When the Nebraska Cornhuskers fired head coach Bo Pelini after the 2014 season, they said goodbye to a coach who went 67-27 in seven seasons with the program and never win fewer than nine games per season.
The ensuing years were tough for the team, as head coaches Mike Riley and Scott Frost combined to go 35-50 from 2015-2022, with Riley leading the team to its most recent bowl game, a 38-24 loss to the Tennesse Volunteers in the 2016 Music City Bowl.
Going nearly ten years between bowl appearances seems inconceivable for a once-great program like Nebraska.
Since hiring Matt Rhule before the 2023 season, things have turned around for the Huskers. While the coach finished his first season at the helm at 5-7 and narrowly missed bowl eligibility, he flipped top quarterback prospect Dylan Raiola from the Georgia Bulldogs, cementing his team’s future at the position.
Raiola has led the Cornhuskers to a 5-3 record this season, and with a matchup against the lowly UCLA Bruins on the table for Nebraska this week, the freshman quarterback discussed what it would mean to the fanbase to get back to a bowl game.
“Before practice, I actually heard someone say there hasn’t been a bowl game in eight years or something like that. I think getting the fans a guaranteed another one more game, possibly more being in the playoffs, would mean a lot to this fanbase. They’ve been through a lot and they’ve been really loyal. So, it would mean a lot to everybody to get to a bowl game,” Raiola said Tuesday during his media availability.
This season, Raiola has gone 162-for-245 for 1,744 passing yards and nine touchdowns to go with seven interceptions.
Nebraska and UCLA will play on November 2 at 2:30 p.m. CT and air on the Big Ten Network.
