New college football program emerges as landing spot for Dylan Raiola

The race is on to sign transfer quarterback Dylan Raiola, and a new program has emerged as a contender to land the former Nebraska hopeful after entering the college football transfer portal.
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The arms race to sign Dylan Raiola is on, as the former Nebraska quarterback is reportedly poised to enter the college football transfer portal for the 2026 season.

A former five-star prospect, Raiola is expected to be one of the most prominent names in this year’s portal cycle, and one college football program is already interested.

Who is interested in Dylan Raiola?

Dylan Raiola has received interest from ACC hopeful Louisville, which has been in communication with the quarterback’s representatives, according to On3 Sports.

Other schools are believed to be in the mix for Raiola, but the Cardinals are actively scouting a potential replacement for Miller Moss as his college football career is coming to its conclusion after this season.

DJ Lagway, the former Florida starting quarterback who is also set to transfer in this cycle, was named a candidate for Louisville to sign in the same reporting.

A known QB developer

Louisville head coach Jeff Brohm is considered one of the best quarterback coaches in the country, helping groom Tyler Shough into a draft selection, and Moss is coming off a 2,500-plus yard campaign in 2025.

And the Cardinals were said to be in the mix for Cam Ward two offseasons ago before he ultimately landed at Miami.

The program is willing to spend money at the position, handing over more than $1.5 million this season to Moss, who transferred from USC to Louisville.

What Raiola has done on the field

Raiola was in the midst of an improved second outing with Nebraska under the direction of offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen before a broken fibula limited him to just nine starts this season.

In those games, Raiola surpassed 2,000 yards passing with 18 touchdowns and 6 interceptions, and his completion mark improved from 67.1 percent as a freshman to a better 72.4 percent rate in his second year with the Cornhuskers.

How the college football transfer portal works

The NCAA Transfer Portal is a private database that includes the names of student-athletes in every sport at the Division I, II, and III levels. The full list of names is not available to the public.

A player can enter their name into the transfer portal through their school's compliance office.

Once a player gives written notification of their intent to transfer, the office puts the player's name into the database, and they officially become a transfer.

The compliance office has 48 hours to comply with the player's request and NCAA rules forbid anyone from refusing that request.

The database includes the player's name, contact information, info on whether the player was on scholarship, and if he is a graduate student.

Once a player's name appears in the transfer portal database, other schools are free to contact the player, who can change his mind at any point in the process and withdraw from the transfer portal.

Notably, once a player enters the portal, his school no longer has to honor the athletic scholarship it gave him.

And if that player decides to leave the portal and return to his original school, the school doesn't have to give him another scholarship.

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James Parks
JAMES PARKS

James Parks is the founder and publisher of College Football HQ. He has covered football for a decade, previously managing several team sites and publishing national content for 247Sports.com for five years. His work has also been published on CBSSports.com. He founded College Football HQ in 2020, and the site joined the Sports Illustrated Fannation Network in 2022 and the On SI network in 2024.