New DC

Husker in WI said:
It's possible somebody else had jumped to the top of Rhule's list recently, but it's also very clear Rhule has had Butler in mind for DC since he hired him initially. He even said as much when announcing him as the interim DC. I don't know why people find that so hard to believe. Whether fans like it or not, this has been Plan A since Cooper left and I don't think things going according to plan is bad. 
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I agree that butler was brought in as a backup plan if white left but if it was as cut and dry as you want to make it feel, Rhule would have just announced it as soon as white left...  He didn't, he said that he WAS talking to others and that he was surprised at the amount of interest in the position from power 5 coordinators.

 
HuskerNation1 said:
I am sure Butler has had some learnings over the past 10 years, but none of those learning occurred with him as the DC.  As I referenced earlier, there is a huge difference between being a position coach and being the leader of the entire defensive staff.  Rhule is taking a huge risk that Butler will excel as a DC when he really has no prior experience in that role outside of the bad 2013 year at PSU.  

Regarding Leonhard, I don't believe many are saying he is the only option but rather a top option.  Rhule even said he had many other P5 defensive coordinators reaching out to him. I simply do not understand why Rhule is not looking to bring in a more experienced DC so we can avoid on the job training.  Again, this feels like a very safe and lazy choice and not a choice of Rhule pushing to bring in the best DC possible.  
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Probably a good thing then that Rhule brought in a 40+ year veteran with 20 years of DC experience to help then.  Not everything has to happen in a vacuum.  And with Snow on staff that has to make a big difference.  Snow's defenses have been elite everywhere he has been.  Let's not forget that fact.  I said yesterday that Butler alone was just a good hire.  But with Snow here to mentor and help out that turns into a Great hire.

 
twofittyonred said:
I agree that butler was brought in as a backup plan if white left but if it was as cut and dry as you want to make it feel, Rhule would have just announced it as soon as white left...  He didn't, he said that he WAS talking to others and that he was surprised at the amount of interest in the position from power 5 coordinators.
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You can't announce it as soon as White leaves, even if that is the decision you have made.  People would be upset that you didn't try to open the job up for someone outside the program.  Soon after that the fan base had already fired a name leaked in consideration for our DC job Symons from SMU bc of his poor showing in the first half against Clemson.  Jim Leonhard is a big name, but maybe he is not interested in college football, or maybe he wasnt seen as an upgrade over Butler.  Couple of my former coaches are in the league and they would sell insurance before returning to college football. 

 
Husker in WI said:
  1. White almost took the USC DC job last offseason, and has clearly stated he wants to be a HC. It took a raise to keep him, and we put in a clause preventing him from taking other Big Ten DC jobs, but not preventing him from taking non-Big Ten DC jobs. We knew he was probably leaving after this year one way or another.



2. No idea, but I imagine it's a more robust process to settle on a choice than what we as fans do, which is just skimming team defensive numbers and then guessing at whether their DC would consider DC at Nebraska a promotion.
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If White left for a HC job then I completely agree with your first point.  Heading to FSU as a lateral move only makes sense if White truly wanted to be closer to family. I just get the sense that there may have been some friction between Rhule and White but who knows.  

Regarding the 2nd point, of course hiring decisions are a very robust process.  I have to make them all the time for my job.  With that said, I am really curious what Rhule's final candidate pool looked like and how he settled on Butler over other options. I get that he will not share that, but the perception from afar is that he didn't do a vast search of the best DC options available and more likely planned to pick Butler all along.

 
swmohusker said:
You can't announce it as soon as White leaves, even if that is the decision you have made.  People would be upset that you didn't try to open the job up for someone outside the program.  Soon after that the fan base had already fired a name leaked in consideration for our DC job Symons from SMU bc of his poor showing in the first half against Clemson.  Jim Leonhard is a big name, but maybe he is not interested in college football, or maybe he wasnt seen as an upgrade over Butler.  Couple of my former coaches are in the league and they would sell insurance before returning to college football. 
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Why not..??  especially since he was supposedly brought in specifically for that exact scenario.  

 
twofittyonred said:
Why not..??  especially since he was supposedly brought in specifically for that exact scenario.  
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Because you corner yourself by  not exploring other options.  It might be the right hire and you are 100% committed to it, but you at least have to open it up for external candidates for the optics of the process. That way when you are asked about it at a press conference you can say that we looked at all options and we decided our best option was already on staff. 

Who knows, maybe they were open to an external hire and nobody moved the needle enough to make the move. 

 
swmohusker said:
You can't announce it as soon as White leaves, even if that is the decision you have made.  People would be upset that you didn't try to open the job up for someone outside the program.  Soon after that the fan base had already fired a name leaked in consideration for our DC job Symons from SMU bc of his poor showing in the first half against Clemson.  Jim Leonhard is a big name, but maybe he is not interested in college football, or maybe he wasnt seen as an upgrade over Butler.  Couple of my former coaches are in the league and they would sell insurance before returning to college football. 
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I agree with most of this !  You can't announce the hire immediately.  He was named the "interim" basically immediately.  Anyone on here that is "surprised" that JB was named DC really didn't pay attention along the way.  We don't have to agree or be excited about it, but as some of us mentioned earlier, this was a DONE deal in August.  This is the only reason JB came to Lincoln.  He didn't get off of his couch to take on the same role he was doing in the NFL.  

Rhule needed to take at least a week to make it official for all of the reasons the @swmohusker said.  Maybe, by law, the job has to be posted for a certain amount of time.  Rhule came out and said that he had been contacted by many P4 coaches "interested' in the job bc regardless of what you think of him as a coach, he may be the best PR guy we have ever had.  He sales the program and this was another opportunity for him to let the public know that Husker Football is still a "destination job" among the ranks. 

He may have "kicked the tires" on a few guys, but I strongly believe that it was JB all along.

 
SouthLincoln Husker said:
1 yr., not enough to judge.  Oh, 6 yrs as 1 of the best secondaries in the NFL. :facepalm:
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I will absolutely agree that the DB struggled along the way.  I will also say that although I am not extremely excited about the hire, I will not hold this year's performance against him.  His secondary with the Bills was basically top notch.  I know from experience, it is not easy to replace popular coaches, even when it is done in a timely manner.  He was asked to come in really late in the game, replacing one of the more popular coaches on the team.  My guess is that the DB room wasn't thrilled with the sudden change.  He was also tasked with basically taking the scheme that was already in place, which may not have been his forte.

Tommi Hill wasn't bad to start the year, in fact, if you check after after the CU game, he was really popular.  He go hurt shortly thereafter and was never effective again.  Hartzog has always been too small and a liability. We have a few more who are "slow" and you can't coach slow. Wright actually had a pretty good year under JB.

In all fairness, you really can't judge until he gets a full year with his guys , his scheme, and a group that isn't pissy their favorite coach got let go.  With that said, he was NOT my pick to be the DC, but I will give him the benefit right now.

 
Personally, I don't put a lot of stock in assessing 2024 for or against Butler. He came in essentially at the 12th hour when fall camp started, in a scheme he didn't know, with players he didn't know or recruit, and had to get caught up to speed and make the most out of a secondary losing it's two best players and playing whack-a-mole moving others around into positions they weren't meant for. 

 
Lorewarn said:
Personally, I don't put a lot of stock in assessing 2024 for or against Butler. He came in essentially at the 12th hour when fall camp started, in a scheme he didn't know, with players he didn't know or recruit, and had to get caught up to speed and make the most out of a secondary losing it's two best players and playing whack-a-mole moving others around into positions they weren't meant for. 
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This is what I was saying, just probably presented better !

 
Red Five said:
If you think the weeping, waling, and gnashing of the teeth now is bizarre, just wait until this crew uses every single touchdown we give up for the next year as proof that Butler is terrible and we should have hired their pet coach.
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I was listening to Huskers Online today. One of their sponsors is Better Health. Maybe we can buy some sessions for some HB members for Xmas.

 
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