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Matt Rhule Goes All In With Desperation Move to Dana Holgorsen

Rhule promotes former Houston head coach Dana Holgorsen to OC to get over the bowl hump

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By Rock Westfall

Nebraska Cornhuskers head coach Matt Rhule is all in. Offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield has been demoted to tight ends coach, and Dana Holgorsen will take over as OC with full play-calling duties for the rest of the season.

Holgorsen was hired last week as a consultant and quickly learned the playbook to the extent that Rhule was comfortable with the promotion. The offense became stagnant under Satterfield and needed a jumpstart.

The move comes as Nebraska prepares for a Saturday road game against the USC Trojans. The Big Red needs one more win to become bowl-eligible for the first time since 2016.

Last week, Matt Rhule said he would do anything to make a bowl game. By demoting his longtime friend Satterfield, the reputably loyal Rhule has proven that he is fully committed to that vow.

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Dana Holgorsen – A Mixed HC Record, A Prolific Offensive Resume  

When we last saw Dana Holgorsen, he was imploding as head coach of the Houston Cougars. After the 2018 season, wealthy Houston donors lured Holgorsen away from West Virginia to take over a Cougars program seeking to escape the American Athletic Conference for a Power Four league.

Holgorsen went 61-41 at West Virginia, leading the Mountaineers to seven bowls in eight seasons with three AP Top 20 finishes. The theory was that with better financial backing and in the fertile Houston and Texas recruiting footprint, Holgorsen would thrive.

After a 12-2 campaign in 2021, it appeared that Holgorsen had Houston on his way. But records of 8-5 in 2022 and 4-8 in 2023 cost him his job.

Although Holgorsen is remembered for his halcyon days as an assistant at Texas Tech and Oklahoma State, he is a native of Iowa and attended Iowa Wesleyan, where he played receiver. Thus, he has connections to the Big Ten country and the Midwestern blood.

Holgorsen brings a larger-than-life, casual, fun-loving personality. He likes a stiff drink, a good time, and a blackjack table. When he was winning, fans ate it up and considered him to be a college football coaching version of Jimmy Buffett. But when the losses mounted, Holgorsen came off as distracted. After losing the Houston HC job and taking some downtime, it’s obvious he is motivated to redeem his reputation.

Holgorsen is known as an Air Raid coach under mentors Mike Leach and Mike Gundy, but his offenses always had a running game element to keep defenses honest. Regardless, Rhule said it’s too late to change the offense to the Air Raid anyway.

While Holgorsen will use the established Nebraska playbook, his Air Raid background could still serve Nebraska well. The Air Raid is one of the simplest offenses in football, and Rhule has admitted that Nebraska has been trying to do too much offensively. Thus, Holgorsen is likely to simplify things and remove clutter from the minds of his players.

Holgorsen begins his tenure with uncertainty at the quarterback position. Dylan Raiola is not yet cleared to start on Saturday but will be evaluated at Wednesday’s practice. Thus, Heinrich Haarberg, who started most of last year, could get his first start of the 2024 campaign.

The Pressure Mounts for Husker Nation 

Last year, needing only one win in its final four games to clinch a bowl berth, Nebraska went four-and-out to spoil Matt Rhule’s debut season. But a furiously productive recruiting campaign and successful offseason followed.

Next came a 5-1 start headlined by an impressive prime-time national TV win over Colorado. Nebraska’s 5-star true freshman phenom quarterback Dylan Raiola was being touted as the next Patrick Mahomes. Husker Nation was throwing down the spiked Rhule-Aid as the College Football Playoff seemed possible.

But a blowout loss at Indiana was followed by a lackluster debacle against UCLA. Raiola was regressing, and Satterfield confessed to not understanding the importance of running the ball in the Big Ten.

Rhule, facing the prospect of a five-and-out catastrophe, had to make a desperation gamble. Dana Holgorsen could prove to be the right man at the right time to jumpstart the offense, save Raiola, and gain the bowl game Nebraska must deliver.

With additional revenue needed for stadium expansion, success on the field to hold a promising recruiting class, potential fan apathy, and the credibility of creating a winning program on the line, Matt Rhule’s desperation Hail Mary is completely and totally justified. 

And it just might work.

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