Inside Ndamukong Suh’s pregame message to Nebraska

Quarterback Dylan Raiola has known Nebraska football legend Ndamukong Suh for longer than all of his Husker teammates.

Raiola first met Suh nearly a decade ago when his father, Dominic Raiola, and Suh were teammates on the Detroit Lions. Having a chance to reunite with Suh, who’d returned to Lincoln for his induction into the Nebraska Athletics Hall of Fame, marked a special moment for the freshman quarterback.

“That’s one of the cool moments I’ll probably never forget, to be able to share the Tunnel Walk with probably the greatest Nebraska defensive player to ever play this game,” Raiola said.

Prior to Nebraska’s win over Rutgers, Suh also shared a message with the entire Nebraska football team, one that especially resonated with defensive lineman Ty Robinson.

“He really asked us just one question — what’s your why?” Robinson said of Suh’s message to the team. “He explained what his why was to us, and why he was the player he was and how that motivated him.”

That’s a message that Robinson said he’d heard before from head coach Matt Rhule and his position coach Terrance Knighton, also adding that several Huskers “found their why” during the winning effort.

“I want to say thank you to Ndamukong Suh for coming back and in his own quiet way, (he) didn’t want to give a big speech, just wanted to meet the fellas and answer questions,” Rhule said. “It’s kind of funny, he said a couple things I say all the time, and I look at DeShon (Singleton) and he said, ‘You know coach, when he says it, it just kind of hits different.’”