COLUMBUS - Dylan Raiola walked back into the same media setting he knew from a year ago, only this time the backdrop looked very different. Then, he was coming off a loss to Ohio State. On this night, he had just helped Oregon beat the Buckeyes in front of 103,551 fans.
That contrast hung over everything Raiola said after the game. He didn’t try to dress it up or rush past it. He leaned into the memory of being in that exact chair after falling short, and he made clear that the experience stuck with him.
“I remember sitting in this exact chair, upset, wondering. We were right there.
We were this close to winning, but you know, those are all learning moments for me. And I just, I'm just grateful.
Like you look back and you’re just grateful for those times because when you’re in them, it’s like, dang, like why am I in it? Like this isn’t fair, whatever it is.
But when you look back at it, like it’s everything that happened shaped me into what I am today, and you know things moving forward in the future. So I’m grateful for for everything that’s happened.”
Oregon’s 2026 season has been anything but smooth. The Ducks opened the year ranked No. 2 in the AP Poll, then dropped three games, lost starting quarterback Dante Moore to injury and fired their offensive coordinator. Through all of that, the offense has had to deal with instability under backup Dylan Raiola.
Still, Oregon found a way to knock off No. 12 Ohio State with Raiola running the show. He threw for 257 yards and two touchdowns and did it without an interception, even if there were a few tense moments along the way.
“Our plan was to just go right after them (Ohio State) and we weren’t going to go around. We weren’t going to try and do it a different way. We were just gonna attack through our DNA.”
That approach showed up early and kept showing up as the game wore on. Raiola said Oregon saw openings in the Buckeyes’ defense during the week and trusted what it had built in practice, even after the Ducks put themselves in a hole.
“Yeah, we just, we were confident in our plan. We saw seams everywhere in their defense when we were game planning for them, and a couple of those first couple drives were like self-inflicted wounds, and so we never got down.
We were confident when they got up 14, we're like, "Oh, this happened last week, so let’s just go do it again." And we just kept stacking play at a time, and I can’t say enough of how proud I am of this team.”
He also pointed to the way Oregon handled the pressure once it fell behind 14. Raiola said the Ducks didn’t panic, and he credited coach Lanning for putting them in those kinds of situations in practice.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t say simple because it is hard. Like going down 14 is not easy to stay confident in.
But our guys did. Credit to coach Lanning because he just puts us in those positions in practice, and when we get into them in the game, it’s like, all right, we’ve been here before, and let’s go execute our jobs at a high level, and we’ll look up at the end of 60 minutes and see what the result was, and we just put our heads down and went to work.”
Raiola admitted there were still throws he wants back. He said he needs to be smarter with the ball, even if the risky plays didn’t end up costing Oregon.
“Yeah, I mean, obviously, got to be a little smarter with the ball, but we knew we were confident. Like I said, our plan was to just go right after them, and we weren’t going to go around. We weren’t going to try and do it a different way.”
“We were just gonna attack through our DNA, and yeah, there’s a couple times that I threw the ball in jeopardy, and I of course want those back because those could have swayed the game a lot different, but they didn’t, and so here we are sitting here happy that we won. So we got to go clean those things up, but we’ll enjoy this one on the way back.”
Even with the turbulence around the program, Raiola said the locker room has kept him grounded. He talked about the support around him and said he’s not interested in being singled out.
“But just being able to come to work with these guys and just them to kind of just encourage and lead and allow me to lead from the front, it makes a lot of difference, and like I said, we’re just getting started. Like we are doing what we’re supposed to do, and we need to keep that going this next game against Michigan.”
He also brushed off outside noise, saying he hasn’t been paying attention to social media and doesn’t measure himself by it.
“Yeah, I mean, I would say I have not been on social media, so I have no idea what’s being said. And I honestly, respectfully, I don’t put my value in that. What I do care about is what that locker thinks of me, and what I do care about is what that coaching staff thinks of me.”
“And so, I think penciled in is a bold term just because I don’t want to be something different than the guys. I just want to be another guy that plays for Oregon and does their job at a high level.
And so, yeah, to answer your question, I just want to be a part of the team. I don’t want to be an individual.”
Raiola closed by reflecting on the atmosphere in Columbus and how much the scene had changed since his last trip there. He said the group kept building through the game until the stadium was mostly green.
“Yeah, heavy, heavy lean on those, and also sharing with my teammates. A lot of the guys haven’t played here before, and the last time I played here, the stadium didn’t look how it looked like tonight, and so we knew all along that that’s what was going to happen because we believed in each other. We just kept stacking, and we looked up and it was like, wow, there’s just green left.”
“All the only red left is on the seats, and so, yeah, I’m just proud of this team. Yeah, we’ve been through a lot, but we’re just getting started.”
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