2023 Nebraska Season Thread

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Football Scoop reported on Tuesday that Arlington (Texas) Martin coach Bob Wager — who made the 6A Playoffs in each of his 17 seasons — will be joining the Huskers in an unspecified role.

Wager is a fixture in Texas high school football and the subject of a lengthy 2022 profile in the Dallas Morning News, which recounts Wager's graduation from Springfield College on the East Coast and subsequent motorcycle ride to Texas after Wager read Friday Night Lights and was inspired by the story.


Arlington Martin's best-known player is NFL star Myles Garrett. Wager's son, Gage, was a senior running back this season for Martin. His daughter, Mia, is a cheerleader for the team.

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cause we've all learned that since Nebraska joined the B1G, they haven't recruited Texas and that's essential to building a winning program

I think I'll go to Arlington next week and stake out the Bonedaddy's there

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On Friday, Satterfield spoke to the press and outlined some of his plans for the upcoming year. Asked about utilizing the huddle, the offensive coordinator said he’s “on a crusade” about the huddle, mentioning that the huddle is the “heart and soul of football.”

“We’ll actually get in a huddle. Will use tight ends and a fullback.”


In addition to using the huddle for “essential communication” and “allowing the quarterbacks to lead”, Satterfield will also utilize a QB run game. The offensive coordinator stated that having a QB run game is “crucial.”

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THIS WEEK IN HUSKER HISTORY
The week of Jan. 6-12
 
1903: A bill to prohibit football at public educational institutions is set to be introduced in the state Legislature.

1918: Nebraska announces an ambitious schedule for 1918, but four of the games – against Syracuse, Washington State, Northwestern and Missouri – would not pan out because of World War I and an influenza pandemic.

1973: Bob Devaney's name comes up in speculation about the New England Patriots' coaching job.

1983: Tom Osborne and Lou Holtz criticize new NCAA academic standards based on test scores, with Osborne calling them “culturally unfair.”

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[MrNubbz]

That's a grad assistant that's fine. These universities can't make everyone rich. The actual assistants aren't hurting

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For the first time in school history, Nebraska will pay an assistant coach over $1 million.

The University of Nebraska officially released the public salary information for eight of the 11 coaches tied to Matt Rhule’s assistant coach salary pool. Rhule has $7 million to pay the 11 coaches, and just under $5.1 million is wrapped up in the eight figures released on Friday.

Offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield comes with the highest salary, as he’ll make $1.4 million on a three-year agreement that runs through the end of the 2025 football season. At South Carolina this past season, he made $900,000.

Defensive coordinator Tony White will make $1 million. While at Syracuse, his last listed salary was $711,420. The full terms of his contract were not released, but it’s assumed he’s also on a three-year contract like Satterfield. Rhule’s head coach’s contract states his coordinators can receive three-year contracts and his assistant coaches two year deals.

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https://kearneyhub.com/sports/college/amie-just-revival-of-the-fullback-at-nebraska-could-be-advantageous-osborne-says/article_653331f2-36cb-5165-941b-1a7a62d9aaa8.html

Since football’s inception at Nebraska in 1890, the Huskers had always had a fullback — until the dark ages of 2018-22.

Seriously.

There have been at least 151 fullbacks who’ve lettered at the University of Nebraska, according to the athletic department’s records. Before the Scott Frost era, the only years in NU history where there wasn’t a designated fullback letterwinner: 1891, 1903, 1913, 1925 and 1941. But there was at least one fullback on each of those rosters.


Under new head coach Matt Rhule and offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield? The fullback’s back, baby.
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That complicates things for a defense — especially in the age of 00, 10, 11 and 12 personnel packages. Throwing a curveball with 21, 22 or, phew, even 23 personnel, that’s advantageous to an offense.

“A lot of teams, because they don’t see a lot of 21 personnel with the fullback in there, they don’t work it,” said Tom Rathman (1981-85) and retired NFL running backs coach. “And you may have an advantage going into a football game.”

Before we get in too deep, a quick refresher on personnel packages.

With five offensive linemen and a quarterback on the field, that gives teams five spots for playmakers and/or extra blockers. When referring to specific offensive personnel packages, the first number equals the number of running backs on the field, while the second represents the number of tight ends. So, 10 equals one running back with zero tight ends, which means there are spots for four receivers. A 21 personnel grouping has two running backs and one tight end, so there are spots for two receivers.

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Last fiscal year, Husker football made $97,900,681. Numbers like that underline why Nebraska brass is moving heaven and earth again — with a sixth head coach in 20 years — to get this right

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A strong connection with Georgia assistant Fran Brown helped Matt Rhule land three Bulldog transfers.

https://www.onlineathens.com/story/sports/college/bulldogs-extra/2023/02/02/uga-football-fran-brown-georgia-bulldogs-nebraska-matt-rhule/69852475007/

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THIS WEEK IN HUSKER HISTORY
The week of Feb. 3-9, looking back in five-year intervals

1903: John Westover, the Cornhuskers’ captain in 1901 and ’02, considers entering graduate school at the University of Chicago, where he would be eligible to play one season. He ultimately would decide to stay in Lincoln as an assistant coach, but as you'll find out in a future “This Week…” installment, the Western Conference school wasn't finished trying to lure – some would say poach – Nebraska talent.

1928: A Nebraska game at Army is officially on, thanks to an Army-Navy spat.

1933: A bill is filed in the Nebraska Legislature that would limit the head coach's annual salary to $4,000 (roughly $90,000 in 2022 dollars).

1948: Bernie Masterson resigns as head coach with a two-year record of 5-13.

1968: Former Husker Frank Solich is named head coach at Lincoln Southeast High School.

1993: Quarterback Scott Frost of Wood River, Neb., opts for Stanford over Nebraska.

1998: The “Miracle at Missouri” involving Scott Frost, Shevin Wiggins and Matt Davison gets ESPY recognition. | Video

2018: The spring game for coach Scott Frost's first Husker squad is sold out in a little over 24 hours, and the scalping begins.

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Malachi remembers wandering around the streets, feeling confused and alone. He and his sister, Nevaeh, were always hungry. They’d check trash cans behind gas stations searching for scraps. Sometimes, a kind person would give them something to eat. They slept anywhere they could.

Their biological father died in a car accident. Their biological mother was a drug addict and alcoholic. She wasn’t always around. One day, she stole a car, put her kids inside and drove away. At some point she stopped, dropping Malachi and Nevaeh off on the side of the street. She said she’d be back.

“That was the last time I saw her,” Malachi said. “I was five.”


https://247sports.com/Article/ncaa-college-football-recruiting-top247-national-signing-day-nil-malachi-coleman-nebraska-203956914/

Flying High: How Malachi Coleman is using NIL to uplift his community

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Rhule coaches his coaches, some of whom once played for him.

And, in a bit of underrated story, he’s assembled a massive support staff. Including strength coaches, he has an analyst/graduate assistant/support staff of 39.

Who’s in it? Five analysts and six quality control associates — three of whom followed new defensive coordinator Tony White from Syracuse to install the new 3-3-5 defense. Nebraska has, for now, two graduate assistants, one of whom is former Husker receiver Mike Williams, who just left the school in 2019.

Rhule has a general manager (Sean Padden), a personal assistant (former ATF special agent Jarrett Wishon) a director of football operations (Gordon Thomas, who’s worked at USC, Georgia Tech and LSU) and a chief of staff, Dr. Susan Elza, who left the University Interscholastic League — which oversees Texas high school sports — for NU.


Rhule has 11 staffers in the personnel/recruiting/development office. He kept on Vince Guinta to oversee recruiting; Guinta revamped NU’s official visits last season and had a strong reputation in the field. Longtime Rhule aides Omar Hales, Mike Wallace and Gus Felder are respectively Director of Player Personnel — High Schools, Director of Football Advancement and Director of Football Player Development; all are key culture-keepers for players considering the program or developing within it.

And Rhule found a role, too, for longtime staffer Ron Brown, who stays on as a Director of Player Support and Outreach. Brown is a bridge to several eras, including the 1990s. He can help navigate — to the extent Rhule needs help — relationships with former Husker players who want to remain close to the program.


In total, excluding trainers and medical personnel, it’s a bigger staff than Iowa — which lists 28 such positions. Though some teams are in flux, Nebraska might have the biggest staff in the Big Ten, just higher, by hand count, than Michigan (38) and Penn State (37). Ohio State had 31, which surprised me. Illinois (32), Minnesota (32), Northwestern (18), Wisconsin (still growing, but at 17) were other Big Ten West teams.

Rhule’s training wheels are off. He doesn’t have the biggest staff in college football — Texas, for starters, is north of 40 — but he’s built one quickly attuned to his vision.

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Gardner, a junior pole vaulter from Lincoln, has more than 73,000 followers on Instagram, with more than 150,000 followers on TikTok. Several of her TikTok videos have surpassed the three million view mark.

Well she was back making viral content this week. She and a teammate took to TikTik with a new video from their hotel room before a meet this weekend.