Dylan Raiola’s potential adds to excitement for Nebraska

Inside a Lincoln pizza restaurant on a summer day is where the Nebraska football team started taking a step toward its goals for the 2024 season.

Freshman quarterback Dylan Raiola invited veteran members of the Huskers’ offensive line to The Isles for pizza — and his teammates showed up with their appetites.

According to Teddy Prochazka, many players ordered a medium or large pizza for just themselves — perhaps with leftovers on their mind — in addition to splitting 12 baskets of wings.

“We kind of ran up the bill a little bit, but he took care of it,” Prochazka said of Raiola.

Of the 12 Husker players who participated in a miniature media day of sorts on Tuesday, excitement for the season ahead was a common sentiment. Head coach Matt Rhule was just as eager to kick off the team’s fall camp on Wednesday — but he theorized the players’ attitudes were for a different reason.

“I think for the guys it’s a sense of relief; I think they’ve been highly anticipating it,” Rhule said. “I think this was a really, really hard summer. I asked (strength coach) Corey (Campbell), I said, ‘Just give me a tough team, that’s all I care about it. I don’t care about anything else.’”

Those difficult offseason workouts, and the similarly grueling team commitment week NU went through in the spring, appear to have brought the locker room closer together. Rhule said he rarely stuck his head out of his office to observe the workouts, instead hoping players would focus more fully on their work without any added distractions.

So far, so good, as newcomers such as wide receiver Jahmal Banks quickly adapted to the program’s standards and found their voice.

“This team is closer and closer the more time we spend with each other, the more hours we spend in here and in the film room,” Banks said. “That’s the foundation for our success, it’s when we go to war with each other knowing that we’ve got each other’s backs.”

The hours spent together will only increase with the start of fall camp. For the second season in a row, players and coaches will be moving into the Selleck Quadrangle dormitories for the first two weeks of camp.

The setup often involves a senior sharing a room with a freshman or an offensive lineman joining a defensive back, the idea being to bring players together regardless of position group or age.

Banks, who participated in a similar setup at Wake Forest, is looking forward to spending additional time with his teammates. So is linebacker Javin Wright, who said that living together helps “build camaraderie” across the entire roster.

“Everyone would think that living in the dorms (is negative), but we’re closer to cutting out all the distractions so you get to focus on yourself, football and building your mind,” Wright said.

Outside of the return to the practice field and the start of their in-season routine, there’s plenty for the Nebraska football team to be excited about.

The Huskers return a veteran-heavy defense full of returning starters up front and in the secondary, and they have the built-in benefit of not having to learn coordinator Tony White’s 3-3-5 system like they had to at this time last offseason.

Several impact players were added on the offensive side of the ball — namely Banks and Isaiah Neyor at wide receiver — in addition to an overhauled situation at quarterback.

The Huskers will give quarterbacks Jalyn Gramstad, Heinrich Haarberg and Daniel Kaelin the same opportunity to win the starting role — but there’s no doubt that Raiola’s presence looms large in the Nebraska offense.

Prochazka, who may be tasked with protecting Raiola’s blind side this fall, said he “thought it was fake” last winter when his phone started buzzing with rumors the five-star prospect Raiola would be coming to Nebraska.

“It gets people talking about Nebraska,” Prochazka said. “I feel like we deserve to be in the national spotlight, we want to play in those big games and be talked about. I feel that definitely got the word out (that) Nebraska’s got something building over there.”

What’s very real is the progress Raiola has made since arriving on campus in January. After going through 15 spring practices, Raiola impressed his head coach with the long hours he continued to pour into the sport over the offseason.

The work continued outside of Nebraska’s training facility, too. Banks, who figures to be Nebraska’s top pass-catcher this season, was invited to Texas by Raiola for a weekend where they met family members, hung out at the pool and watched movies in addition to a steady dose of on-field work.

“It wasn’t just all about ball, it was about getting to know each other, having fun and building chemistry,” Banks said. “… Dylan is a freshman but he’s beyond his years. He has great poise, he’s confident, he knows who he is, where he comes from and what he’s been around. He wants to be the best and he knows he can be.”

Each position group and player will have individual goals for the season, but a few unite the entire Nebraska football roster. Forcing turnovers on defense and avoiding them on offense will be stressed throughout fall camp, as will creating big plays on one side of the ball and avoiding them on the other.

Making a bowl game is a requirement for running back Rahmir Johnson to consider it a successful season, and the sixth-year senior wouldn’t say no to more than that.

“I’m thinking bigger, because I think we’ve got a team that can go really far — obviously we’ve got to work for it — but I’d like to be able to play in something like a Big Ten championship,” Johnson said.

A summer of hard work was implemented to prepare Nebraska physically for the demands of the fall. Up next are long, tough days of high-energy practices and learning as NU’s Aug. 31 season opener against UTEP draws closer.

Year two of the Matt Rhule era has now begun — and the Husker coach is ready to make sure it’s better than the first.

“We’ll have a really competitive camp,” Rhule said. “I’d like to have the most competitive camp I’ve ever had and we’ll see who’s standing at the end.”