{"id":366582,"date":"2024-02-09T14:47:10","date_gmt":"2024-02-09T15:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=366582"},"modified":"2024-02-09T16:02:04","modified_gmt":"2024-02-09T16:02:04","slug":"what-did-espn-analyst-kirk-herbstreit-tell-dylan-raiolas-father-before-the-georgia-flip-i-of-course-did-not-try-and-sell-nebraska","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=366582","title":{"rendered":"What did ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit tell Dylan Raiola&#039;s father before the Georgia flip? &#039;I of course did not try and sell Nebraska&#039;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Dylan Raiola&#8217;s flip on the eve of the early signing period made waves in the college football world. It continues to do so, with ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit&#8217;s &#8220;involvement&#8221; in the five-star quarterback&#8217;s flip from Georgia to Nebraska.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/n.rivals.com\/content\/athletes\/dylan-raiola-281411\">According to Rivals<\/a>, the quarterback is the second-best player in the nation in the class of 2024.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/n.rivals.com\/news\/rivals-nsd-studio-show-dominic-raiola-interview\">In a recent interview with Rivals<\/a>, Dominic Raiola said that Herbstreit, a former <a href=\"https:\/\/buckeyeswire.usatoday.com\/\">Ohio State<\/a> quarterback who is one of ESPN&#8217;s biggest personalities, offered advice to the family in the days leading up to the <a href=\"https:\/\/cornhuskerswire.usatoday.com\/\">Nebraska<\/a> flip.<\/p>\n<p>With his father a former standout at Nebraska and his brother on staff, <a href=\"https:\/\/usatodayhss.com\/2023\/dylan-raiola-flips-top-ranked-quarterback-is-heading-to-nebraska\">the decision by Dylan Raiola to leave<\/a> in-state <a href=\"https:\/\/ugawire.usatoday.com\/\">Georgia<\/a> for the Big Ten program certainly makes sense. But it is Herbstreit&#8217;s involvement that has raised some eyebrows.<\/p>\n<p>There were questions about the appropriateness concerning Herstreit&#8217;s involvement in the star quarterback ending up in Nebraska for head coach Matt Rhule&#8217;s rebuilding of the program.<\/p>\n<p>In an appearance Thursday on the Paul Finebaum Show, Herbstreit clarified and defended his role.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;When somebody calls and says &#8216;What do you think of Matt Rhule&#8217; and you like Matt Rhule&#8230;are you supposed to say Matt Rhule is a bad guy? Matt Rhule is an idiot? Matt Rhule is a bad coach? Or do you say &#8216;I like Matt Rhule. I think Matt Rhule is a good coach.&#8217; And the other part of it that he said, I think the family legacy,&#8221; Herbstreit told ESPN&#8217;s Finebaum.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think he mentioned his brother was an assistant coach (<a href=\"https:\/\/huskers.com\/sports\/football\/roster\/season\/2023\/staff\/donovan-raiola\">Donovan Raiola<\/a>) there at Nebraska and of course, Dom was a great player there himself, an All-American.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;And I think it sounded like the family, out of their respect for their love for Nebraska, that they were really torn. That&#8217;s what he made it sound like.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Herbstreit said that the story was compelling to him. Before he decided to flip, Dylan Raiola was weighing his current commitment to Georgia, a juggernaut program that has two national championships in recent years.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-media-max-width=\"560\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Kirk Herbstreit gives his take on the phone call he had with Dylan Raiola&#8217;s dad before the QB recruit flipped his commitment from Georgia to Nebraska <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/W7fWbSrKHq\">pic.twitter.com\/W7fWbSrKHq<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Paul Finebaum (@finebaum) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/finebaum\/status\/1755736731444240625?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 8, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>But the heart, Herbstreit said, was tugging for Nebraska.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;I felt like being a guy that went to Ohio State and a lot of it had to do with my dad (Jim Herbstreit was a former Ohio State player and assistant coach)&#8230;I just said &#8216;Wow, the fact that your son can go to any school, any powerhouse that is competing for national titles and because of his respect for his own dad, he&#8217;s thinking about maybe going to Nebraska?&#8217; A place that hasn&#8217;t competed for national titles in 20 years,&#8221; Kirk Herstreit said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That says about who the kid is. It&#8217;s not just about going to the NFL.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>In closing out his defense, the ESPN analyst made it clear that his advice was not geared toward pushing Dylan Raiola in the direction of one program or another.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;I of course did not try and sell Nebraska and try to tell anyone not to go to Georgia. That&#8217;s the most ridiculous thing that anybody would do,&#8221; Kirk Herbstreit said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But I did compliment Matt Rhule &#8211; if I&#8217;m guilty of anything, I said that Matt Rhule was a good coach and he&#8217;s a good man. I do believe he will bring Nebraska back, like he did Temple and Baylor.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Kirk Herbstreit discusses his alleged role in Dylan Raiola&#8217;s flip to Nebraska.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":286601,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366582"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=366582"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":366584,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366582\/revisions\/366584"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/286601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=366582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=366582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=366582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}