Statement from Nebraska Head Football Coach Matt Rhule:
“I informed Donovan Raiola today that he will not be retained as our offensive line coach. We thank Donovan for his contributions to Nebraska Football
over the past four years and wish him the best moving forward.”
There seemed lately to be a concentrated effort by some Nebraska media members to rehabilitate our attitude toward the offensive line of the 2025 season. Damon Benning had recently extolled Donovan Raiola’s performance, pointing out that Emma Johnson had one of the best seasons by a running back in many years.
Tim Verghese of Hurrdat had also recently thought that we were too critical of the offensive line in 2025.
Nebraska’s offensive line got better throughout the season. And we did have a good rushing attack with Emmett Johnson, one of the best that we’ve seen in recent years.
Unfortunately, every time we tried to throw the ball, our pass blocking efforts looked like those of a high school team. If an opponent ran a stunt or a twist, it’s as if our offensive line’s brains exploded and suddenly there were free rushers everywhere.
You can attempt to blame that on Dylan Raiola holding onto the ball too long, but you can’t have an offensive line that can’t successfully pass block and have a functional offense. You can make all the comments you want about how long it took the receivers to get into their breaks or get open… But you can’t allow free rushers by an offensive line and call it decent.
If we were blunt, you’d have to admit that Matt Rule will be coaching for his job in 2026. You can say all you want about this extension and how costly it would be to fire him or how long his contract is. But if Matt Rule is unsuccessful next season, he will be gone.
It’s pretty obvious he recognizes that by the staff changes he’s making. While he hasn’t gotten hires right at some time, he has shown a willingness to fix his area.
This is a huge one that I thought he needed to fix last season, but I’m glad he’s doing it now. Let’s hope that he hires a good offensive line coach that can coach players on how to be good and functional in all parts of the game.
