What Nebraska told fans about why the football team is switching sidelines

“After soliciting feedback from our coaches and staff, it was determined that the west sideline has a competitive advantage for our team,” the email states. “We want to do everything possible to support our coaches and team and put us in a position to succeed.”

The switch, NU said in the email, will not affect fans sitting along the west sideline during the 2024 football season. 

While former Nebraska AD Trev Alberts said in October 2023 he expected the team to eventually move from east to west, neither he, new AD Troy Dannen nor coach Matt Rhule announced that move as official. 

“Coach Rhule wants to be on the west side,” Alberts said on his monthly radio show then. “We’re ultimately going to move the team to west side.”

Alberts’ comments followed NU’s 45-7 loss to Michigan. On that day, 96-degree temperatures baked the Huskers on the east sideline while the Wolverines, on the west, were eventually enveloped in a shadow of West Stadium. Alberts said he got a call from former NFL teammate Jim Harbaugh — UM’s coach at the time — who told him he believed Michigan’s sideline was 30-40 degrees cooler than Nebraska.

During the 2023 season, various reports of Michigan stealing opposing teams’ signs led to the resignation of one staff member, Connor Stalions, an ongoing NCAA investigation and a three-game suspension of Harbaugh. The Omaha World-Herald reported that Stalions had purchased tickets to Husker home games in 2021 and 2022. 

The Wolverines won the national title in 2024. 

In theory, opposing coaches could see, from the West Stadium press box, NU signals better across the field than they could looking down to the east sideline. That’s why in 2020, former coach Scott Frost moved his team to the west sideline during the COVID season, when only parents and close family could watch games in Memorial Stadium.

“It’s real easy with us signaling in, to be able to see the east sideline from the coaches’ box,” Frost said at the time. “I wanted to make sure we could do everything we could to protect our signals, particularly when there’s less chaos in the stadium.” 

Before that, Nebraska had used the east sideline since the Bob Devaney era began in 1962.

Still, Frost and NU moved back in 2021 to the east side, where there’s more room. Plus, at the time, the Tunnel Walk entrance came from the northwest tunnel. 

Starting last season, NU’s Tunnel Walk entrance switched to the northeast tunnel. It made for an awkward half-circle loop to the east sideline vs. the traditional gallop across the field. 

Now, the gallop will return, Husker signals will be harder to see and shadows will creep across the bench much earlier in some games.