleton each ran for two touchdowns as Penn State smashed visiting Nebraska 37-10 on Saturday in University Park, Pa.

Allen rushed 25 times for 160 yards, while Singleton (44 yards) made the most of his seven carries. Ethan Grunkemeyer wasn’t asked to do much, but he was efficient (11-of-12 for 181 yards with a TD) as the Nittany Lions (5-6, 2-6 Big Ten) won their second straight following a six-game skid.

Nebraska’s TJ Lateef went 21-of-37 for 187 yards in addition to a rushing score. Emmett Johnson led the Cornhuskers (7-4, 4-4) with 103 yards on the ground and 48 more as a receiver.

Penn State’s defense set the tone early by stopping Johnson on fourth-and-1 from the 2-yard line on the game’s opening drive.

On the ensuing possession, Allen’s 50-yard run set up Grunkemeyer’s 4-yard TD pass to Andrew Rappleyea to make it 7-0.

Penn State had another 50-yard play on its next possession, this time a pass to Singleton that eventually led to a 26-yard field goal.

Nebraska responded with a field goal of its own, but Penn State created some separation with two touchdowns in the final five minutes of the half.

First, Singleton rushed for 14 yards to the 4-yard line and then hammered it home on the next play to make it 17-3.

Then, following a quick three-and-out by Nebraska, the Nittany Lions started at the Cornhuskers’ 14-yard line, thanks to Trebor Pena’s 21-yard punt return, combined with a personal foul on Nebraska.

Three plays later, Singleton ran for a 10-yard score to send Penn State into the locker room with a 23-3 advantage.

Early on the Nittany Lions’ first drive of the second half, Grunkemeyer found Pena for 29 yards to move the ball into Cornhuskers territory. Shortly thereafter, Allen rushed for a 3-yard TD to make it 30-3.

Nebraska responded with a productive drive before Zane Durant sacked Lateef on fourth down.

Lateef’s 11-yard TD run late in the third quarter and Allen’s 13-yard rushing TD early in the fourth completed the scoring.

–Field Level Media

Nebraska QB situation shifts with Dayton Raiola recruitment ‘100% open’

Posted on | by Field Level Media

Dayton Raiola, the younger brother of Nebraska quarterback Dylan Raiola, decommitted from the Cornhuskers’ 2026 class, saying Wednesday his recruitment is “100% open.”

The move comes just weeks before the early signing period, set for Dec. 3-5. He is reopening his recruiting after 14 months of alignment with Nebraska.

Raiola is listed as a three-star quarterback by the 247Sports composite. He committed to Nebraska and coach Matt Rhule on Sept. 22, 2004.

According to 247Sports, Raiola has had only three offers — Nebraska, Appalachian State and Charlotte. He is a 6-foot-1, 205-pound prospect from Buford (Ga.) High School.

He confirmed the decision to Rivals recruiting on Wednesday.

Dylan, a sophomore, started nine game for the Huskers this season before suffering a broken fibula in Nebraska’s 21-17 loss to Southern California on Nov. 1. He set a Nebraska record this season with a 72.4% completion rate.

He was a five-star prospect in the 2024 class.

The Raiola family ties to Nebraska run deep. Dominic Raiola, the father of Dayton and Dylan, was an All-American center at Nebraska who went on to play 14 seasons with the Detroit Lions.

Still, with Dayton’s decommitment, speculation is brewing that Dylan will not return to the Cornhuskers next season. With Dylan’s injury, the Cornhuskers now are in the hands of freshman T.J. Lateef.

In his first start Saturday, Lateef completed 13 of 15 passes for 205 yards and three touchdowns.

Nebraska (7-3) closes the season with games against Penn State and Iowa and a shot at the school’s first 10-win season since 2012 under Bo Pelini.

–Field Level Media

Matt Rhule brings Nebraska ‘home’ to face pupil, Penn State

Posted on | by Field Level Media

TJ Lateef and Ethan Grunkemeyer have been thrust into important roles and found some good fortune last week.

The quarterbacks at the center of the Big Ten matchup between Nebraska and Penn State on Saturday in University Park, Pa., look for more of the same with the regular season winding down.

Lateef made his first career start on Nov. 8 — prior to the bye week for Nebraska (7-3, 4-3 Big Ten) — with starting QB Dylan Raiola out for the season with a broken leg. A true freshman, Lateef went 13-of-15 for 205 yards and three touchdowns in the 28-21 win over UCLA.

“I want him to go there and let it rip,” said Cornhuskers coach Matt Rhule, a former linebacker at Penn State. “Sometimes the second game you start to — no, don’t overthink too much. Just go out there and play.”

Grunkemeyer prepares for his fifth start for Penn State (4-6, 1-6) under similar circumstances. Starter Drew Allar was lost for the season with a knee injury before Penn State fired head coach James Franklin.

The redshirt freshman threw two touchdown passes in last week’s 28-10 win over Michigan State that snapped a six-game losing streak.

There is less drama simmering around Rhule’s return to Happy Valley. The Nebraska coach was immediately connected to the vacancy at Penn State because of his connection with current Nittany Lions AD Patrick Kraft, who hired him as head coach at Temple.

Rhule knows Penn State interim coach Terry Smith pretty well, too.

“I hired him out of Gateway High School, and he was on my first staff at Temple. I have a lot of respect for him,” Rhule said.

But Rhule isn’t leaving Nebraska for Penn State, not after signing a contract extension to stay in Lincoln. He said he “doesn’t have very many” emotions about his trip “home” on Saturday.

“It’s just different for me because I’ve been back so many times,” Rhule said. “The only things I feel is my grandfather had season tickets at Penn State and he’s no longer living. My grandmother’s no longer living. Just the people who poured into me and meant a lot to me in my life, they won’t be there for this.”

Grunkemeyer was only asked to throw the ball 13 times against the Spartans, as the Nittany Lions leaned on their rushing game. Kaytron Allen ran for 181 yards and two touchdowns, while Nicholas Singleton chipped in with 56 yards on the ground.

“We do know in our keys to victory every week is for Kaytron and Nick to touch the ball,” Smith said, “and if they’re touching the ball, that means we’re going to get closer to that goal.”

Nebraska has a dynamic backfield threat of its own in Emmett Johnson, who posted 129 yards rushing and 103 receiving against UCLA. Johnson, who accounted for three touchdowns in that win, is aiming for his fourth straight 100-yard rushing game and his seventh overall this season.

The Cornhuskers are 4-1 against the Nittany Lions since joining the Big Ten, including a 30-23 triumph in the last meeting in 2020.

–Field Level Media