In 2024, Matt Rhule led the Nebraska Cornhuskers to their first winning season since 2016. The program has struggled for much of the 21st century, and while it’s considered a college football blue-blood, its recent performance hasn’t reflected that status.
Rhule appears to be steering the program in the right direction. In the 2024 recruiting class, he landed five-star quarterback Dylan Raiola to help with the turnaround. Now, in Year 3 of the Rhule Dynasty in Lincoln, one analyst thinks the Cornhuskers can take the next step.
Why Does Joel Klatt Think Nebraska Can Make the College Football Playoff in 2025?
On “The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast,” host Joel Klatt listed 10 teams he believes can make the CFP for the first time in the 2025 season. Among those teams was Nebraska, a surprising pick considering the Cornhuskers finished 7-6 in 2024.
While Nebraska hasn’t been fantastic in its first two seasons of the Rhule era, Klatt believes that in 2025, the program could make a leap. He cited both Rhule and quarterback Dylan Raiola as reasons for this.
“They’re going to have a returning quarterback in Dylan Raiola, who was just a true freshman,” Klatt said. “So yeah, you could say he made a lot of mistakes last year, but remember, you get some experience going, and you get the continuity of having your coach back now for Matt Rhule. I think they can probably take a little bit of a jump.”
Raiola threw for 2,819 yards, 13 touchdowns, and 11 interceptions in 2024 while completing 67.1% of his passes. The freshman quarterback started all 13 games and helped Nebraska win the Pinstripe Bowl over Boston College, their first bowl victory since 2015.
Klatt explained that historically, Rhule makes the most significant leap in his third year with a program. This pattern holds true at both of his previous college stops.
“You look at what [Rhule] did at Temple and at Baylor —Â he won at least 10Â in year three at both locations,” Klatt said.
At Temple, Rhule went 2-10 in his first season (2013), improved to 6-6 in year two (2014), then jumped to 10-4 in his third year (2015). The same pattern emerged at Baylor, where he went 1-11, 7-6, and 11-3 in his third season before leaving for the NFL.
Nebraska’s trajectory mirrors those previous stops. Rhule went 5-7 in his first season (2023) and improved to 7-6 in 2024. If the pattern continues, the Cornhuskers could be looking at a 10-win season in 2025.
The schedule appears favorable for such a jump. Nebraska’s out-of-conference slate includes Cincinnati, Akron, and Houston Christian. Their Big Ten schedule features Michigan, USC, and Penn State as the three most challenging opponents.
If they can handle conference opponents like Iowa, Maryland, Michigan State, UCLA, Minnesota, and Northwestern, there’s no reason they can’t finish 10-2Â or 9-3.
Klatt ranked the Cornhuskers last on his list of 10 teams, so he isn’t overly confident in their ability to reach the CFP. Still, Rhule’s year-three track record speaks for itself, and he’s built a competitive roster through recruiting and the transfer portal.
Even without a playoff appearance in 2025, an 8-4 or better record would cement that the Cornhuskers are becoming a real Big Ten contender, which hasn’t been the case since the Bo Pelini era ended in 2014.
