For the last two seasons, the Nebraska Cornhuskers have started 5-1 and finished in a rather disappointing position. Interestingly, the last two seasons have also seen Nebraska’s defense do pretty well, as in 2025 the Huskers finished 23rd nationally in defense. Yet at the same time, Nebraska left much to be desired with their defensive performance.
Huskers Fire DC John Butler: Was it a Good Move?
Nebraska had an Elite Secondary, but Huskers Couldn’t Stop the Run
This season, Nebraska surprisingly did very well stopping the passing game. Nebraska rode their secondary into a 5-1 start and being ranked. However, as many teams will note in the Big Ten, when you can’t stop the run, then you will win 0 good teams in the conference. Teams decided to simply stop passing against Nebraska, as Minnesota, USC, PSU, and Iowa all beat the Huskers by running down the Huskers throats.
Nebraska also was very good at stopping the run in 2024, but the fact of the matter was that John Butler, the Huskers former defensive coordinator, forgot how to stop the run. Nebraska finished the regular season with the second best secondary in the nation, but at the same time allowed 171 ypg rushing. With how the Huskers started and how easy the schedule should’ve been, Nebraska had every right to fire Butler.
No One Will Win Big Ten Games Without A Run Defense, Something that Matt Rhule Had in 2023 and 24
For instance, Nebraska absolutely crushed the Ohio State Buckeye running game in 2024. Quentin Judkins ran for 29 yards on 10 carries. TreVeyon Henderson ran for 25 on 10 carries as well. Both are stars in the NFL but did nothing against the Huskers. Imagine if Nebraska had that kind of run defense this season with such a secondary. Nebraska would’ve been 12-0 and looking for a playoff spot.
Under Butler, Nebraska just regressed completely from being pretty dominant in 2024. Only 2 rushers got over 100 yards against Nebraska on the ground against the Huskers in 2024, compared to 8 in 2025. In the Big Ten, with great O-Lines and a good running backs, no team will win 10 games look the way the Cornhuskers did. Penn State, Iowa, and others took advantage of that to destroy Nebraska.
Major Problems Nebraska Must Address
D-Line: Last season, Nebraska had Ty Robinson, Nash Hutmacher, Princewill Umanmeilen, James Williams, and Jimari Butler. All of which are no longer on the team, thanks to either bad decisions to transfer or graduating. This season, Nebraska had a undersized D-line and an unexperienced one. Williams Nwaneri was one talent on the edge that could’ve made a massive difference, but he was a freshman and he didn’t do amazing. With the D-Line undersized, unexperienced and with not a lot of talent, no wonder why the Huskers failed to get a lot of sacks and stop the run.
LB: This position honestly left much to be desired, especially out of the transfer, Dasan McCullough and Marques Watson-Trent. Watson-Trent clearly didn’t do enough, only recording 35 tackles compared to well over 300 the previous 3 seasons. McCullough was injured for some of the season, but he failed to meet expectations after being one of the best linebackers transferring in the 2025 class. The rest of the position is massively young, with several upcoming studs like Dawson Merritt. In other words, this position just needs to tackle better and the rest will fall into place in the future, as long as there’s no massive exodus.
DB: Simply put, this position really did bad at stopping the run as well. But despite having several true freshman starting along with seniors Ceyair Wright and , the position overall was pretty amazing. Nebraska also saw Andrew Marshall do pretty well. Wright was incredibly quiet stat wise for the Huskers, but was avoided like the plague, and did remarkably well. Overall, the position is going to be probably pretty good thanks to youngsters already starting and upcoming talent, like 5-star Danny Odem.
Overall, the Nebraska Cornhuskers feel as if they suffered the same old story in 2025. But three things were wrong. One, the Huskers had horrible execution, from turnovers, turnovers on downs, and missed field goals, Nebraska needed more. Secondly, without their starter, Nebraska failed to execute specifically offensively. Nebraska moved the ball a lot this season, but failed too often to reach the end zone. And finally, defensively, Nebraska couldn’t stop the opposing team, and a lot of it was do to a horrible run defense. Hopefully, this can change with the firing.
Main Image: © Dylan Widger-Imagn Images
