Getting defensive in Lincoln

When Nebraska football takes the field for the first time in 2025, its defense will look a bit different.

Photo courtesy Nebraska Athletics

When Nebraska football takes the field for the first time in 2025, its defense will look a bit different. That appears to be what coach Matt Rhule wants and that’s why he hired John Butler as the Huskers’ next defensive coordinator. 

Rhule may not have expected to find himself in this position, but he likely suspected the possibility. Tony White — who recently departed to take the defensive coordinator role at Florida State — has had his name mentioned many times in various national searches. After two years with Nebraska, he finally found the spot that was compelling enough to draw him away.

And that left Rhule to fill the void. One week after the search began, Rhule picked Butler.

"John had the top secondary in the NFL for a lot of years," Rhule said Thursday. "There was a lot of outpouring from our current players but they felt like after 3-4 years in college, John brought professionalism and a mentality that they thought would prepare them for the next level. It was a combination of who could add to what we were already doing at a high level. Who could bring some things secondary-wise to help us? 

“I thought he was really professional, great to work with, a great evaluator and I am excited." 

Here’s the thing that Rhule wanted to be clear about on Thursday: he didn’t select Butler without looking elsewhere. He had his “parameters,” as he called it, and he looked at 5-6 candidates for the role. Was there interest? Yeah, “a ton of interest” from sitting defensive coordinators too.

But Rhule likes the defense Nebraska has run the past two years and that was a major consideration with hiring Butler over someone else. That doesn’t mean Butler’s hire comes without change, nor does it meant there isn’t a path toward something just a little different.

“To win moving forward,” as Rhule put it, Nebraska needs to shake things up with its third-down defense against the pass-heavy teams that it faces. Butler has success with pass defense, both at the collegiate and professional level but it’s been awhile since he’s worn the defensive coordinator hat. Prior to arriving in Lincoln — where he took over as the secondary coach following the departure of Evan Cooper — Butler had held a variety of defensive assistant coaching roles with the Houston Texans and Buffalo Bills.

And if you’re curious, his last stint as a defensive coordinator was 12 years ago at Penn State. The Nittany Lions allowed 26 points per game in 2013.

But part of what brought Butler to Lincoln was Bills’ head coach Sean McDermott passing him over for the vacant defensive coordinator role. 

"I was the right man for the job," Butler said. "That didn't happen and life goes on." 

Yes, life does go on and now Butler is in Lincoln. Like Rhule said, he doesn’t plan to move away from the 3-3-5 scheme that White installed — that’s a big reason Rhule wanted to hire him — but there will be some changes here and there. Butler wants to mold it into something of his own vision, after all. 

"You have a base fundamental system everywhere you are at but you are always adding to it, eliminating from it and focusing on what you can do well," he said ". . . We are going to be schematically like we have been here the last two years. It's going to be a collaboration of everyone we hire when we complete the staff and we are going to put together a defense that is schematically, fundamentally and personnel-wise hard to deal with."  

Butler should be able to accomplish that over the offseason. He’ll have plenty of new assistants to work with, as well as a slew of new players. Thank the portal and the ever-revolving coaching door in college athletics for that.

That can be a good thing though, and Butler seems to embrace it.

"I'm a football coach, and I know that it’s something I do well," Butler said. "When it came to the opportunity to come here, I did it because I have heard so many good things about working with Matt, I had a lot of respect for Tony and the University of Nebraska speaks for itself. It’s pro football as far as the media and the attention it gets . . . 

“At the end of the day, I am happy that this opportunity came up. I am going to embrace it, run with it and do the best I can to serve the University of Nebraska and Matt’s players." 

Speaking of those defensive changes

>> Rhule announced Thursday the addition of Phil Simpson to Nebraska’s defensive staff as the outside linebackers coach. He will coach the Huskers in the Pinstripe Bowl. 

“We are excited to bring Phil Simpson back to Nebraska to work on our defensive staff,” Rhule said in a statement. “I have known Phil since his playing days at Temple, and he has continued to rise in the coaching profession. Phil is a great teacher and an outstanding relationship-builder. He makes great connections not only with his players, but also with prospective student-athletes and in the high school coaching community.”

Simpson — who was a defensive staff as a quality control coach for Nebraska in 2023 — returns to Lincoln after spending the 2024 season as a defensive analyst at Florida State.¹

>> Rhule couldn’t talk about Phil Snow on Thursday — Snow hasn’t been officially hired by Nebraska as its associate head coach, although it’s been plenty reported — so he couldn’t discuss the role specifically. However, Rhule offered “if” Nebraska was able to hire someone like Snow into a role like that, it would be a great thing for someone like Butler. That’s not because Butler isn’t able to run a defense on his own, but instead it’s that someone like Snow could help with “the big picture.”

>> As for the vacant defensive line role, Rhule is reportedly set to hire Terry Bradden to fill the spot. Bradden has been with the Kansas City Chiefs for the past eight seasons, four as an assistant defensive line coach.

>> Last but not least, Rhule said the search for a secondary coach is underway. Until that person is found, the defensive backfield is being coached by Adam DiMichele and Tariq Thompson.

"We will hire a secondary coach,” Rhule said. “We actually have some people in for interviews today and tomorrow. There's a process, we'll follow it. But we should have something pretty soon."

A five-star update

One more thing, but this is a big addition to Nebraska’s defense for 2025. Williams Nwaneri, the former Missouri edge rusher and five-star prospect in the recruiting class of 2024, entered the portal on Thursday.

Here’s the thing that caught the most attention though: Nwaneri’s name in the portal included a very specific instruction.

“Do not contact.”

That meant Nwaneri likely already had his landing spot, and it turns out he did. The 6-foot-7 and 255 pound athlete from the Kansas City area committed to Nebraska not long after his transfer news broke.

As for the connection, Jamar Mozee — his high school coach — now works for Rhule as a senior football assistant. Nwaneri also took multiple visits to Nebraska as a high school prospect, so he was more than familiar and now he’s heading to Lincoln.

Yeah, Nebraska’s defense is going to look a bit different when it takes the field in 2025. We’ll have to wait and see though as to what that actually means, but Rhule is certainly trying to put the pieces into place.

1. What is with all the back and forth between Nebraska and Florida State right now?