Dylan Raiola didn’t leave much room for nostalgia at Oregon’s Media Day on Monday.
The former Nebraska quarterback, now with the Ducks, was asked the standard transfer question about the difference between Nebraska and Oregon, and he went straight to the low-hanging fruit. Raiola opened by talking about the scenery, saying, “I'll start with the landscape of outside.
And there's not cornfields here. There's mountains and trees.
I love the nature,” Raiola said.
That alone was enough to turn heads, especially from a player who spent two years in Lincoln and previously spoke so highly of the program and the state. But Raiola didn’t stop there. When the conversation shifted to football, he made the kind of comment that is bound to linger.
“As far as football, it's different. With coaches and players, we have a lot more talent than we did at Nebraska.
And I don't say that to knock on them, but I think everybody will know that. But I'm very grateful for my time there.
Learned a lot from my coaches, teammates. Still have those relationships, but…”
It’s one thing to praise your new team. It’s another to do it by taking a swipe at the old one, even with a qualifier attached.
Oregon is clearly one of the country’s top teams, and Raiola’s point about talent may be accurate on its face. Still, it’s not the kind of line that sits well with Nebraska fans, especially when it comes from a player who once seemed like such a strong ambassador for the program.
The whole exchange had a sharp edge to it, particularly because Raiola seemed to be talking freely about a matchup he may never have to answer for this season unless Dante Moore is hurt. In that sense, he got to fire off a few shots without much immediate consequence.
So no, nothing he said crossed into truly outrageous territory. But it also wasn’t the kind of answer that suggests much warmth remains between Raiola and Husker fans.
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