Can Holgorsen be a can of Red Bull for Nebraska's offense?

The former West Virginia and Houston head coach is part of the Air Raid holy trinity, but how much change can an analyst make?

Courtesy Nebraska Athletics

Dana Holgorsen is here to fix Nebraska’s offense with three games remaining in the season. The former West Virginia and Houston head coach was raised by the Air Raid, playing for the system’s creator, Hal Mumme, at Iowa Wesleyan. Mike Leach was also on that staff, and when Mumme and Leach departed for Valdosta State, Holgorsen went along to break into coaching. He would eventually coordinate Leach’s offense at Texas Tech before holding the same position at Houston and Oklahoma State. Holgorsen became a head coach for the first time in 2011.

Maybe you already knew most of that. If you’re pretty online maybe you also knew Holgorsen is something of an internet celebrity in certain football circles, but just in case here’s a primer with a point:

• The guy drinks enough Red Bull to kill one and has kind of made this his personal brand.

• In the spring of 2011, while the OC and head-coach-in-waiting at West Virginia, Holgorsen was escorted out of a casino at 3 a.m. It was not the first time he was asked to leave an establishment during a not particularly proud stretch.

• In 2019, Holgorsen made the mildly surprising decision to leave WVU for Houston, then still a G5 program. He started slow but broke through with a 12-2 season in 2021. When he followed that up with an 8-5 year, however, hot seat talk heated up. Holgorsen dismissed that talk candidly before the 2023 season, saying he had “an impossible buyout.” The Cougars went 4-8 in their first season in the Big 12 and Houston paid the turns-out-not-impossible $14.8 million to fire him.

Point is, however you feel about any of those high-profile actions, Holgorsen is unapologetically who he is at all times. He is a live wire to use a cliché, but it fits: powerful if you can keep it under control. While it’s fair to ask how much an analyst can impact things on a team that has already played 75% of its games, it’s Holgorsen’s big energy paired with proven concepts that make me think maybe this is just what the Huskers need in this specific scenario.

Here's why.