Can you be special?
Nebraska is in the market for a new special teams coach, hoping to reverse a seven-ish year slump.
Matt Rhule is not messing around. Over the weekend Nebraska’s head coach did the thing the available evidence and a growing percentage of the fan base suggested and parted ways with all around good guy and special teams coach Ed Foley.1 The pair had worked together for 10 of the past 12 seasons at Temple, Baylor, in the NFL and at Nebraska.
It couldn’t have been an easy call or conversation, but Rhule said special teams needed a “total overhaul” after having two kicks blocked in the Pinstripe Bowl win. Now the Huskers are searching for the right guy to oversee it.
Over two seasons, Foley was perhaps best known as the road guy, program liaison to high schools throughout the state and denizen of many small-town eateries due to that outreach. But when you’re a special teams coordinator, and everyone notices when the work isn’t up to standard because there are so few plays, affability isn’t enough.
Nebraska had 11 kicks or punts blocked this season, most in the country. It only made 13-of-19 field goals (68.4%), 102nd nationally.2 The Huskers ranked 96th at 41 yards per punt. Big picture, everyone identified special teams as an issue coming out of 2023 but the Huskers’ overall special teams efficiency rating (SFEI), from BCF Toys, dropped from 73rd to 83rd.
For a program that continues to play close games3 and probably won’t out-talent the top-third of its conference any time soon, the Huskers simply don’t have the margin to be below-average on special teams. Rhule wants to be aggressive in this facet of the game, but aggressiveness is only worth so much when you’re consistently whipping out a dull blade.
So, Nebraska sets off in search of a sharper one. It’s more complicated than it might sound.
How bad has it been for the Huskers?
Maybe the better way into that question is when’s the last time Nebraska had good special teams? By the all-encompassing SFEI rating, it was probably 20174 when NU ranked 12th, one spot ahead of Iowa and good for fourth in the Big Ten. Not much else went right that season, but JD Spielman ranked third nationally (first in the Big Ten) in kickoff return yards and Drew Brown made 85.7% of his field goal attempts, 10th nationally (third). Caleb Lightbourn’s 42.1 yards per punt only ranked 52nd (sixth), but that was the still-above-average low point for that special teams unit.
From there the Huskers gradually declined during the Scott Frost era from 57th in SFEI in 2018 to 126th in 2021.5 Things bounced back to 41st in 2022, a season when the focus was on who would coach Nebraska next from September on, and then Rhule’s special teams dropped to 73rd in year one and 83rd this season.
Bottom line, Nebraska hasn’t ranked in the top 40 in special teams efficiency since 2017 and has been below average in six of the past seven seasons. It’s a fairly stunning lack of success in a small-sample-size area of the game where one or two strong players can change the unit’s fortune quickly.
Who could NU hire to fix it?
Coaches don’t “shop” for new assistants the way, say, I would set a budget, do a couple of weeks of research and then choose the best coffee maker my money could get. Familiarity has a much bigger role in coaching hires.
But if Rhule were to take the read-all-the-reviews approach, what’s the top of the special teams market look like? It might be Iowa’s long-time coordinator LeVar Woods. By McIllece Sports’ standard wins measure, he’s had a positive impact on the win-loss ledger in 12 of his 13 seasons in Iowa City. On average, Woods gets credit for 1.3 wins a season, easily the best mark for a special teams coach in the country. Oh, and he’s plenty familiar with recruiting in Nebraska. Given Woods’ lengthy career, that’s what the top of the market looks like.
Sticking in the “buy whatever you want” category, Pittsburgh’s Jacob Bronowski only has two FBS seasons under his belt but has averaged 1.4 standard wins per season while also coaching tight ends. Texas Tech’s Kenny Perry (0.7 standard wins per season) would be a big get if Rhule wanted to try and swipe him from his former assistant, Joey McGuire. Former Washington State coordinator Nick Whitworth (0.7 standard wins per season) is also near the top of the range but is probably off the board after following head coach Jake Dickert to Wake Forest this offseason.
In the much more probable “follow the connections” category, it wouldn’t be a surprise for NU to take a look at Mark Scott (-0.1 standard wins per season). A quality control coach (i.e., off-field) at Baylor in 2024, Scott coached alongside new offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen for more than a decade at West Virginia and Houston.
One-time Nebraska assistant Mike Ekeler (0.0 standard wins per season) was a popular social media pick. The Nebraska native has connections to place and program, but not to Rhule. If he decided to kick the tires there anyway, Ekeler did coordinate a Tennessee unit that ranked ninth in SFEI this season.
What has NU done already?
Nothing highlights the better-not-to-notice nature of special teams like a longsnapper. Have a good one and the majority of the 80,000-plus in the stadium might not know his name. Nebraska did not have a good one in 2024, so it turned to Kevin Gallic, New Hampshire’s longsnapper the past three seasons, in the transfer portal.
The Huskers have also brought in punter Jack McCallister from Washington to hopefully replace Brian Buschini. McCallister averaged 43 yards per punt in 2024, seventh in the Big Ten, but he owned the starting role for three seasons for the Huskies, increasing his average each season.
Finally, while not a special teams addition per se, Idaho defensive back Andrew Marshall might make his first big impression in Lincoln on special teams. He averaged 40.9 yards on eight kickoff returns with a touchdown in 2024, taking over midseason, and was the Vandals’ primary punt returner all year where he averaged 10.7 yards per return and also had a touchdown.
The Huskers last returned a punt for a touchdown in 2022, a kick in 2017.
But Rhule’s trying to fix that.
The university confirmed reports that he would not remain in his current role, but it’s unclear if there’s another role for Foley on the staff.
NU only made 64.7% of its field goals in two seasons under Rhule/Foley.
Thirteen of 25 games under Rhule have been decided by a touchdown or less.
Bruce Read was gone at that point, but remember all the heat NU’s first full-time special teams coordinator took in 2015 and 2016? Enough that Mike Riley had to fire him, and it didn’t feel unjustified at the time, but with the benefit of hindsight I wonder how much of that was due to Nebraska’s punting. It is but one measure—this is becoming my personal motto at this point—but by SFEI, Nebraska ranked 29th nationally in 2015, 13th in 2016 and then 12th in the season after Read was fired. Those are numbers NU would kill for from its next hire.
Would more competent special teams have helped that team avoid being the “best 3-9 team ever?” Probably.
11 is crazy‼️⁉️🆘🚨