5-star QB flip to Huskers: His heart always was here at Nebraska’

Nebraska pulled off one of the biggest moves of the 2024 recruiting class earlier this week when five-star quarterback Dylan Raiola flipped his long-time commitment from Georgia to the Huskers on Monday. However, Matt Rhule said it was an unexpected curveball in the process and said the decision ultimately came from Raiola himself, who called the Nebraska coach a week and a half before signing day.

“I got a call last weekend that, ‘Hey coach, I think I want to come be a Husker,'” Rhule said in an interview with 247Sports’ Josh Pate. “… The recruiting process for him, to me I think, is a little different. I think probably his heart always was here at Nebraska. A lot of things have happened in Nebraska in recent years and 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 come visit and then wanted to be one of us.”

Raiola is the highest-rated signee for Nebraska football in the modern era. and is part of a Huskers’ 2024 signing class that ranks among the top-25 nationally.

Below is everything Rhule said during his exclusive interview with 247Sports on the National Signing Day 2023 special:

Well, it was really not something that I expected. I got a call last weekend that, ‘Hey coach, I think I want to come be a Husker.’ We were really excited to have Daniel Kaelin committed, an Elite 11 quarterback and someone we believe in a great deal. And when Dylan called we were excited about that as well. And so, the recruiting process for him to me I think is a little different. I think probably his heart always was here at Nebraska. A lot of things have happened in Nebraska in recent years and 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 come visit and then wanted to be one of us.

I really believe that young people nowadays, most of them the least, they play for people. They they played for people they believe. So to me this is always about relationships. You look at our signing class, six former players’ sons, six legacy players coming to play for us. And so, to me, this is always about relationships. It’s always about them talking to our current players. And I think if there’s one thing that we’ve done, whether it’s Temple, Baylor or here is the young people that come and play for us, whether it’s on the field or off, they have a lot of success.

“And so, if you’re a guy like Dylan (Raiola), if you’re a guy like Carter Nelson, Grant Brix, the guys that you’re highlighting, who have elite talent and have great futures, if they come here, they know they’re coming to a place that’s going to help them be great. You know, why not? And so we’re excited about it. And I do think it sends a message to everybody that Nebraska is here and Nebraska is here to stay.

We’re gonna go all across the country and find the best players. But when someone’s a Husker, when someone’s born in state and we know that they’re good enough then we’re gonna take them. And we signed eight last year, we signed eight this year, and there’s some great players in the state that are going to Notre Dame, that are going to Illinois, so we didn’t get everyone. I think high school football in Nebraska is really, really strong and it’s on the up and up.

And, for us, we want to recruit this region. We’re also gonna go to Texas, we’re also going to go to Florida. Flipped a couple guys late from Florida here that should make our class even better. And that to me is what Nebraska is. It’s a national brand. It might have been quiet for a few years, it might have been a little bit sleepy, but it’s not anymore. And this class is a step in the right direction. We’ve got to produce on the field and I believe that will push us even forward.”

When you think about Nebraska football in its heyday, man, it was the preeminent place to go for like sports science and one of the first places for the weight room and one of the first places to have a training table and academic support. I mean, it was at the forefront. It was like what Georgia and Alabama are now and so, when Trev (Alberts) hired me, he empowered me. We went out and we hired Kristin Coggin to run our performance nutrition from South Carolina, who had been at Alabama, been at Tennessee. We hired Corey Campbell to come in and modernize what we’re doing in the strength area. We hire sports scientists. We really want to be at the forefront of player development and player recovery.

And so, if you’re a young person in recruiting and you want to be developed and you want to be an NFL player — and not just an NFL player, but you want to be a great NFL player — we have everything here that you need. And I think that that to me, it’s important for us, but it also brings us the right players. If you’re just looking for like who’s got the coolest helmets and who’s got this like, maybe we’re not for you, but if you want to someday be a first-round draft pick, if you want to know what it’s like to go through the psychological testing that you do in the NFL and all those things, then this is the place. That modernization — with all due  respect to what was happening before — but that being on the forefront again, that’s what Nebraska is all about. It’s what coach (Tom) Osborne did and we’re trying to bring that back and that to me is what will make us special.”

Ours is an early morning because obviously out here in the Central Time Zone, we started on the East Coast, we all got here about 5:30 (a.m.). We still do a kind of old-school. We all get into one room. I used to love when the fax machine would go off and everyone was waiting to see who it was. Now Vince Guinta stands up and yells out who committed and we FaceTime. Today, for us, we FaceTime a lot of or message a lot of 2025 players letting them know that, hey, it’s their time now. So it’s a big recruiting day for us. We only have one NLI left or maybe two I think coming down to the end. And so once those things are done I send everyone home. We’ve worked really, really hard. As you said, this is a national brand, but it’s one that we’re having to reintroduce to a lot of people. We’ve worked really, really hard. So I’ll send everyone home, send them off for vacation and let them get a little rest before we come back, man, because we’re going to hit the ‘25 recruiting class just as hard.”

We weren’t in a bowl game and so we didn’t have that luxury and that benefit, but also that burden of practice and all those things. So it is chaotic. I’m one of those guys though, Josh, like I prefer things to be chaotic. I feel like if everyone’s trying to figure it out, maybe we can gain an advantage. I do look forward to the day when this is all really organized like the NFL when you kind of know, hey, this is the calendar for this and this is the legal tampering period and this is free agency and this is — I look forward to that. But you know what, we’re sitting here today, we’re signing guys, guys are coming mid-year. I remember just a few years ago waiting all the way until February to get all this stuff done. So, sometimes it has to be a little painful to make some progress. I do believe we’re making progress. And, hey, here at Nebraska, man, make it as chaotic as possible because we feel like we will find a way to work and make it to our advantage