Dylan Raiola just faced his first college football defeat in the hands of the Illinois Fighting Illini. In what was a thrilling game of competition between the two ranked programs, Illinois triumphed over Nebraska in a 31-24 OT. But that’s not the only sad news about this Big Ten program as it’s taking them forever to make their first win against a ranked program. 

The last loss against No. 24 Illinois marked 2926 days that they haven’t won against a top 25 college football program. You’ll be surprised to know that Nebraska hasn’t won a game against a ranked team in eight years. The last time they won against a top 25 program was in 2016 on September 18 against No. 22 Oregon.

Last year hadn’t been an illustrious year for the Cornhuskers who lost all the games to their three ranked opponents – No. 22 Colorado, No. 2 Michigan, and No. 17 Iowa. This year, they kicked off on a strong start, thanks to freshman QB Dylan Raiola who was a consensus top 10 player and the highest-rated recruit by Nebraska. The 19-year-old freshman star proved his hype in the first three games, including a 28-10 win over Colorado who defeated them as a No. 22 team in 2023. The Buffs have fallen out of the ranks after their 4-8 fall last season. But coming back to Raiola, does the last loss against Illinois prove that there’s still more to improve when it comes to the top 25 programs?

Dylan Raiola faces first college football defeat 

One thing we learned about Dylan Raiola and Nebraska is that they can get sloppy under pressure. It hadn’t been a disastrous game for the Huskers when they led 17-10 during halftime. But the third and fourth quarter saw them finishing with 17-17 and 24-24, respectively. This led to the overtime play where Raiola made a mistake with his incomplete passes. He was sacked two times and Illinois ultimately sealed the final score with a 4-yard passing TD from Luke Altmyr. Still, he finished with 284 yards and three touchdowns.

Losing in front of a 86,936-crowd is a huge blow for Nebraska especially when they’re celebrating their 400th consecutive game sell-out with this clash with Illinois. But there’s no time to mull over things in regret. They still have No. 3 Ohio State and No. 11 USC in October and November, respectively. With the way Raiola is playing as a freshman, there’s hope that there could be an end to their losing streak this season. After all, the Illinois defeat is just one game! 

Talking about college football, you might want to check out these feisty takes from Doug Sanders on our exclusive Think Tank podcast.