Jeremy Pernell: Did Matt Rhule Drop the Ball with Nebraska’s Special Teams?

The exit of miracle worker Mike Ekeler perhaps could've been avoided, but the bigger head-scratcher might be the succession plan that came next.

Mike Ekeler is gone after engineering a remarkable turnaround during his single season as Nebraska's special team coordinator. | Dylan Widger-Imagn Images

Nebraska will open spring football practice on Feb. 21 — a much earlier start than in recent years. Head coach Matt Rhule cited acclimation as the primary reason, explaining that the staff wanted to “get the new guys on the field” and give the roster time to adjust to new coaches, terminology, and expectations before accelerating development.

That explanation makes sense. But more than anything else, the early start feels like a program eager to turn the page after how the 2025 season ended.

Nebraska closed the year by getting dog-walked in its final three games, suffering noncompetitive losses to Penn State, Iowa, and Utah that drained much of the momentum built through October. The offseason hasn’t exactly steadied the waters since.

Nebraska’s 2026 recruiting class is the smallest of any Power Four program, with only three commits rated as a four-star or higher by at least one major service. Those same outlets have also been largely underwhelmed by the program’s portal haul.

The result is a fan base taking a more reserved approach than usual as spring approaches. There’s a long road between now and the Sept. 5 opener against Ohio. By then, most fans will probably have their lips stained red from the Kool-Aid. There are legitimate reasons for optimism — and I’ll get to those in the coming weeks — but this offseason is best approached by first pouring a little salt into the root beer.

Because the most unsettling development of the winter remains Nebraska’s handling of special teams coordinator Mike Ekeler’s departure.

Against Michigan State in 2025, Kenneth Williams became the first Husker since 2017 to return a kickoff for a touchdown. | Kenny Larabee, KLIN

Nebraska finished 12th nationally in special teams efficiency in 2025 — a remarkable jump from 112th in 2024 and 91st in 2023 during Matt Rhule’s first two seasons. Ekeler didn’t merely improve the unit; he transformed it, turning a chronic liability into a weekly advantage and, in several cases, a deciding factor in wins.

For more than a decade prior to Ekeler’s arrival, Nebraska had a virtually nonexistent punt return game and largely inconsequential kick returns. In one season, Ekeler produced a second-team All-Big Ten return specialist and restored credibility to an entire phase of the game.

When Rhule fired longtime assistant Ed Foley after the 2024 season, he admitted last spring that he was initially “on the fence” about bringing Ekeler back to Lincoln.

“When I started hearing local media and former players say to hire him, my initial reaction was, ‘don’t hire him,’” Rhule said. “At the end of the day I don’t love celebrity coaches. I want guys who just want to work.”

Ekeler won Rhule over during the interview process, when the head coach noted “how great of a coach and teacher he is” and called Ekeler’s teaching progression “the best I’ve ever seen.”
Rhule’s preference was to have someone focused solely on special teams and not have him split time with another position. While it seems the pair agreed upon that structure when Ekeler was hired, it's obvious it became a point of contention coming out of the bowl game.

Staff turnover forced Rhule into an “all hands on deck” approach during Las Vegas Bowl preparations. After being named interim defensive coordinator, Phil Snow asked to have Ekeler assist him with coaching the edge players. It’s fair to wonder whether that experience sparked Ekeler’s desire for a broader role moving forward.

Outside of the 2020 COVID season at North Texas, Ekeler has almost always paired special teams duties with coaching linebackers: Georgia (2014-15, inside linebackers), Kansas (2019, inside linebackers), and Tennessee (2021-24, outside linebackers). His lone season at Nebraska was the exception.

Mike Ekeler, right, coached special teams and outside linebackers for Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel. | Calvin Mattheis/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK

We know athletic director Troy Dannen offered Ekeler a lucrative midseason extension — reportedly bumping his salary to $825,000 — that went unsigned for several weeks. It’s possible Ekeler wanted assurances of expanded defensive responsibilities before signing the new deal.

That theory gained traction less than two weeks after the season ended, when reports surfaced that USC head coach Lincoln Riley was attempting to poach Ekeler. Rhule addressed the situation twice publicly, including during a Jan. 14 appearance on the Zach Gelb podcast.

“People have other things,” Rhule said. “Mike’s also been a defensive coordinator… Obviously, we hired Rob (Aurich) to do the defense. Mike’s done a great job on special teams. But if people want to take other jobs, all I can do is put them under contract and offer them extensions and hope that they stay.”

It's evident Ekeler broached the subject of having involvement in some capacity with the defense with Rhule. That raises some questions.

Was Rhule unwilling to demote Rob Dvoracek — someone who played for him at Temple and has been part of his staff's at Baylor, Carolina and Nebraska? Did Rhule feel Ekeler was forcing his hand and that conceding would set a bad precedent? Or did new defensive coordinator Rob Aurich, hired Dec. 7 and heavily involved during bowl prep, prefer Dvoracek in the linebackers role — a position Aurich has since said he will coach alongside him?

However it played out, Nebraska is worse off without Ekeler.

If expanded responsibility was the sticking point, I would have found a way to make it work. Dvoracek is a solid, up-and-coming coach, but his unit struggled as a whole in 2025 and Dvoracek whiffed on the recruiting trail, gaining next to no traction with anyone outside of Elkhorn North's Jase Reynolds, who would have signed to play for anyone at Nebraska.

Ekeler, in contrast, has coached multiple NFL and all-conference players, learned under respected defensive minds like Bo Pelini, Bob Stoops, Brent Venables, Jeremy Pruitt, Clancy Pendergast, and Tim Banks, and has proven himself as a high-level recruiter.

Rhule chose a different path. Ekeler left for USC, where he’ll coach special teams and linebackers under Gary Patterson — a prominent defensive mind who is widely considered a pioneer and one of the first coaches to adopt the 4-2-5 defense as a base in the early 2000s.

New special teams coordinator Brett Maher was a placekicker at Nebraska and in the NFL before returning to the Huskers in a coaching role. | Jerry Lai-Imagn Images

What’s most troubling isn’t Ekeler leaving. It’s the succession plan.

During a Jan. 16 appearance on Sports Nightly, Rhule said, “If and when Ek leaves and moves on, those three guys will take over in some form,” referring to Nick Humphrey, Josh Martin, and Brett Maher. “We won’t change anything. We won’t bring anyone in from the outside. Because the system we have internally is way too good.”

On Feb. 2, Josh Martin — the only one of the three with prior special teams coordinator experience — left to become a high school head coach in Texas. Nebraska now lists Brett Maher as special teams coordinator and Nick Humphrey as co-coordinator.

In a conference known for strong special teams play, it’s difficult to understand why Rhule didn’t use Ekeler’s allocated salary to pursue another proven coordinator. Why not try to grab someone like Marty Biagi, Joe Lorig, Joe DeCamillis, Rob Keys or Grant Cain?

Instead, Rhule appears to have taken a blasé approach to replacing one of the best special teams coaches in the country. Optimistic at best. Naïve at worst. It mirrors the strategy used after Tony White left for Florida State — a decision Rhule has since admitted was a misstep.

Rhule is replacing an elite coordinator with two inexperienced coaches who have never been a special teams coordinator in their young coaching careers. Stop me if you've heard me say this before: Power conferences — particularly the Big Ten and SEC — are not places you should give coaches their big break. You need to hire established, proven commodities.

Instead, Rhule is handing the operation over to Maher, who retired from the NFL in 2023, and joined Rhule’s staff in September 2024 as a part-time assistant to stabilize a kicking unit during what was arguably the worst special teams stretch in program history. Coaching specialists is one thing. Running the entire operation is another.

The change involving special teams is just one of several staff moves Matt Rhule has made ahead of his fourth season at Nebraska. | Tommy Gilligan-Imagn Images

Humphrey, who played for Ekeler at Tennessee in 2021 and 2022 before becoming an analyst for him during the past three seasons, knows the system intimately. But can either of them replicate Ekeler’s impact? Will either of them spend all week telling Jamir Conn he's going to block a punt against Michigan State because of something he saw on film — and have that come to fruition?

Ekeler is an elite operational technician. He inspired buy-in from players who don’t always feel invested. He motivated backups and role players to play with urgency and belief. Players trusted him and they played hard for him. He had an infectious personality that resonated with players.

Can Maher and Humphrey replicate that? Maher is respected but laid-back by nature. Humphrey is young and still earning credibility from players who are essentially his peers. That’s a steep climb.

Could it work? Sure. There’s a version of 2026 where Nebraska builds on the foundation Ekeler laid. But right now, it feels like a giant risk and adds another question mark around the program as it heads into a pivotal Year 4 under Matt Rhule.

There’s plenty to like elsewhere: the additions of Geep Wade and Lonnie Teasley to stabilize the offensive line, optimism surrounding Rob Aurich, and the hires of Roy Manning and Corey Brown to help implement the new defensive front.

But the plan on special teams remains baffling.

Nebraska doesn’t need perfection in 2026. But it can’t afford regression, especially in an area that finally swung games in its favor. The early start to spring practice suggests urgency. Whether that urgency extends to recognizing where proven experience matters most will be one of the defining questions of the offseason.

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