With Nebraska football hosting Michigan State in Week 6 of the college football season for its second straight Big Ten home game of the year, a familiar last name might be heard on the telecast for Spartans fans back in the East Lansing and Detroit areas.
It just won’t be the player associated to it that they were accustomed to hearing for 14 years on NFL Sundays with the Detroit Lions.
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Leading the Cornhuskers onto the field at Memorial Stadium to face Michigan State on Saturday, Oct. 4 at 4 p.m. ET will be sophomore quarterback Dylan Raiola, the son of former Cornhusker and Lions center great Dominic Raiola.
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Raiola, who has received quite the fame with the Cornhuskers for his similarities to Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, is in his second season serving as the starting quarterback for Matt Rhule’s squad in Nebraska.
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The 6-foot-3 quarterback has been one of the more explosive quarterbacks this season in the air and is on track to surpass his marks in every statistical category this season, as he has thrown for 1,137 yards in four games and is two touchdowns away from tying his career high in touchdowns of 13.
Here’s what to know:
Is Dylan Raiola related to Dominic Raiola?
Yes, Dylan Raiola is related to Dominic Raiola. He is the second-oldest child and the oldest son of Dominic Raiola, who played at Nebraska and helped the Cornhuskers to the 1997 national championship title. A second-round draft pick in the 2001 NFL Draft, Dominic Raiola spent the entirety of his career with the Lions in the NFL.
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Dylan Raiola stats
Here’s a year-by-year breakdown of Dylan Raiola’s stats at Nebraska:
2024: 275 of 410 (67.1%) passing for 2,819 yards with 13 touchdowns and 11 interceptions
2025: 102 of 135 (75.6%) passing for 1,137 yards with 11 touchdowns and an interception
Where did Dominic Raiola go to college?
Dominic Raiola played college football at Nebraska, where he was a two-time All-Big 12 selection and a consensus first-team All-America in his final season with the Cornhuskers.
In his final season at Nebraska in 2000, the Dave Rimington Award winner was part of a Cornhuskers offensive line that won the NCAA rushing title (349.0 yards per game) and finished in the top-six in both total offense (459.0 yards per game, sixth) and scoring offense (41.5 points per game, fourth).
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The Raiola Family Pipeline at Nebraska was continued when Dylan Raiola committed to the Cornhuskers, his third commitment in the high school recruiting process, in December of 2023 as a five-star recruit and the No. 2-ranked quarterback in the 2024 class, according to 247Sports’ Composite Rankings.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Is Nebraska’s Dylan Raiola related to Dominic Raiola?