Why Nebraska switched to ‘amazing’ clap cadence to handle nasty crowd noise

This was September 2023, and NU’s offense was in the midst of its second disastrous game on the road. The mistakes made that day, coupled with a mindset change from the Husker braintrust, triggered a change in the way NU manages crowd noise.

Nebraska no longer uses a verbal cadence. It uses a pre-snap clap to call for the ball, which offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield said has made a “night and day” difference.

“It’s amazing — they can hear the clap of a quarterback’s hand better than him screaming at the top of his voice,” Satterfield said. “There’s 80, 90,000 people and they can hear the clap — which, there’s people clapping everywhere. So I’ve never understood how it works, but it does. More consistent sound, consistent rhythm.”

It’s an approach NU will use as it heads to Indiana’s sold-out Memorial Stadium. Nebraska likely has a silent cadence, too, if it needs it, but many teams use the clap method in difficult environments.

“We still have two false starts at Purdue,” NU coach Matt Rhule said of the Huskers’ offense, which has six false starts on the season. “We’re still not perfect. We’re far from perfect. You get down there on the goal line and you’re trying to run the power play on fourth-and-1 and you’re sitting there like, hopefully no one false starts. I just think we’re more prepared.”

Nebraska used crowd noise throughout training camp and has honed the clap method with quarterback Dylan Raiola. Running back Emmett Johnson said the offense is on the “same page” using the new cadence system.

The clap method can come with drawbacks when defenders attempt to clap themselves either to shift defensive linemen or distract the opposing center. Twice in NU’s recent history — the 2014 game at Michigan State and the 2020 game at Iowa — Husker centers struggled with snap timing because of intermittent, seemingly purposeful timing.

After the loss to the Hawkeyes — in an empty stadium during the height of the COVID pandemic — then-Nebraska coach Scott Frost, via Zoom, said center Cam Jurgens snaps’ got better “once Iowa players stopped clapping.”

The comment infuriated Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz like few comments have.

“What are we talking about?” Ferentz said to reporters. “The next thing you know, we’re going to be treating this like golf… in golf, nobody’s allowed to say anything.”

At Michigan State in 2014, the issue was also pronounced. Then-MSU coach Mark Dantonio said the Spartans’ claps were designed to communicate with defenders. Then-Nebraska coach Bo Pelini, almost sheepishly on the now-defunct Big Ten teleconference, explained what happened.

“It didn’t happen a lot, but it happened a few times, and it’s not the first time this has happened,” Pelini said. “Michigan State isn’t the first team to ever do that. But you hope that they would catch it.”

And Satterfield said Tuesday that officials generally do catch defenses trying to mess up the snap with disconcerting signals. It’s a 5-yard penalty for “delay of game.” Former Husker linebacker Luke Reimer was whistled for the penalty midway through the 2021 Michigan game.

“The referees have done a nice job of seeing when people try to do that,” Satterfield said.