After a promising start to the season, Nebraska football is on a massive skid over the last few weeks. Bowl eligibility is now in question for the Cornhuskers after a three-game losing streak that includes ugly losses against Indiana and UCLA.
The main reason for the team's struggles has been the offense, which has severely underperformed lately. Nebraska has scored just 58 points over its last four games, and that unit let the team down both in the UCLA loss and in a close loss against Ohio State.
Matt Rhule has made a number of moves to try and find improvement on the offensive side of the ball. Last week, Rhule brought in former West Virginia and Houston head coach Dana Holgorsen to be an offensive consultant. Holgorsen is widely regarded as one of the best offensive minds in college football and was in charge of some very explosive units during his time at West Virginia.
On Monday, Rhule took it a step further. Nebraska has promoted Holgorsen to offensive coordinator and announced that he will call plays for the remainder of the season, according to Matt Zentiz of 247 Sports.
“Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule has announced that Dana Holgorsen is taking over as the team’s offensive coordinator,” Zentiz reported on X, formerly Twitter. “The former Houston and West Virginia head coach had recently joined Nebraska after a stint on the staff at TCU.”
Former offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield is still on Nebraska's staff, but has been demoted out of playcalling duties.
Holgorsen became famous as an offensive mastermind during his time with Texas Tech working under Mike Leach from 2005-07. That offense, led by Graham Harrell and Michael Crabtree, was consistently one of the best in the country. Holgorsen then went to Houston as the offensive coordinator, where Case Keenum led the nation in total offense and set the NCAA record for total touchdowns in a career. Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel broke Keenum's record on Saturday.
At West Virginia, Holgorsen won the Orange Bowl in his first season as head coach with Geno Smith at quarterback. Now, Holgorsen will get the chance to work with talented freshman quarterback Dylan Raiola on this Nebraska football team, who has shown plenty of promise in his first season as the starter but has struggled over the last few weeks. The hope for Rhule and company in Lincoln is that Holgorsen and Raiola can start a successful partnership over the next 2+ seasons.
Follow Us
Subscribe
