Terrance Knighton is officially leaving Nebraska and following DC Tony White to Florida State. Many fans never thought Knighton would leave due to the relationships he built with players, like the relationship he built with James Williams, who gave this emotional response after the Rutgers game when asked what Coach Knighton means to him. “ There were so many times last year that everybody else around here could have gotten rid of me,” Williams said. “I was a mess-up. I was late to stuff. And he vouched for me, he put me out there. He was the reason I played last year. He vouched for me and taught me so much about life. I say father figure, but he’s really my father. I learned so much about life from him. He really helped me through everything. That man means everything to me.”
There may be a lot of small reasons we can come up with to try to justify why Knighton is leaving: better weather, no income tax, or not having to deal with trying to replace Ty Robinson and Nash Hutmacher. All are fair points. However, there is one major reason why “Pot Roast” is leaving. Per sources close to the situation, Knighton’s relationship with staff started to deteriorate after former DB coach Evan Cooper resigned for “personal reasons” last July. Around this time, Knighton also removed all connections to Nebraska from his social media pages. However, after a few days, he would write “CEO OF DEATH ROW” in the bio sections of his social media. (“Death Row” was the title given to the players on the defensive line)
From there, everything from the fans’ perspective was fine; there were no red flags to be found. Sadly, this was not the case. Throughout the year, Knighton and at least one other defensive staff member would start to bump heads with Coach Rhule and other staff at Nebraska. Ultimately, by the end of the season, those relationships were too far gone, so when Tony White accepted the job at Florida State, Knighton decided to follow.
That decision has led to eight defensive players entering the transfer portal, with more likely on the way. While Knighton’s leaving didn’t cause any significant changes to this year’s recruiting class, not having him as a recruiter in the future will be a problem. In just two years at Nebraska, Knighton has proven to be one of the top defensive recruiters in the country. So, until we know who his replacement will be, there is a lot of questions left to be answered.
