Former Houston head coach Dana Holgorsen was hired by Nebraska last week for what was initially referred to as an offensive consultant position, but his role with the program will be a lot more influential than that.
Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule told reporters on Monday that Holgorsen is the Cornhuskers’ new offensive coordinator. Holgorsen will call offensive plays for the remainder of the season.
“Bringing in coach Holgorsen was about helping our offense be better this week against USC. It’s about helping our offense be better next year. It’s just about everything moving forward,” Rhule said. “I think that so many things we’re doing are right and are trending in the right direction. This was an area that was struggling. I tried to fix it. I hadn’t been able to fix it, so I called someone that I knew could fix it. I think Dana will fix it.”
Marcus Satterfield had been Nebraska’s offensive coordinator prior to Holgorsen’s arrival. Satterfield will remain on Rhule’s staff but has essentially been demoted.
Holgorsen was the head coach at Houston for five seasons. He went 31-28 overall and was fired after last season. The 53-year-old previously had success as the head coach at West Virginia from 2011-18, where he went 61-41 and led the Mountaineers to a bowl game in seven of eight seasons.
Prior to being hired at West Virginia, Holgorsen was an offensive assistant with Oklahoma State, Houston (in a previous stint) and Texas Tech. He has worked with many notable quarterbacks including Geno Smith, Brandon Weeden, Graham Harrell and Case Keenum.
Nebraska has not scored more than 20 points in a game in over a month. Freshman quarterback Dylan Raiola has just one touchdown pass compared to six interceptions over the past four games, so it would be an understatement to say the Cornhuskers’ offense has been stagnant. Rhule is confident Holgorsen will be able to clean things up.
