Special Teams Coach Hot Board

Carm · 2026-01-13T17:51:14-0600

BorWhiskey said:
Ekeler’s coaching career is on par with Dylan’s playing career. His four year stint at Tennessee was his longest in his career, followed by the three years he was with us under Bo. There have been a lot of 1 and 2 year jobs he’s had.

He doesn’t like to be still and that translates to the jobs he takes. He averages a new job every other year.

He may have a clash with Rhule, I don’t know. He may want to coach LBs and he isn’t getting that opportunity here, IDK. If he leaves this will be the fifth time he’s left a job after 1 year, including when he was USC’s LB coach 12 years ago. This feels a lot like a high energy, ADHD coach going on the move for the 13th time in his 22 year career.

I want him here. I think he’s a great ST coach and the right mentality we want in the locker room. But if he leaves I wish him good luck other than when they play us.

Sincere thanks for this. Occam's Razor wins again. He can't sit still.

2010sarenevercomingback · 2026-01-13T17:52:01-0600

Bulldog10 said:
Did you not pay attention to the D line hire?

I know everyone's focused on that because it's the most recent & seemed to go poorly, but we also had a DC hire & OL hire that seemed to go pretty well.

BusterScruggs · 2026-01-13T17:54:30-0600

Ziegenbeiner said:
Playing devil's advocate here... but it's not all that crazy. Going from a volunteer assistant to an assistant in high school, to a GA at OU and then LSU, then to an assistant at Nebraska, then a step up to co-DC at Indiana but left after having an abysmal defensive year in 2012 (finished 106th) so he goes to USC back to LB but Kiffin gets fired, so he goes to UGA, and then gets another shot at DC with North Texas but finished 96th in the country so he goes to UNC but Fedora was fired in 2018 so he goes to Kansas under Les Miles but they finished 3-9 so he goes to North Texas for the covid year as STC and parlays that to a job at UT and then comes home to NU. If anything, he's had horrible luck at going to situations with coaches getting fired, and he's not a good DC. But it doesn't have the feel of jumping around as much as it appears on paper. A lot of those moves weren't up to him, or they were logical career progressions.

agree, looking at his moves in isolation also doesn't mean much without comparing how often other assistant coaches in college ball move around. i don't have any data but i wouldn't be surprised if his resume is that uncommon looking in the coaching world.

ChocaEgg · 2026-01-13T17:54:34-0600

kctitans said:
well you’re always angry 😀

As we all should be

PonyBoy · 2026-01-13T17:58:05-0600

Ziegenbeiner said:
Playing devil's advocate here... but it's not all that crazy. Going from a volunteer assistant to an assistant in high school, to a GA at OU and then LSU, then to an assistant at Nebraska, then a step up to co-DC at Indiana but left after having an abysmal defensive year in 2012 (finished 106th) so he goes to USC back to LB but Kiffin gets fired, so he goes to UGA, and then gets another shot at DC with North Texas but finished 96th in the country so he goes to UNC but Fedora was fired in 2018 so he goes to Kansas under Les Miles but they finished 3-9 so he goes to North Texas for the covid year as STC and parlays that to a job at UT and then comes home to NU. If anything, he's had horrible luck at going to situations with coaches getting fired, and he's not a good DC. But it doesn't have the feel of jumping around as much as it appears on paper. A lot of those moves weren't up to him, or they were logical career progressions.

The Rhule can do no wrong crowd ain't gonna read the above.

Cash68847 · 2026-01-13T18:01:33-0600

2010sarenevercomingback said:
I know everyone's focused on that because it's the most recent & seemed to go poorly, but we also had a DC hire & OL hire that seemed to go pretty well.

Time will tell.

BradWesley · 2026-01-13T18:01:44-0600

PonyBoy said:
The Rhule can do no wrong crowd ain't gonna read the above.

Cash68847 · 2026-01-13T18:03:26-0600

Ziegenbeiner said:
Playing devil's advocate here... but it's not all that crazy. Going from a volunteer assistant to an assistant in high school, to a GA at OU and then LSU, then to an assistant at Nebraska, then a step up to co-DC at Indiana but left after having an abysmal defensive year in 2012 (finished 106th) so he goes to USC back to LB but Kiffin gets fired, so he goes to UGA, and then gets another shot at DC with North Texas but finished 96th in the country so he goes to UNC but Fedora was fired in 2018 so he goes to Kansas under Les Miles but they finished 3-9 so he goes to North Texas for the covid year as STC and parlays that to a job at UT and then comes home to NU. If anything, he's had horrible luck at going to situations with coaches getting fired, and he's not a good DC. But it doesn't have the feel of jumping around as much as it appears on paper. A lot of those moves weren't up to him, or they were logical career progressions.

The move to Indiana was due to a fall out with Bo.

macmoolah · 2026-01-13T18:05:21-0600

Rhule being convinced to hire his best Coach and Coordinator who instantly fixes the unit, only for him to leave after 1 year would just be nail in the coffin bad.

Didnt even think this was a possibility, fuck man

kctitans · 2026-01-13T18:06:34-0600

PonyBoy said:
The Rhule can do no wrong crowd ain't gonna read the above.

Are there really “Rhule can do no wrong” people?

Irv · 2026-01-13T18:08:52-0600

Regardless of whether Ek is just a transient, the fact is that he is was one of Rhule’s few food hires. Absolutely zero confidence he can be competently replaced.

As someone else said, the specials improvement covered up some of the regression everywhere else.

Gonna be a long 26.

COYS · 2026-01-13T18:10:10-0600

Rhule is an attention whore and his ego didn’t like the fact Ekeler was so popular with fans and media. You could tell something was off between the two last season. This a huge red flag when an accomplished coach like Ek, who loves the program and state, is cutting town after one season. Something is rotten in Lincoln either way the Matt Rhule era.

Cash68847 · 2026-01-13T18:11:03-0600

Irv said:
Regardless of whether Ek is just a transient, the fact is that he is was one of Rhule’s few food hires. Absolutely zero confidence he can be competently replaced.

As someone else said, the specials improvement covered up some of the regression everywhere else.

Gonna be a long 26.

Let’s be honest if our special teams weren’t good this year we don’t make a bowl.

Irv · 2026-01-13T18:13:00-0600

Whatever their alleged conflict, the weird thing is that Rhule seemed to indicate he was looking for guys more temperamentally like Ekeler. He crowed about Aurich being a bit of a madman.

Cash68847 · 2026-01-13T18:14:13-0600

Irv said:
Whatever their alleged conflict, the weird thing is that Rhule seemed to indicate he was looking for guys more temperamentally like Ekeler. He crowed about Aurich being a bit of a madman.

Let’s hope Eckler is just looking for a raise.

BradWesley · 2026-01-13T18:15:30-0600

Wonder what Will Compton will think of this? Ekeler and Compton are pretty tight.

Herbie · 2026-01-13T18:15:46-0600

Honest question.
Could someone like ek be a head good coach?

High energy guy. Probably wouldn't be overly involved in his coordinators business. Might handle special teams himself.

Not sure about his organization tho

Cash68847 · 2026-01-13T18:18:42-0600

Herbie said:
Honest question.
Could someone like ek be a head good coach?

High energy guy. Probably wouldn't be overly involved in his coordinators business. Might handle special teams himself.

Not sure about his organization tho

He will never get a chance, but he has learned from a lot of coaches. That wouldn’t hurt.

ZJSARENOTFREE · 2026-01-13T18:27:07-0600

Herbie said:
Honest question.
Could someone like ek be a head good coach?

High energy guy. Probably wouldn't be overly involved in his coordinators business. Might handle special teams himself.

Not sure about his organization tho

Gives me Venables vibes. Love the energy, just don't know if that fully translates as a Head Man, but you never know.

Cash68847 · 2026-01-13T18:30:20-0600

ZJSARENOTFREE said:
Gives me Venables vibes. Love the energy, just don't know if that fully translates as a Head Man, but you never know.

Venerables did make the playoffs.

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