Matt Rhule dives into why he promoted John Butler to defensive coordinator

On Tuesday the Nebraska football program made the news official: John Butler would be promoted to defensive coordinator after spending the 2024 season as the secondary coach and pass game coordinator.

Following a bowl practice on Thursday morning, head coach Matt Rhule called the DC search “methodical” and that he interviewed six coaches for the role. Some in that group were current power four DCs.

There were a lot of parameters that mattered for Rhule, he said, none of which involved optics.

“I didn’t care about making a splash or anything like that,” Rhule said. “I wanted to make the right decision.”

Rhule said he was speaking with senior defensive analyst Kevin McGarry about the search and decision-making process. McGarry, who came to Nebraska with White from Syracuse in 2023, is a longtime head coach who spent much of his career on the west coast.

“He (McGarry) told one of the candidates that coming here is a defensive coordinator’s dream,” Rhule said. “We practice a certain way, we play a certain way. So I wanted to get the right person. I talked to a lot of great candidates. There was a ton of interest from sitting defensive coordinators.”

Though Rhule likes the overall general philosophy of Nebraska’s defense the past two seasons, he thought the unit took a step back in a couple areas in 2024.

Rhule remembered something one of his longtime assistants, Phil Snow, who will reportedly join Nebraska as an associate head coach, told him: the first- and second-down defense has been good and wasn’t the issue. Instead, it’s the third-down situations against offenses with strong pass attacks that need to improve if Nebraska is going to reach its goals.

The Husker defense limited offenses to a 34.01% conversion rate in 2024, good for 30th in the country and 5th in the Big Ten. Rhule wants it to be better.

“To be able to stop the offenses that we’re going to need to stop, that can drop back and spin the ball, we’re going to need some advanced, I think, defense on third down, two-minute, red zone,” Rhule said.

Enter Butler, a known developer of defensive backs and defensive a game-planner with a history of strong pass defenses in the NFL with Buffalo. On top of that, Rhule noticed the sheer amount of current Husker players who knocked on Rhule’s office door suggesting Butler get the DC job.

“I’m not going to make that decision because of that, but I think some of the current guys in the secondary felt like, after three or four years in college, John had brought a professionalism and a next-level mentality to them that they thought was going to prepare them for the next level. Some of them are leaving, so they didn’t have to say that to me,” Rhule said. “So I think it was just a combination of who can add to what we’re already doing at a high level, who can bring some things secondary wise to really help us, and who’s someone, after working with John for a year, I thought he was really, really professional, really good to work with, a great evaluator. I’m excited for him.”

Butler’s ability to game-plan against opponents stands out the most to Rhule.

“I think a lot of that it will come down to coverage, and more advanced coverage, and blitz packages,” Rhule said.

Defensive lineman Cam Lenhardt was one of the players who spoke about wanting Butler to get the job.

“As a group, we think he deserved it,” Lenhardt said. “He’s a great guy, and we know him. So getting somebody in there that we know and we’re comfortable with. So I think a lot of us went in there with that.”

Said starting cornerback Ceyair Wright: “He’s a really great guy. We’ve gotten to know him really well over the course of the season. And I think my favorite thing about him is his mind. I think he’s just super, super advanced with his knowledge of the game, and I think he does a really good job at passing that knowledge on to us.”

Nebraska’s pass defense struggled at times in 2024. It allowed 209.7 passing yards per game, 51st in the country, and 7.4 yards per attempt, 81st. Rhule said Butler was in a tough spot, showing up late in July to take over for Evan Cooper.

For about half the season, the plan was for Butler to coach the starters in the defensive backfield while the assistants coached the younger, inexperienced players. Rhule said that plan changed during the second bye week.

“He just had to concentrate on the guys who were playing, which is not what we want to be like. We want to be developmental, work with the young players, get them better,” Rhule said. “I think about halfway through the year, I think John kind of took a step back and really kind of started to pour into the younger players, because knowing, hey, we need these guys. But to ask someone to come in and learn a different system, Tony White’s system, in July is really difficult.”

Since Butler started working with the younger players, Rhule has seen jumps. Jumps in play from young guys like safeties Donovan Jones, Caleb Benning, Braylen Prude and Mario Buford, as well as cornerbacks Amare Sanders and Larry Tarver.

With Butler leading the defense during bowl practices, Rhule said the defensive backfield is currently being coached by Adam DiMichele and Tariq Thompson.

DiMichele is coaching the safeties. He came to the program as an offensive analyst but made the switch to defense in 2024. Thompson, who played safety for White at San Diego State in 2017, is coaching the cornerbacks.

Rhule said the search for a secondary coach is ongoing and should be wrapped up soon.

“We will hire a secondary coach. We actually have some people in for interviews today and tomorrow,” Rhule said. “There’s a process, we’ll follow it. But we should have something pretty soon.”