Where Nebraska quarterback Dylan Raiola ranks in The Athletic's 2025 quarterback rankings
The list was compiled after the Athletic surveyed more than 40 coaches and staff members from across college football. The list relied on the coaches' and staffers' opinions on the quarterbacks they faced, how the QBs in their conference stack up, and who the best in the country is.
The rankings and tiers are based on a combination of coaches' perspectives, players' physical abilities and traits, career accomplishments to date, and a projection of what 2025 may hold for them. The quarterbacks are also ranked by conference and by their status: returning starter, transfer, or new starter.
For teams that haven't officially named a starter because they're still engaged in a quarterback battle, The Athletic ranked who they project to start based on information gathered to this point.
Raiola's rank of 40th also placed him in tier four, which categorizes quarterbacks as either being young, unproven starters with high potential or veterans who have flashed great talent but hit performance or injury speed bumps somewhere along the way.
The Athletic emphasized that while Raiola looked every bit of a five-star prospect last September, he hit a wall midway through his true freshman season. The duo also pointed out that Raiola didn't display top-end athleticism last year, leaving some in the sport wondering how high his ceiling is.
However, they pointed out that with Dana Holgorsen fully in charge of the offense, the hope is that Raiola will make a jump this season.
'Has a calmness, maturity, and swagger to him which you want out of your QB,' a Big Ten personnel staffer said. 'Think him continuing to get bigger, faster, stronger and leaner in the offseason can take his game to another level.'
Raiola started all 13 games for Nebraska in 2024, where he threw for 2,819 yards, the most by a freshman in program history. He also completed more than 67 percent of his passes (275-of-410), the best completion percentage by a freshman in school history.
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