Nebraska Football QB Outlook: Lateef’s Breakout, Raiola’s Impact, and 2026 Scenarios

This week on the Common Fan Podcast, we talked to Mitch Sherman of The Athletic and the Locked On Nebraska Podcast. Mitch addressed Nebraska’s quarterback situation, talking about TJ Lateef’s impressive play versus UCLA, discussing the possibility of a quarterback competition in 2026, and reminding the Common Fans about Dylan Raiola’s significant contributions to Nebraska football to date. Click here for a link to the full episode; see below for his comments on the quarterback situation.

NOTE: The responses below have been lightly edited for purposes of clarity and brevity.

What was your take on what the TJ Lateef-led offense did in Pasadena?

I mean, the first four possessions produced four touchdowns. So, pretty tough to argue with that. And at that point, you had a 28-7 lead. I think Nebraska took its foot off the gas a bit and wanted to let its defense win the game, which...as we’ve seen in other games this season, that can get a little bit hairy. I think Nebraska fans would have liked to see maybe another touchdown in that game to truly put it out. Moving forward, you would like to see Nebraska build that 28-7 lead and then, boom, one more punch and it's over. If it’s 35-14, a couple minutes into the fourth quarter, UCLA’s not coming back from that. But as we saw, it got close, and Nebraska needed to put together a four-minute drive with a freshman quarterback who had to make a couple of throws that were...it was nerve-wracking, I think, for Husker Nation. It was more than Nebraska wanted to endure.

But by and large in that game, I mean, Lateef was outstanding with his composure and his ability to handle what Nebraska asked him to do. It wasn’t a completely watered down game plan. They ran the things that they would have run with Dylan Raiola. Certain elements were simplified, but in no way was TJ going out there and having only one receiver to throw to. He was going through progressions. I think just the nature of his play is, he’s a little more quick to pull the ball down and run if one of his first two reads isn’t there. But the options existed for him to go to a third or a fourth read, which is a lot to ask of a freshman quarterback in his first start against a Big Ten opponent. But they didn’t shy away from that.

And he made good decisions throughout the game, and then Emmett Johnson was spectacular in that game. He did what Matt Rhule asked of all of the Nebraska players in Lateef’s first start, which was to just do a little bit more. Go a little bit further, and if everybody does a little bit more on offense and defense and special teams, then you’re going to make life easy on this freshman QB. And that’s kind of how it played out in large part because of the contributions that Nebraska got from Emmett Johnson.

At what point do we start having a conversation about a quarterback competition?

If he (Lateef) looks great in these last couple games. With Nebraska’s General Manager, Pat Stewart, and the people in that department, which has bulked up in a completely new kind of way here, even just in the last 12 months…the conversations that Nebraska will have in the office in December before they get into portal season, is what’s the value of every player on the Nebraska roster, like dollar value. It’s tough, I think, to make a payroll if you have two quarterbacks that are commanding, you know, seven figures, or in Dylan’s case, he’s making quite a bit more than just seven figures. So if TJ plays to a level where he is commanding that, and some of that’s just like how the market is set, like what are other teams willing to pay him? And then Nebraska is going to kind of have to get there to keep him.

That’s when it becomes a conversation that Nebraska has to have. Maybe Nebraska can’t afford to have two million dollar quarterbacks on the roster in 2026. I don’t know. You know, in the past, you might let this thing play out if both of them were to stay and have a competition in the spring, which is a weird thing to say, because Dylan’s a 22-game starter and really has never been challenged at any point in his time at Nebraska. But everything’s different now in college football. And you have to think about these things in December when they put valuations on players and start to talk about the kind of money that they’re going to get paid next season. I think it’ll take care of itself, just because of the forces around the sport.

If TJ plays to a very high level in the next couple of games, then he’s going to elevate his value to a point where you just probably can’t have both of them. And it won’t even have to be Nebraska’s decision. Nebraska might say, “We want to keep both of them and we’re going to pay them both. We’re going to find a way to pay them both market value.” But then the players have to be on board with that too. And one of them is probably going to see that there’s not an opportunity to be a guaranteed starter in the coming years. So I think it’ll take care of itself. That’s if TJ plays at a really high level in these next couple of games. If he kind of comes back to earth, and you can see that the best situation for Nebraska is to have him continue to be an understudy for Dylan Raiola next season, then Nebraska is absolutely in play to be able to keep them both.

TJ will get coveted. He’ll probably get some kind of an offer to leave Nebraska that’s greater in monetary value than what Nebraska is willing to pay to retain him. Or maybe not. Maybe Nebraska will overpay for a backup quarterback. It might have to. And that’s fine because if he’s your future starter, then they’ll go into the spring and have both of them.

On everything Dylan Raiola has done for the Nebraska football program:

Dylan has done a lot for the program that goes beyond just coming and playing quarterback. He did open the door for players to follow him that would not have been Huskers, if not for Raiola. And some of that is from his visibility, because there were players out there in the first year that Dylan was in the program who said, well, if a five-star quarterback who was committed to Georgia and Ohio State before he signed with Nebraska was willing to do this, then I'm on board. That legitimizes Nebraska as a place that other top talent can go. And then once he got to Nebraska and got entrenched, the work that Dylan did to help Nebraska get Nyziah Hunter, Dane Key, and others in the portal last year; Dylan has been the front man for Nebraska from day one. Even when he was a recruit…from the day that he committed and signed with Nebraska, he has been the number one advocate for Matt Rhule and his program on the recruiting trail from a player perspective. So, I think Nebraska fans should have a lot of appreciation and admiration for him doing that.

Nebraska quarterback Dylan Raiola runs against USC. | Kenny Larabee, KLIN

And then on the field, you can always find reasons to criticize someone, but I don’t know that I necessarily agree that Nebraska fans or media in Nebraska have been hesitant to criticize him. I think it’s been an intelligent process. You have to consider what he accomplished, to come in and start 13 games as a true freshman, and to set the school record for freshman completion percentage and passing yards, and to lead Nebraska to its first bowl game since 2016, and the win against Wisconsin, and to come through the kind of mess that he endured in the middle of the season where Nebraska had to make an offensive coordinator change and adapt to a new coordinator. I’m having a hard time being critical of Dylan for much of anything in that freshman season.

It wasn’t perfect, no. But who was out there expecting it to be perfect?

This year, through the nine games that he played, I mean, the biggest criticism I have is that he sometimes brought the sacks on himself, and that the 16 sacks against Michigan and Minnesota were not all the fault of the offensive line and the running back and the wide receivers’ inability to get open. One third to one quarter, if not more, of the responsibility rested on Dylan, at times holding the ball too long, and then at other times just not having the pocket awareness to make that one move away from the pressure. You see that with great quarterbacks.

Dylan’s not a five-star in every area. He has a five-star arm. And you can find other traits that are five-star caliber. He doesn’t have five-star ability in evading the pass rush. So he’s gotta work to get better at that. And if he’s going to be a starter in the NFL, if he’s going to turn himself into a first round pick, then he needs to improve at that pocket awareness stuff. And maybe that is where he can spend time watching tape. And maybe he talks to his Dad. Maybe he talks to Matthew Stafford. He has great resources at his fingertips that he can go to, to improve that area of his game.

And I think if he improves that area—where he just gets a little bit better at evading the rush, stepping up in the pocket, feeling the pressure, you know, having that sense of when somebody’s coming at his blind side, getting rid of the ball on schedule—then I have almost no complaints with him.

He threw 18 touchdowns and six picks this year, which was a big step up over a year ago. He threw for 2000 yards in eight and a half games. He was pretty good; he was pretty effective. He’s the closest Nebraska's had, maybe ever, to just being NFL ready as a quarterback in this offense.

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