Noah Eagle of NBC's Big Ten Saturday Night: 'There's No Reason' Nebraska 'Can't Do What Indiana Did Last Year'

How good can Nebraska be in 2025? It's the question of the offseason around here, and on this week's edition of the I-80 Football Show, Noah Eagle of Big Ten Saturday Night joined to discuss the 2025 college football season, including his thoughts on Nebraska's big year three under Matt Rhule. Why is he bullish on a big year for the Cornhuskers? Does it all come down to Dylan Raiola and the offense?

Below is a lightly edited transcript of their discussion on Nebraska football.

Josh: Last year, you didn't have a chance to call Nebraska. You did see them two years ago in one of those brutal late regular losses that they had. That one was up in Madison, Wisconsin. What are you expecting from year three, Matt Rhule and Dylan Raiola? At his previous stops, Rhule in college has had really nice third seasons. All of us around here are kind of on pins and needles to see what happens. What are you expecting from the Big Red?

Noah: I expect another step forward. I'm not saying that they're going to make the College Football Playoff this year, but they're at least going to take a legitimate step where you're not biting your nails at the end of the season to see if they're a bowl team. I think that's where we're going to be at now, where the expectation is more than just six wins. Now it's, “can you get up to eight?” and then now the following year, where Dylan Raiola is now a junior and has potentially, in his third year as a starter; now are you a college football playoff team? Now are you one of the 12 best teams in the country? Are you at that level where you can start really having an expectation in Lincoln of national championship competition again?

Matt Rhule's known for his ability to build culture at his previous stops. Will that show this year in Lincoln? | Dylan Widger-Imagn Images

Because that's what the goal is, obviously, in all of this. And I think Matt Rhule has proven, to your point, in his previous stops, the type of culture builder that he is. Being around the Chargers these last couple of weeks and seeing what Jim Harbaugh is capable of. We've seen it throughout his career at stops, and that third year for him being a big deal; second, third, fourth year, obviously just continuing to instill. But now there's no, “hey, we had to get rid of the past stuff.” Once you've had those two years to really build it and get all of your guys now in, there's no more other people's guys in there. It's all Matt Rhule’s guys that are out on the field. I think that's an important factor in all of this.

So, like I said earlier with Dylan Raiola last year, we saw brilliance at times. We saw just feats of athleticism and arm strength and arm talent that we hadn't seen in Lincoln in a little while, you know, in quite some time. But we also saw some clear freshman mistakes.

I think it was very similar, actually, with Aidan Chiles in East Lansing with Michigan State. There were moments with him where I was like, this guy's unbelievable. And it actually reminded me a lot, and I could say similar stuff with Dylan; it reminded me a lot of a couple of years back, it must've been the 2022 season, I had Washington State at USC, and it was Cam Ward's first year at Washington State. And there were moments in that game where I go, “this dude has all the talent in the world.” And then there were moments, the way I described it is, “how did he do that?” And then there were moments I said, “Why did he do that?” I would say that's what we had with Dylan last year.

Could Dylan Raiola have a Cam Ward-like jump in his own career? | Andrew Nelles / The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

And so the hope is that there's a lot more moments of how did he do that? Not a lot more moments of why did he do that? And that’s the jump that you expect them to take. But I think the expectation in Lincoln should be getting closer to that step. And then next year is where you break through.

But I could be wrong. To your point, Matt Rhule has a clear record that the third year could be special. And so there's no reason that they can't take that crazy step. There's no reason they can't do what Indiana did last year and completely surprise people. They've got the talent for it. And to me, they've got the coaching for it. And now you've got a full season with an offensive coordinator and a full offseason with an offensive coordinator who's known as one of the most creative and inventive offensive minds in college football over the last however many years. I think that's going to be a big factor as well.

So I'm excited to see what they look like overall. We know the defense should be stout. Can the offense follow suit?

Watch the clip below!

Watch the entire podcast on Thursday, when Noah dives into the 2025 season, including the Big Ten contenders, and discusses his career so far. Plus, Jack Mitchell and Josh preview Nebraska's opener vs. Cincinnati for the final time!

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