Donovan Raiola, Nebraska linemen bullish on vet room

“We block with our knuckles up,” he said after NU’s Thursday practice. If they were down, balled up like a fist, they’d be part of a more common style that leads to grabbing a little bit of jersey as linemen shove their foe.

“We don’t grab people, right, because holding encourages lazy blocking,” Raiola said. “So we don’t teach holding.”

Raiola adds that he doesn’t know exactly what many other line coaches teach, but in referencing his own style as different, he clearly has some idea. And now in year three of his tenure at Nebraska — armed with a new $500,000 salary — Raiola is comfortable enough with the media to joke, laugh and even demonstrate some of his teaching points for a reporter.

He has reason to feel comfort. He has roughly 20 scholarship linemen and several more walk-ons. Aside from Turner Corcoran, still recovering from offseason foot surgery, the top linemen have relative health. And his group is the right mixture of fourth-, fifth- and sixth-year veterans teaching first- and second-year pups.

“Now, the room kind of runs itself,” Raiola said, “and that’s what you want to get to.”

It took time. It took change, too, and players willing to embrace Raiola’s approach.

Center Ben Scott — who started all of 2023 and figures to do so again in 2024 — noted his own “adjustment” after he transferred from Arizona State. He had to buy into both the novel technique and also Raiola’s preference for linemen who drive their assignments off the ball vs. the grab-and-maintain approach used by some zone-scheme teams.

Difficult to get used to? Scott said yes. Worth it, though.

“I’ve played for multiple O-line coaches,” Scott said, “and I think Coach Raiola teaches it the right way.”

Raiola himself was a center in college at Wisconsin, and he asks a lot of that position. Scott said he must have “a sixth sense” of what the defense might do, which, in Nebraska’s case, could be almost anything. Husker defensive coordinator Tony White has a diverse, blitzing attack that, as linemen say, is always running “games” against the offense.

All five linemen, Raiola said, must learn to “see the game” through their own eyes and that of their other linemates.

“It’s the position where you’ve got to figure it out sometimes,” Raiola said, “figure it out together and figure it out with one set of eyes.”

NU’s first group appears to Scott at center, Bryce Benhart and Teddy Prochazka at tackle and, because Corcoran is hurt, Justin Evans and Henry Lutovsky at guard. Evans also backs up Scott at center, while the 6-foot-6, 325-pound Lutovsky, with four career starts at guard, can also flex to tackle.

A second unit includes Florida transfer Micah Mazzccua and Ru’Quan Buckley at guard and Utah transfer Tyler Knaak at tackle. NU coach Matt Rhule especially praised Knaak’s development, which should help blue-chip freshman Grant Brix — coming along, Rhule said — fit into a four-game redshirt plan.

Nebraska’s two freshman quarterbacks, Dylan Raiola and Daniel Kaelin, also mean a shift in NU’s pass protection approach. Whereas the Huskers’ previous starters — Jeff Sims, Chubba Purdy and Heinrich Haarberg — almost flourished more when flushed by an interior rusher, Rhule wants Raiola and Kaelin to stay in the pocket and evade outside rushers. Doing so tends to keep the entire pass play design viable.

“We truly want to build like an NFL, cup-style protection where we’re never getting beaten inside-out, and trusting that the quarterback, vs. an edge rusher, will step up,” Rhule said. “The defense doesn’t like me very much because they’re coming off the edge and yelling ‘sack,’ and I’m laughing like, ‘yeah, right.’”

Donovan Raiola, for whom “family is everything,’ enjoys watching nephew Dylan throw in practice. Donovan talks to Dylan, and Kaelin, about protection schemes whenever they ask.

“That’s the only thing I really know that I can help him with,” Donovan joked. On Thursday, he was relaxed and open with answers, unlike his initial sessions with reporters two years ago, when the Huskers’ line was in transition and Raiola lost one of his top guys, Nouredin Nouili, to a yearlong NCAA drug suspension and he joined an offensive coaching staff full of assistants who’d never worked together.

Two years later, he’s the lone holdover from the final Scott Frost staff — retained because his philosophy fit Rhule’s culture — and coaching one of the oldest lines in the country. If he remains healthy, right tackle Bryce Benhart will break the record for most games started next season.

“With all the experience, I think they do a great job of helping the young guys understand the technique, understand the scheme, understand the standards we expect,” Raiola said. “It’s just great to be a part of.”

Benhart feels the same way. He’s played his best football since Raiola arrived, trimming weight and cutting down considerably on bad penalties. He returned for a sixth season, cited “unfinished business” at Nebraska.

But Raiola’s leadership played a role in Benhart’s return, too.

“The coaching’s always going to be the same from Donnie,” Benhart said. “He’s the best for us, and he wants — demands — perfection out of us. He’s the coach that you want.”