Here's why Dylan Raiola is moving to Georgia for his senior year
Class of 2024 Georgia quarterback commit and the nation’s No. 1 overall prospect Dylan Raiola is moving from Arizona to Georgia for his senior year of high school. Raiola is enrolling at Buford High School.
There are many reasons for this move. Chief among those reasons being that Raiola wants to play a full senior year of football. In Arizona Raiola was facing a potential 5-game suspension due to AIA intrastate transfer rules. The Raiola family had decided to move from Chandler High School to Pinnacle High School earlier this year and applied for a hardship to be able to play immediately.
The Raiola family met with district officials to plan an appeal to the AIA in May. The AIA informed Pinnacle and the Raiola family that a decision on the appeal would not be made until August 15. That timing was too close to the season for anyone who was involved’s liking, including the Pinnacle head coach and staff. So the decision to move was made first and foremost in efforts for Raiola to get to play and compete for the entirety of his senior season.
“The important thing for Dylan was to be able to compete for his last season in high school,” Dom Raiola told UGASports. “And after meeting with the head coach at Pinnacle, the coach was confident that he’d have to sit out games to start his senior year.”
Reason number two listed to UGASports by the Raiola family is competition level. The level of competition in Georgia High School Football is higher state wide than it is in Arizona. Raiola and those around him want the opportunity for the top prospect to compete against the best on Friday nights before arriving in Athens and the SEC.
Finally, Raiola wants to be close to Athens and Raiola’s family wants to be close to him. Dylan’s younger brother Dayton Raiola will be enrolling at Buford as well. Dayton is a left handed quarterback prospect that is garnering Power 5 interest in his own right. The younger Raiola has an offer from Nebraska and will now get to be just an hour from his brother during Dylan’s time at Georgia. Also, Raiola himself will be able to make many more unofficial visits to Athens in this situation and help Georgia recruit during home game weekends this fall.
"We are from Hawaii and we have spoken a lot with the Tagovailoa family about this situation," Dom Raiola said. "It just makes sense for the family to be close so the entire family doesn't have to take the red-eye flight to see games. And it is best for Dayton, the same as it was for Taulia [Tagovailoa]. Speaking to them and also to the parents of Bryce Young, we know it is best to be in SEC country."
Buford opens up with St. Frances Academy (Baltimore, MD) at home on Friday August 18. St. Frances is one of the top programs in the country, so Raiola won’t have to wait long to get the stiff competition he’s desiring to face.
Raiola will now be teammates with Georgia target KJ Bolden, 2025 Georgia commit Jaden Perlotte, and 2025 targets wide receiver Jordan Allen and running back Justin Baker. Buford went 11-1 last year and lost at home in the second round of the playoffs to Walton High School.
