One of the biggest games of Week 6 of the 2026 college football season will feature one of the sport’s most unlikely arrangements.
One year ago, the thought of Dylan Raiola starting at quarterback for Oregon would have seemed outlandish. Raiola was the face of a Nebraska program where his family was deeply entrenched while the Ducks were seemingly set at quarterback with Dante Moore, especially if he put off his NFL dreams for a year to return to school.
But with Moore still sidelined after taking a vicious heat to the head in a Week 4 win at USC, Raiola will be back under center for No. 13 Oregon when it hosts No. 22 UCLA on Saturday, Oct. 10 at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Oregon.
vs. UCLA
How, exactly, did we get here?
Here’s a closer look at why Raiola left Nebraska and why he transferred to Oregon:
Why did Dylan Raiola transfer to Oregon?
The marriage between Dylan Raiola and Nebraska appeared perfect when it was first forged.
Coming out of high school, Raiola had all the makings of a difference-maker at the next level, at 6-foot-3 and 230 pounds and with an arm that could make almost any throw asked of him. He was joining a Cornhuskers program where his father, Dominic, was a Rimington Trophy winning lineman and where his uncle, Donovan, was the offensive line coach. Beyond that, he was committing to then-first-year coach Matt Rhule, a widely celebrated hire who was early in the process of trying to rebuild Nebraska into a winner in the same way he had at Baylor and Temple.
Within two years of Raiola arriving in Lincoln, though, the partnership was over.
It wasn’t entirely due to a lack of production. Raiola had started each of the two seasons he played with the Huskers, throwing for 4,819 yards, 31 touchdowns and 17 interceptions. With Raiola at quarterback, Nebraska improved from what it was in Rhule’s first season, going 13-9 with the former five-star recruit at quarterback.
Still, it had trouble breaking through against the best teams on its schedule, going 0-5 against ranked opponents. Raiola was regularly bombarded by opposing pass rushes, too, facing pressure on 31.6% of his dropbacks against Power Four opponents during his two seasons at Nebraska.
Over his time with the Huskers, there was mounting friction. According to a report from CBS Sports, citing anonymous sources, Raiola’s family wanted him in a place where he could compete for a national championship and get a fresh start from a developmental standpoint, particularly when it came to preparing him for the NFL. Nebraska, meanwhile, had become frustrated with their back-and-forth dealings with Raiola, who was one of the highest-paid players in college football last season at a reported $3.5 million.
Even before he officially hit the transfer portal, metaphorical bread crumbs pointed to a looming divorce.
On Nov. 19, 2025, Raiola’s younger brother, Dayton, a three-star recruit in the 2026 class, decommitted from Nebraska. About three weeks later, Donovan Raiola was fired as the Huskers’ offensive line coach.
Then, on Dec. 15, news broke that Raiola planned to enter the portal.
According to CBS, he did so with a clear idea of where he wanted to end up: Oregon. In the Ducks, he saw a perennial title contender that had an excellent track record of developing quarterbacks under coach Dan Lanning, from Bo Nix to Dylan Gabriel to, most recently, Moore. Even if Moore returned — at the time Raiola committed to Oregon on Jan. 12, Moore was still two days away from announcing he’d be bypassing the NFL draft — the idea of serving as a backup didn’t dissuade him. After all, Moore was another five-star recruit who had transferred in from elsewhere and been a backup for a year under Gabriel only to blossom into what would have been a top-five NFL draft pick had he left after the 2025 season. Without the pressure to start the first game of the following season, Raiola would also have more time to recover from a broken fibula he suffered in a Nov. 1 loss to UCLA that required surgery and ended his 2025 season.
If his first extended playing time with the Ducks was indicative of anything, he made the right decision on his next home.
Dylan Raiola stats
Raiola has appeared in two games this season for Oregon, during which he completed 30 of his 36 pass attempts for 413 yards, five touchdowns and no interceptions.
Here's a year-by-year look at Raiola's college stats:
- 2024 (Nebraska): 275 of 410 (67.1%), 2,819 yards, 6.9 yards per attempt, 13 touchdowns, 11 interceptions
- 2025 (Nebraska): 181 of 250 (72.4%), 2,000 yards, 8 yards per attempt, 18 touchdowns, 6 interceptions
- 2026 (Oregon): 30 of 36 (83.3%), 413 yards, 11.5 yards per attempt, 5 touchdowns, 0 interceptions
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Dylan Raiola sought fresh start in Oregon after Nebraska tenure. Now he has his shot
