The Nebraska football team will have a new face leading the charge for the remainder of the 2025 season after sophomore quarterback Dylan Raiola suffered a season-ending leg injury against No. 23 USC Saturday night.
Coach Matt Rhule made the announcement on Sunday. Raiola suffered the injury early in the third quarter while taking a sack and fumbling the ball on first-and-10 from the USC 23-yard line. Rhule said that he will undergo surgery later this week.
“I hate it for Dylan,” Rhule said Monday. “I love Dylan. If anyone says anything about Dylan, just know this. The kid had a broken leg and he was warming up, begging me to play. That’s all you got to know about that kid to know who he is.”
Freshman quarterback TJ Lateef replaced Raiola for the rest of the game and will now take over for the remainder of the season.
In Saturday’s game, Lateef went 5-of-7 for 7 yards, while adding six carries for 18 yards.
“I think he’s really smart,” Rhule said. “So, he was always on time, always knows the progressions, always knows the checks, so you can trust him in those things. He’s got amazing arm talent, he can spin it, and he can run, he can move.”
The Huskers will be traveling to Pasadena, California, to take on the UCLA Bruins in the Rose Bowl on Saturday. Lateef is one of six Huskers that will be returning home. He hails from Compton, California, and will make his first career start on Saturday.
“I think it’s going to be exciting for TJ,” Rhule said. “One of the things that has impressed me the most about him since he’s been here is just his humility. He’s just one of the guys. He’s just a great, great, great young man. He gets good grades, he’s never on a list, he’s never in trouble, his family’s awesome. So I coached him on Sunday like he was a veteran. I showed him the opportunities we could have had. ‘Hey, if you do this, if you do this,’ because I want him to know that I have so much confidence in him that I’m going to coach him like Dylan.”
Although Raiola is sidelined indefinitely, he’s embracing his new role.
“I know he’ll be involved in game planning and ideas, and he’ll rally around TJ,” Rhule said. “I got a text from TJ’s dad saying, ‘Hey, on behalf of our family, please let Dylan know how much we care about hm.’ Then I got a text from Dylan, ‘Can I please go travel for TJ?’ He’s just such a great teammate.”
Now, Nebraska is turning its attention to the Bruins.
UCLA is coming into Saturday’s game fresh off an idle week, with an overall record of 3-5. However, it may be better than its record suggests with a quality win over then-seventh-ranked Penn State.
Sophomore quarterback Nico Iamaleava leads the Bruins’ offense in multiple categories. On the season, Iamaleava has passed for 1,468 yards and 10 touchdowns while rushing for 388 yards and four touchdowns.
“He’s elite, he’s an excellent player,” Rhule said. “He leads them in passing, he leads them in rushing. So, it’s really a tale of two seasons. You take out the first part of the year, right? They’re 3-2 in the Big Ten, they’re 3-2 under Coach (Tim) Skipper. The Penn State game, he was their leading rusher, he willed them. It was really not even designed runs, it was drop back, quarterback scrambles versus man. Not even like undisciplined passing, because he’s just that athletic. They were running him some designed quarterback runs earlier. He started getting hit a lot. I’m sure coming off a bye, there’ll be some designed quarterback runs. So, I have the utmost respect for him as a player.”
While the Huskers shut down the USC passing attack on Saturday, the Trojans ran for 202 yards at 5.3 per tote. One-hundred-forty-two of those yards came on 10 explosive runs, a point of emphasis for the team moving forward.
“I’m never going to be ok giving up 200 yards rushing … In six plays, they had 107 yards,” Rhule said. “What our team needs to do, and what our coaches need to do, and what I need to get us to do, is settle down on those six plays once things start going bad against us and just play the next play a little bit more focused and not worry about everything.”
For now, Nebraska will prepare for UCLA with hopes of helping its young quarterback get off to a good start as the signal-caller.
“I know for me this week, I’m going to do the best job I can for TJ Lateef, because leaders insert themselves in the point of friction to try to take stress off,” Rhule said. “I know Ceyair Wright, and I know Javin (Wright), and I know DeShon (Singleton), and I know Rocco (Spindler) and all those guys, every single person in our organization is going to try to do a little bit more so that TJ Lateef can be successful.
“I think we can be like an average team and just go out there and be disappointed that we lost last week and have a bad week, or we can come together and unite. So, I told our guys either you’re in or you’re out, and they’ve all said that they’re in.”
Nebraska travels to California to take on UCLA on Saturday. Kickoff is set for 8 p.m. CT on FOX.
