I can’t deny it and there are thousands of you who can’t either. As Husker fans we’re spoiled stinking rotten. We’ve been fans long enough to experience the glory years. We lived the 90’s National Championships, and yes, some of us the 70’s too. We sat at our radios, in front of our televisions, or in the stands and watched Osborne as he led our beloved Huskers to a 60-3 record over six seasons. It was glorious. For over 30 years, not once did we experience less than nine wins in a season. We were the mighty Nebraska Cornhuskers, the BIG RED!
Are you over it? Nope, not yet. It will always be the standard. Nothing less. It’s why there is doubt Matt Rhule will ever be Tom Osborne. And if we are honest with ourselves, he doesn’t need to be. He just needs to be Matt Rhule – the winning version.
I’ve said this before, Rhule is not Osborne. And how can he be? In the big scheme of coaching the man is a pup, a beginner, just learning to swim in the shark infested Big Ten waters. Our problem comes from the fact we threw pennies at Tom while he made history. Meanwhile we’ve hocked almost everything but our souls for Rhule and still struggle. But we must be honest with ourselves. The game has changed and coaching the game even more so.
To that notion you’ll bristle and thrust a photo of Indiana’s Curt Cignetti in my face. You’ll be quick to point out his 24-2 record over the last two years. No doubt, the man has accomplished great things in Bloomington in a short amount of time. All during one of the most tumultuous times in college football. For coaches the current landscape of college football is like the Black Plague, and we all sit back and watch as Death creeps across the land and claims another victim, sending him down to the depths of the FCS or worse, out of football.
But let’s be fair. Cignetti is 64 years old, Matt Rhule is 50. Cignetti has been coaching for 42 years and has been an assistant under the GOAT, Nick Saban. Rhule has coached for 27 years and was mentored by the great…well, it wasn’t the GOAT. The steppingstones for Cignetti as a head coach have been IUP (Indiana University of Pennsylvania), Elon, James Madison, and Indiana over 14 seasons. As head coach Rhule quickly hopped from Temple to Baylor to Nebraska in eight seasons. I’m not going to count the NFL during the pandemic years, if anything, it added some stupid to his resume.
My point is, comparing Rhule and Cignetti is like comparing Rhule and Osborne. You can’t. Cignetti has more experience and like a fine whiskey has had time to age. We keep popping the cork on Rhule’s barrel and sampling it only to find its rank and unfinished. The time has yet to come.
So, where am I going with all this? Well, I just made a long ass intro into why Rhule just hired his 25th coach after three seasons. We learned yesterday that Rhule hired Edge coach Roy Manning from San Diego State, making him number 25. As we’ve seen, finding the right guys isn’t easy.
It’s a volatile time with head coaches jumping ship and taking assistants and players with them. As Sean Callhan of HuslerOnline pointed out, 16 of the 68 Power Four schools will have new head coaches in the 2026 season. With so much movement, it’s hard to find and retain assistants. Rhule is no different, he’s been scrambling to fill coaching positions. And once he does, retaining them will be even harder. It makes consistency almost impossible, and if I had to point at the single biggest reason for Osborne’s success at Nebraska it would be the consistency of the coaches and the program. Changes seldom happened. That is no longer the norm in today’s coaching world.
Rhule has hired 7 different coordinators and if he hires a D-Line coach, what will soon be 26 coaches in four seasons. The coordinators were and are:
Marcus Saterfield – OC
Tony White – DC
Ed Foley – STC
Dana Holgorsen – OC
John Butler – DC
Mike Ekeler – STC
Rob Aurich – DC
At the beginning of Rhule’s first season his 2023 staff was:
Marcus Satterfield – OC
Tony White – DC
EJ Barthel – RBs
Garret McGuire – WRs
Donavan Raiola – O-Line
Bob Wager – TEs
Terrance Knighton – D-Line
Rob Dvoracek – LBs
Evan Cooper – DBs
Ed Foley – Special Teams
Cory Campbell – Strength/Conditioning
Before the season started Wager resigned and was replaced by Josh Martin (12).
He added Glenn Thomas and Ron Brown at the beginning of the 2024 season:
Marcus Satterfield – OC/TEs
Tony White – DC
Glenn Thomas – QBs (13)
EJ Barthel – RBs
Ron Brown – FBs/Returners (14)
Garret McGuire – WRs
Donavan Raiola – O-Line
Terrance Knighton – D-Line
Rob Dvoracek – LBs
Evan Cooper – DBs
Ed Foley – Special Teams
Cory Campbell – Strength/Conditioning
Before the season started Cooper resigned and was replaced by John Butler (15).
During the season Marcus Satterfield was demoted to TEs only and replaced by Dana Holgorsen at OC (16).
He added Mike Ekeler, Phil Snow, Daikiel Shorts, Terry Bradden, Phil Simpson, and Addison Willimas at the beginning of the 2025 season:
Dana Holgorsen – OC
John Butler – DC
Mike Ekeler – Special Teams (17)
Phil Snow – Associate HC (18)
Marcus Satterfield – TEs
Glenn Thomas – QBs
EJ Barthel – RBs
Daikiel Shorts – WRs (19)
Donavan Raiola – O-Line
Terry Bradden – D-Line (20)
Rob Dvoracek – LBs
Phil Simpson – OLBs (21)
Addison Williams – DBs (22)
Cory Campbell – Strength/Conditioning
Since the end of the 2025 season, he has added Geep Wade, Rob Aurich, and Roy Manning. If the 2026 season started today the staff would appear as follows:
Dana Holgorsen – OC
Rob Aurich – DC (23)
Mike Ekeler – Special Teams
Phil Snow – Associate HC
Marcus Satterfield – TEs
Glenn Thomas – QBs
EJ Barthel – RBs
Daikiel Shorts – WRs
Geep Wade – O-Line (24)
Rob Dvoracek – LBs
Phil Simpson – OLBs
Addison Williams – DBs
Roy Manning – Edge (25)
Cory Campbell – Strength/Conditioning
X – D-Line
In two of Rhule’s three seasons a coaching change occurred late in July. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen this year. If anything, Rhule must be given a substantial amount of credit for keeping his roster together with so many coaching changes. Players today are more apt to commit to a coach rather than a school and leave when he leaves. That’s part of the reason for Cignetti’s success at Indiana.
So, have patience Husker fans. Rhule is in the beginning of this journey, and he’s facing challenges that we haven’t seen before. For me, it’s all about consistency, and that’s something that is rare in today’s world, especially football. Consistency can only be measured by time.
GO BIG RED!!
Photo courtesy of The Falls City Journal
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