Thoughts on Nebraska football coaching staff shakeup and more

Hey, Husker fans. Welcome to another episode of the Husker Big Red podcast with Chris Peterson

and Danny Gillette. As always, go Big Red. Good morning, Husker fans, and welcome back

to the Husker Big Red YouTube channel. I'm Chris Peterson, and joining me as always is

Danny Gillette. We're back here on the Monday morning. We got through the Fourth of July

holiday weekend. There were some bumps along the road for Nebraska football in the past

few days, so we'll cover that and everything else that has to do with the Huskers. But

first, Danny, how are you doing this morning, man? Good. There were some bumps for Nebraska football. Luckily, there were no bumps for me. No bad

hangovers, no lost fingers due to fireworks. So that's always a plus, but I'm excited to

get into it today. Yeah, that's always a plus. You never know with some other folks out there, man, with

the fireworks. But before we get into the Evan Cooper, John Butler, and all the other

stuff going on with Nebraska football, please make sure if you haven't already, hit the

subscribe button, get into the comment section, hit the like button, and check out huskerbigred.com

as well. I know a lot of you guys support us here. We appreciate your support there

as well. We've got a lot of great written content, at least great in our opinion. Hopefully

the rest of you guys enjoy it as well. But let's get to kind of the first big news item

This dropped, what, Friday night, I want to say, with Evan Cooper, the secondary coach

defensive passing game coordinator, a huge piece of the recruiting operation. Evan Cooper

who was with Matt Rule at Baylor, kind of a right-hand man, was with him with the Carolina

Panthers as well, resigned. And about the very next day, Saturday morning, it was reported

by Pete Famol and a bunch of other people on the Nebraska side of things that John Butler

a former coach for the Buffalo Bills, last year in the secondary, he's been defensive

coordinator for Penn State, secondary coach for the Houston Texans. Basically, the last

10 years he spent in the NFL as a defensive backs coach, secondary coach, last two years

in Buffalo, he was the defensive backs coach and passing game coordinator. So essentially

the same role that Evan Cooper had outside of the recruiting stuff. So not official yet

but looks like it will be. So what do you make of all of this? Evan Cooper, who I thought

was one of the most valuable members of the staff out, and a pretty good replacement by

Matt Rule, I believe. But overall, what do you think that that means for the program

I feel like this is something that has been brewing for quite a bit. I've heard a bunch

of stuff put out there about why Cooper left. I won't speculate on any of that, because that's

not fair to anybody. But it seems like Matt Rule always has a plan in place. And it seems like

based off of just the timing of these hires, when you talk about Bob Wager, left the program

Josh Martin was immediately hired. Evan Cooper resigned from the program. Now John Butler looks

like he may be coming to Nebraska. So for all of these departures, there have been quick replacements

and a chance to kind of solidify this coaching staff, which is so important with camp only a

couple of weeks away. And if this was a case of misconduct or anything like that, I'm glad

Cooper is no longer in the program, because he's had enough drama over this last decade that we

really don't need that. And on the football side of it, I'm happy that Butler is reportedly going

to be in the fold. He's got a ton of experience, like you alluded to in the NFL. He worked with

guys like Tredavious White in one of the best corners in football. And he also, in my opinion

has a chance to be a defensive coordinator, should Tony White leave. And quite honestly

I think we were really lucky to be able to keep him last year, because he's one of the hottest

names on the coaching market. And so this could not only help Nebraska for right now in terms of

replacing Evan Cooper, but I also look kind of towards the future with this move. Should Tony

White take a head coaching job or a better position somewhere else? Yeah, it's really

interesting. And I know that Evan Cooper hasn't gotten a lot of talk about being a future

the future DC of Nebraska before this all happened, but he was the defensive passing

game coordinator for the reason. And the pass defense was spectacular last year. I mean

he did make an impact in that secondary and look at guys like Tommy Hill and Isaac Gifford and all

that. So, I mean, it is a blow. I don't want to minimize that. I do think that Matt Ruhle

like you said, he did a great job. And I do believe that this, you know, at least had some

you know, advanced warning. I don't think you hire a guy like John Butler in one day

although it's interesting that, you know, Butler is kind of a, was kind of a free agent right now

because he wanted to be the defensive coordinator in Buffalo and didn't get that job. And so that's

kind of his goal was to be able to run a defense. I think there is going to be a chance to do that

in Nebraska, you know, in the next couple of years. So, yeah, I mean, I really do like this

move, but it does, it still worries me losing a guy like Evan Cooper, just the way that, you know

they had such a tight culture, you know, on this defense and, you know, he knew it, he knew the

players and you're always going to have transition and, you know, how much does John Butler know

about the 3-3-5? How's he going to gel with Tony White? How's he going to gel with these new

players? I mean, really he's going to have, you know, a couple of weeks essentially. I mean

once this gets hired to an official and gets to Lincoln, he's going to have a couple of weeks to

get to know these guys before fall camp starts. So, I mean, regardless of however great a coach

he is, it's not an ideal situation, but, you know, he's got the background there and, you know

I'm sure that Matt Rule is going to do everything that he can to support him. Josh Martin was the

tight ends coach, was in a similar position last year, but at least promoted from within, you know

he was on the staff, so he didn't have to make that transition. You know, everything that I've

read about John Butler is that the players absolutely love him. So, I mean, I don't

doubt that he will, you know, earn their respect and win them over, you know, fairly quickly

but it is a transition that you wish you didn't have to make, you know, going into the season

So, it's just, it's still frustrating even though I think that Matt Rule made the best

out of a bad situation. Yeah, it's definitely frustrating and you know that Matt Rule didn't

make a, you know, didn't make a move like this without some, you know, information beforehand

or this wasn't just a out of the blue move. You know, it was out of the blue and I'll stress this

because it's really important. It was out of the blue to the media because they reported it on

Friday, but I don't believe this was an out of the blue situation within the program and, you know

losing Evan Cooper is definitely a blow and I don't want to minimize that at all and I'm not

trying to minimize that, but at the same time, if you're, if you have some form of BS going on at

this point, I'm just tired of it all dragging down the program. We saw it with Scott Frost

we saw it with Mickey Joseph, you know, we saw, we've had way too many incidences with coaches

I mean, Bob Wager, I mean, at this point, if you're not committed to the program or you're

trying to, you know, have some off the field stuff that is going to affect the program or

create a bad culture, like you need to get out at this point. Yeah, I agree. You need to, you know

the culture is very important and, you know, Matt Rule has talked about running a tight ship. So

yeah, we need to get, you know, he posted yesterday, Coach Rule, it's our turn to do our

part, you know, posting a lot of, and I think that that part of that was, you know, with the coaching

staff too, like we need to, you know, it's, it shouldn't be that hard to do all the little

things that you need to do. You know what I mean? I have no idea what happened here with Evan Cooper

so I'm not, but, you know, we all know what, you know, what we should be doing on a day-to-day

basis and whatever, you know, he was obviously involved in something or, you know, some personal

thing. I have no idea, but, you know, it's, it's whatever it was, felt like it was going to be a

distraction for this program and there's too many things to overcome already. There's, there's a lot

of challenges and, and you don't need to create distractions for yourself. So at the end of the

day, I think it's the right move. I am, I think the Huskers are going to miss Evan Cooper. I think

the thing with John Butler, you know, he has, he just hasn't been in college football for a decade

So he's going to have to get back into the recruiting side of things because Evan Cooper

did play a big role in there. They probably don't get Ja'Cory Barney and Vincent Shavers without his

ties to Florida. So, you know, but it is what it is. That, that's, that's the nature of this

business. I mean, it hurt to lose Bob Wager and his ties to Texas, but at the end of the day

I don't think it really hurt Nebraska that much. It's just, it is what it is. You have to move on

And, you know, when it's time to, when it's time to cut bait or whatever, you have to do it and

you have to move on and you have to look forward. And I think that that rule is really exceptional

at doing that. And I think we've seen that in the past, even, you know, when recruitments don't go

into Nebraska's way, you know, they find a way to get something else positive. So this was a

strong move and it needed to happen quickly. And I guess on the recruiting front, that's kind of a

good transition because we had Bryson Weber, the four-star quarterback from Missouri city, Texas

was supposed to decide on Saturday, delayed his decision mostly because of the Evan Cooper thing

which tells you that he was going to commit to Nebraska, which we all expected. TCU and Utah are

the other two teams kind of in the mix. I think some other teams are probably going to try to get into the mix because right now I saw a post the other day and my numbers may be off by one or two

but there's only in the 24, seven composite rankings, there's like 400 and some four-star

recruits, I think like 402 or something like that. Only like 93 are uncommitted. So like a vast

majority of four-star recruits are already locked up, you know, and committed. So I think you're

going to see with guys like Bryson Weber teams, maybe trying to get into the mix a little bit

more. Christian Jones is another example of that because there's just not that many blue chips on

the board, but at any rate now, you know, John Butler is going to have to try to establish that

relationship with Bryson Weber. And I feel like that's going to be a good move. You know, he's

got the NFL background, but definitely opens the door for some other teams with him. So there are

some kind of unknowns, I guess, with Bryson Weber at this point. Yeah. Anytime you get a new coach

into the program, there's always going to be some recruiting fallout or recruiting turnover. And

it'll be interesting to see how quickly that relationship with Weber is established. And also

if Butler can move the needle to make him want to commit to Nebraska, I wouldn't be surprised if

Weber didn't just because of the change. But at the same time, I think if I was Weber, Butler's

NFL background would be very appealing to me. And I think that's something that he can definitely

sell, meaning Butler in terms of recruiting. So it'll be interesting to see what happens. I would

love to have Weber, but I also understand if he wants to commit elsewhere. I mean, this wasn't the

original coach that he wanted to play for. And that's just, you know, that's just the nature

of the beast, as they say. Yeah, I do think it's probably a good sign that he's willing to give

Nebraska a chance to get the new staff in place and get to know them. So it feels like to me that

that's probably his preferred destination, you know, if the relationship works out with John

Butler. And I'm confident that it will. From everything I've read, you know, this is a player's

coach. This is a guy that players love. And as somebody pointed out on social media, these guys

want to get to the NFL. I mean, that's the ultimate goal. They want to make the playoff and they want to win games and do all that stuff. But, you know, these big time college football players

I mean, their main most of them, their main goal is to make the NFL. And, you know, being coached

by a guy who's been in the league coaching defensive backs for a decade is definitely

going to help you in that process. So I feel like, you know, overall, you know, unless like Texas or

Texas, any like one of those big Texas teams comes in and, you know, makes a strong push. I feel like

Nebraska is still in a good spot. I don't think TCU is coming to to win this recruitment. But

you know, you never you never know. But I still feel good about where Nebraska sits right now

And we have a strong coach like Matt Rule, who has a vision for the program and who knows what

he wants and also has those Texas ties. I mean, that certainly helps as well. And so I still feel

good about where where Weber stands with the program. I could definitely see, like I said

why he would want to kind of delay his decision and figure things out. But I wouldn't be too

alarmed yet. And I'm not saying that you are. I'm just making a general statement. But yeah, I think it'll be interesting to see what Butler's ties with the NFL does in recruiting for

you know, future players and future classes. I think that's something that that is very that

is going to be very successful. And it's not like I coached, you know, Corner X, you know, 15 years

ago. I mean, Butler just coached Tredavious White and, you know, Jordan Poyer and those guys. So

the relevancy of his experience in the NFL is very important as well

Yeah. And I love the idea that, yeah, when if Tony White, you know, if everything goes like

we want it to this season, Nebraska wins, you know, eight to 10 games in the defense's top

10, like there's a good chance he's going to be moving on. And it would be great to have John

Butler step into that role, because I really do believe that that NFL style defense, which Tony

White, you know, kind of runs that three, three, five, like that's what you need. You need to you need to have a defense that can be, you know, very versatile, very amoebic. And I think that's

you know, the teams that are having success in the NFL and the college level, I think are the ones that are doing that, because you got to confuse the quarterback, which is harder to do

now in the college game than it's ever been, because these guys are playing seven on seven when they're in like fifth grade, you know, so they like they've seen it all. And so at any rate

I think that that is a good move going forward. The transition to another thing on the recruiting

trail before we get to some other rumor items that were created this weekend. I'm dispelling

some rumors. David's David Sanders kind of pulling the Brandon Banks, you know, ploy here. Nebraska

wasn't in a recent like top six, but he kind of released a top four yesterday, along with the

commitment date, I want to say for August, wasn't it? Or is it 17? So yeah, Nebraska makes the top

four with Ohio State, Tennessee. Shoot, I'm blank. Is it Georgia? Georgia? Okay. And so in

there was some pretty heavy hitters. I don't know. It feels like engagement farming to me, but

his family did, did say a lot about his visit that he liked his visit a lot. So I don't know

do you have any hope whatsoever? Do you think the brass has any shot at getting David Sanders

No. And that's okay. Because if you look at his recruitment announcement, the Nebraska boom box

is front and center. We're in the mix with Georgia, Ohio state. And what was the other one

I totally just blanked Tennessee, Tennessee. So the fact that Nebraska is even in that, you know

that those four, you know, with, with, with those three other schools, I think is a really good

thing. I don't expect to land him, you know, but I do think that the fact that Nebraska is showing

up a more and more of these lists is a plus. And I know nobody likes moral victories and blah

blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But it is a plus because, you know, it's showing that recruits

are paying attention to what the program wants to do. Recruits are buying into what the offensive

line wants to do as a unit. And, you know, they're getting more talent into the program

So even if Sanders commits elsewhere, the fact that the Nebraska boom box is on the front of

the poster, I think is a good sign. It's always hard to land any sort of five-star recruit

Nevermind if you're a team that went five and seven just last year. So I'm probably thinking

probably Ohio state, but, you know, I, it's not that I don't think Nebraska has zero chance

whatsoever. It's just a hard sell when you're, when you go to battle with these programs on

the recruiting trail. And, you know, the fact that Nebraska is even in this conversation

is a testament to what is, you know, what the coaching staff has done in terms of trying to

recruit Sanders. Yeah. I think it's, yeah, the boom box is pretty cool. I mean, you can't beat

the Nebraska boom box. So that definitely is worth, you know, getting on there. I agree with

you, but I do wish I had one of those that boom, you know, I want to do the whole breakfast club

thing. Just hold it above my head. You know, if Nebraska ever like wins the national, I'm going

to get one. I'm just going to walk around wherever I just like, you know, just carrying it around

with like the radio broadcast of the, of the game. So, you know, I'm just, I don't even care. I'm

going to take it to work with me. Like if Nebraska, everyone's the national championship again

like, I don't even know what I'm going to do, but I'm going to get one of those boom boxes and make

a complete ass out of myself at any rate. If Nebraska wins the national championship

we're moving to Lincoln and making our own headquarters. And I don't know what I do

Like the entire city of Lincoln would just burn down for like a week. Yeah. That would be

that would be crazy. It would, but eventually someday we might, we might be there again

I don't think we're going to get David Sanders, but what I would say is that, you know

if Nebraska can try to get him on campus, you know, if he comes to that, I'm sure they'll have

like a cookout in July, maybe not a big one, but if they do have that unofficial visit weekend and

they can get him there, then maybe they have a shot. It feels like to me, it's going to be

Tennessee or Ohio state and probably a crap ton, probably more NIL money than Nebraska has to pay

But, you know, but I do think that it is a good thing that, that guys are in the mix doing

Riolas, getting us in the mix, Matt Ruhle. And once we, once we start seven to know this year

like the, like the national media says, then maybe we'll win some of these recruitments. Who knows? Like the national media says, I just want to preface that like the national media says

not us, not us, like the national media. I'm still, I'm like Matt Ruhle, man. I'm like

let's get to one and O first. Let's get to one and O. Cause I've seen, I've just seen too many

I've seen some things, man. I've seen some things. So let's just win the first game

When the first game, if, if we beat Colorado, I'm not saying we will, but if we beat Colorado

I think we have a good shot, but let's focus on UTEP first. Yeah. If we beat Colorado, then I'm going to take a shot of Kool-Aid with, with some hard liquor

on that week too, because then the Kool-Aid, the Kool-Aid drink, it's going to go to a whole

other level. If we beat Colorado. You should do it during the show. And then

that that'll make for a very interesting show. We should make a drink, the Roo-Lay

the actual Roo-Lay that would be kind of a drink. Yeah, it is. So at any rate, we did want to talk about Terrence Knight in just for a minute

because Nebraska fans, there's a bunch of misinformation going out there. And I don't

know if he updated his Twitter profile, which people, you know, we'll do from time to time

I mean, I think it says CEO of death row and then Terrence retweeted something later

And it was a, it was a person with a Nebraska hat on, I believe saying you guys need to get

familiar with what death row is essentially something like that. So I think that was

Terrence Knight and saying, Hey, nothing's happening here. But yeah, there's, there's

always rumor mongering and people were trying to make a big deal out of nothing saying that

Terrence Knight was leaving, which obviously would have been, you know, it would have been

a very concerning issue, but much ado about nothing. There doesn't, there's no indication

or reporting or anything saying that Terrence Knight is leaving. So I think this is just a

reminder that you know, fall camp starts July 31st, like fall camp just needs to get here

Yeah, as boring as we may be to some of you, we don't try to fish for views or

start any crazy BS. And that's why you didn't see us write anything on it. I asked Chris

and we both agreed that maybe we shouldn't write anything on it yet. And let's see it play out. But

even I was sweating for about an hour or two. I was like, Oh no, Terrence Knight and Evan Cooper

and less than 24 hours, like that would have been disastrous. But that would have been the pot roast

I love pot roast. I think he's one of our best code and recruiters, man. Like just, just for

another coaching job. I, you know, I think when you look at the staff, you know, Terrence Knight

and Garrett McGuire, Tony white, I think, I think McGuire, maybe, maybe a couple more years at

Nebraska, but I do think he has bigger dreams than being the wide receivers coach. But when

but when you look at the staff, it's definitely a staff that will be attractive to other college

programs for other positions. And I think, like I've said before, that's a good thing. I mean

you want coaches promoted, you want Tony white to take a head coach job because that makes a lot of

other up and coming coaches want to come to Nebraska because now they know it's a chance to

kind of get in advance in their careers. And that's not a bad thing at all. Coaching development

is great. And if we can become a coaching development program, as well as, you know

have on-field success, then that would just be another feather in Matt rules cap

Yeah. Great coaches. They're great at developing players and they're great at developing their

assistant coaches. And I believe that Matt rule is going to prove to be that, you know

during his tenure, which, which is a great thing. It's, it's good to have those guys moving on. And yeah, I think Terrence Knighton to me at some point, he's going to get a chance to go to the

NFL. I mean, I think he's that bit of a coach. And I think when people see, you know, look what he did

last year with Nash and Ty Robinson and what he does this year, you know, with those guys and then

Cameron Lenhart, Riley van Poppel, this defensive line is going to be really good. And Terrence

Knighton, you know, deserves a lot of credit for that. So yeah, James Williams, Kyle, James Williams

cause he was, he came into the program early or, I mean, later, excuse me, but he was, he almost

he almost made my list of breakout candidates, but it's tough. It was a tough list to put together

because there's a lot of guys that could be on that list, you know, I mean, you know, three guys

from the defensive line could be on that list, but yeah, no, it's just a testament to he, you know

the fact that he develops players. Well, he can recruit really well in, you know, he, he's a total

package and everything you look for in a coach. And I think he can really relate to players well

I think he will leave at some point. I don't think he's leaving this week. So at least we

can breathe easy for another year or so maybe. Yeah. I think we got the staff set with John

Butler now, and then we'll see what happens with recruiting here over the next few weeks

And then it's going to be fall camp, July 31st. The guys are going back to the dorm rooms and

yeah, it's going to be, it's going to be exciting, man. We're less than two months away. We're like

I don't know how many days, cause I'm not that good at math, but I know it's like 50 something

openers. So that's why I'm a writer. I can't wait. Yeah. I don't know. I just, I look at the

social media accounts and then the day, the calendar days get me all screwed up too, you know

cause they got the 31 days and stuff like that. So it's like, you know, it's just a, but at any

rate, I know we're getting close. So on that note, one other thing that I wanted to mention

before we exited here is just the, is just the Under Armour invite acceptance for Houston

How do you say his last name? I think it's Kahina Taurus. We're going to have to learn

how to say that, but so we're going to have to learn how to say that, but Under Armour invite

he accepted it on Saturday, I believe it was. And that's important to me just cause that's

another Nebraska representative in that game on the offensive line. I know Gibson Pyle was

part of it, I believe last year. So, you know, it's just a testament to the ability to find

diamonds in the rough. And quite honestly, I think he has a chance to be a four star. I really

do. I think he's vastly underrated, his physicality and his ability to run block. I mean, boy, he can

he can finish plays with the best of them. So I do think you might see a ratings bump at some point

over the next couple of months. Cause he, he is a hidden gem and he's not a project player. He is

really good. Yeah. And you look at, he's not that far away either. You know, he's an 88 in his

ranking. So even if he doesn't get there, it's, it's one of those three stars where you feel like

you got a four star and, you know, getting, I'll take the best offensive lineman from Nebraska or

from Hawaii and every single class. So if we can just get that set up, you know, 2026 best offensive

lineman from Hawaii, just come on down to Nebraska. I'll take every single one of them. So, yeah, no, I'll take it building the Hawaii pipeline over the last two years for lineman

and has been really important and has been a really positive sign. And rebuilding that

Polynesian pipeline, I think can be a really good thing. Brian Tapu as well. So yeah, so that's a

good nugget. We'll end it there folks. But check out HuskerBigRed.com. Please make sure that you

hit the subscribe button. If you haven't already get into the comment section, hit the like button

check out HuskerBigRed.com and we'll be back for another episode later on this week. Until then

have a great rest of your week and as always go Big Red. Go Big Red

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