Source: UNLVRebels.com
The Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus carried quite the reputation during America’s Gilded Age.
By 1872, under the direction of P.T. Barnum, the traveling theatrics was branded as “The Greatest Show on Earth”, and had an unheralded run of success before audience tastes and animal treatment controversies shuttered the traveling circus in 2017. The circus resumed performances, without animals, in 2013, but that is neither here nor there.
When you think about it, high-level college football can feel an awful lot like a circus.
It’s a sport built on spectacle, chaos and absurdity — even when we like to pretend that it doesn’t. Every Saturday in the fall, a new circus rolls into town. Coaches act as showmen, trying to keep the show moving. Quarterbacks assume the role of tightrope walkers with every move following bated breath. Fans are more than just fans, often feeling part of the act itself. There are big moments. Eye-popping stunts. Gasps of “Did you just see that?” It’s a sport built on the idea of controlled chaos.
And yet when you think about quarterbacks (the tightrope walkers), the element of chaos is often seen as a demerit. Quarterbacks are supposed to be leaders, steady hands, a calming force in a sport where car crashes happen on every play.
Having a chaotic quarterback isn’t always a bad thing. In the right system or under the correct circumstances, it can often be a feature, not a bug. That chaos gene can help quarterbacks and offenses as a whole win against schematic and personnel disadvantages. It can help offenses overcome the odds. And it can be wildly entertaining, one way or the other. Let’s not forget about that.
Speaking of uncut entertainment and the chaos gene, welcome to center stage, Anthony Colandrea.
This offseason, former UNLV quarterback Anthony Colandrea left the safety of Las Vegas and Dan Mullen’s offense to become the presumed starting quarterback for Matt Rhule at Nebraska. He’s one of a long line of annual signal-callers making the jump from the G6 to P5 ranks.
Colandrea was not Rhule and Nebraska’s first choice (that was former Notre Dame quarterback Kenny Minchey before he committed and then decommitted to go play for Will Stein at Kentucky), but that’s also neither here nor there because Colandrea is in Lincoln now and will have the opportunity to win the job.
So what is Nebraska getting in a quarterback like Colandrea? Using Hudl IQ, I’ll break down Colandrea’s 2025 season — identifying the traits that translate, the weaknesses that could hold him back and ultimately, how he might fit into what OC Dana Holgorsen and head coach Matt Rhule want to do on offense.
The Antithesis of Dylan Raiola
To properly understand what Colandrea brings to the table and why Nebraska went with a guy like him, I think it’s important to understand the context of what came before him in the form of former Nebraska starting quarterback Dylan Raiola.
I’ve written a fair amount about Nebraska and Raiola in the past 12 months. Back in the summer, I wrote about how Nebraska has essentially wandered the college football wilderness, and how I thought I thought the program might finally be on the doorstep of relevance. And just a few months ago, I wrote about Dylan Raiola for The Solid Verbal’s Quick Slants College Football Newsletter, detailing why I thought he was failed in Lincoln and why I’m bullish on his outlook in Eugene in 2027.
Not to mention that I live in the state of Nebraska and have been inundated with Nebraska football since I was 16 years ago. All of that to say, I consider myself particularly well-versed in writing about the Huskers.
Now, back to Dylan Raiola. Below I’ve included a few excerpts from The Solid Verbal’s newsletter about Raiola to provide context around what went wrong for the sophomore quarterback in 2025.
To say that the Nebraska offensive line was bad at protecting the passer would be an understatement.
The Cornhuskers gave up nine sacks in a loss to Minnesota. In Week 4, Raiola was sacked seven times against Michigan. According to Huskers.com, Nebraska gave up 30 sacks for 202 yards through 12 games.
According to Hudl IQ, Nebraska left tackles gave up 14 pressures, while the right tackles gave up 22 pressures—both of which were above the Big Ten average. The middle of the offensive line (LG, Center, RG) held up better in pass protection, allowing just 21 pressures among the three positions.
Examining individual pressures is one thing. But what about line gap pressures? The Cornhuskers gave up almost 40 pressures near the edges of the line of scrimmage, presumably to edge rushers and outside blitzers. Translation: The offensive tackles did not hold up well under pressure.
What does this all mean for Raiola?
Raiola often did not have adequate time on passing plays. This directly impacted his ability to stand tall in the pocket, but perhaps more importantly, it impacted the Huskers’ ability to push the ball downfield. How do I know this?
According to cfb-graphs.com, Raiola’s Average Depth of Target (ADOT) was a paltry 6.00, good for 137th in college football. By comparison, Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza finished the regular season with an ADOT of 8.59. These figures paint a vivid picture, showcasing that, because Raiola had less time to throw, he was unable to push the ball down the field, limiting the Cornhuskers’ passing game as a whole.
Here’s another snapshot that details why I thought Raiola did well considering the circumstances I detailed above.
Despite being under constant pressure in the passing game, Raiola put up good efficiency numbers and was a leading driver in the Cornhuskers’ offensive success.
Raiola posted solid EPA/Pass (0.12), Completion % (72.4%), and Completion % Over Expectation (CPOE) (5.6%) figures despite facing constant pressure.
Now, if there is a critique about Raiola, it’s almost certainly centered around the idea that he did not throw the ball away frequently enough. Or that, at times, he trusted his arm too much and forced the ball into difficult windows. And to that? Fair enough. I think he could stand to improve in that department.
Just for the sake of transparency (and so you can compare the radars if you’re so inclined), here’s a snapshot of Raiola’s performance in 2025.
Source: Hudl IQ
Alright, alright, enough about Raiola. I’ve said my piece.
If you can’t tell where this is headed…let’s just say that Nebraska might’ve found the antithesis of Dylan Raiola in Anthony Colandrea. It should be interesting!
Who Anthony Colandrea Is (And Isn’t)
Now that you have a clearer picture of how Raiola performed in 2025, let’s take a look at Colandrea over at UNLV.
Source: Hudl IQ
Colandrea and Raiola couldn’t be more different. Let’s start there.
At first glance, Colandrea is far and away a greater wildcard and risk-taker than Raiola. I was fortunate enough to watch Colandrea live when my wife and I took a trip to Boise, Idaho, when Dan Mullen’s Runnin’ Rebels took on the Broncos in October. Colandrea is an absolute spectacle to see live. He didn’t have a great game in that first meeting with Boise State. But man, oh man, is he a live wire player.
Before we dive into what Colandrea can do with his arm, let’s start with his legs. When looking at his radars, you can clearly see that much of Colandrea’s output and threat starts with his running abilities.
Looking at the Traits Radar (left side), the thing that immediately jumps out is Colandrea’s sky-high Pocket Left %, which signifies just how often he left the pocket. Did UNLV scheme up plenty of run plays for Colandrea? Yes. Is he also the ultimate improvisor, playing like a spinning top teetering out of control? Also yes.
Looking at the Performance Radar (right side), we can see that last year at UNLV, Colandrea was a positive influence on the offense, as evidenced by his positive EPA/Play, EPA/Pass, Success % figures, along with his impressive Completion %.
On the ground, Colandrea was the ultimate X-factor, notching strong EPA/Rush and Yards/Rush figures. In 2025, he averaged 8.7 Yards/Rush, which squarely places him as one of the best rushing threats from the quarterback position in college football. Standing at just six-feet tall and weighing just 205 pounds, it’s hard to not get some serious Johnny Manziel, circus ball vibes from short king Anthony Colandrea.
If I were to pick nits at his performance at the G6 level, I would’ve loved to see him create more chunk plays and have a much higher CPOE (Completion Percentage Over Expectation). That low CPOE figure is an indicator that he struggles to complete more difficult passes than the average passer would in a similar situation.
Source: Hudl IQ
Using the Hudl IQ Player Comparison tool, we can see that Colandrea’s 2025 performance was most comparable to Arkansas’ Taylen Green (another dual-threat dynamite player) and one of my favorite players in college football in Washington’s Demond Williams Jr. (I wrote about Demond Williams Jr.’s upside before last season. And despite a few underwhelming games against good teams, I’m extremely bullish on him in the longterm.)
If I had to make a player comp using this information, I’d best categorize Colandrea as a Taylen Green-like player, someone who can make the amazing happen on any given down, but who can simultaneously turn the ball over frequently and play with the sort of reckless abandon that will drive some coaches and fans understandably crazy. If you live by the sword, you die by the sword. And boy, oh boy, does Colandrea live by the sword (chaos gene).
He’s the type of player that can light you on fire with his legs, can more than adequately play out of the structure of a playcall and who regularly gives defensive coordinators nightmares. At the same time, he’s a gamblin’ man and is a risk-taker to his core. For every good play and spectacular moment comes a mind-numbingly frustrating error or unnecessary risk.
He’s an entertainer. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
The Verdict
I think it’ll be fascinating to see how OC Dana Holgorsen tries to build an offense that fits Colandrea’s skillset.
Part of the reason why I felt like Dylan Raiola was failed and not a failure in Lincoln, was because I thought Holgorsen did a poor job of building an offense that platformed Raiola’s abilities. Couple that with a bad offensive line and it’s no wonder that Raiola struggled when faced with an onslaught of pressure.
Matt Rhule lured away former Georgia Tech offensive line coach Geep Wade (awesome o-line coach name) and they’ve tried to pick up some o-line pieces in the portal. It doesn’t take a football genius to recognize that the Huskers desperately need to improve up front if they have any hope of protecting Colandrea and winning more football games in 2026.
But in this instance, I think Colandera’s chaos gene could actually benefit the Huskers in more ways than one. His dual-threat capabilities, coupled with his ability to play off-schedule when things break down, should ideally be able to offset some of those o-line woes.
If Colandrea works in Lincoln, it’s because Holgorsen has found a way to tap into Colandrea’s chaos gene — giving him the flexibilty to play off schedule, make plays with his legs and inject some much-needed spark into an offense that is now without All-American running back Emmett Johnson.
If he doesn’t work at Nebraska, it’s because he becomes too reliant on hero, chaos ball, he turns the ball over too often and he ultimately can’t hold up against the big, physical defenses he’ll face week in and week out in the Big 10 Conference.
The thing about the circus is that it’s all about entertainment. You can gripe about the conditions. You can complain about the price of admission. You can even balk the mere concept of a traveling roadshow.
I come back to this quote: “Don’t blame a clown for acting like a clown. Blame yourself for going to the circus.”
Remember that quote next year, Nebraska fans. You chastised Dylan Raiola’s lack of mobility and need to play on schedule. Now, you’ve got a guy who is an entertainer and lives by the chaos gene.
Don’t say I didn’t warn you.