It was hard to get a read on Raiola because it was such a weird season. It was pretty clear at the beginning of the season that Frost was unhappy with the direction of the offense under Whipple, and it's highly likely that Frost became much more involved after the Northwestern loss.
After rushing for just 110 yards against the Wildcats, the Huskers ran for over 500 yards and averaged 5.7 yards per carry over the next 2 games.
Frost was then fired, and the offense hit the skids. The Whipple hire was, in a word, disastrous. We had a 4 game stretch in Oct-Nov in which we scored less than 40 points. No, not 40 points per game, but 40 points total. It was a complete failure... during that stretch, we ran for less than 90 yards per game and averaged less than 3 yards per carry. The passing game didn't fare any better, completing less than 50% and never reaching even 200 yards in a single game.
Whether by design or by chance, Casey Thompson also rarely made anything happen with his feet - he finished the season with negative rushing yards.
Some of the putrid offensive performance certainly falls on the offensive line, but I think the majority of it falls on Whipple. Hiring Whipple mine have been Frost's biggest mistake/failure.
