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Nebraska announces new special teams coordinator following Bill Busch’s promotion

Cole Thompson

By Cole Thompson

Published:

Nebraska football is making more changes following its heartbreaking loss to No. 6 Oklahoma.

Interim head coach Mickey Joseph officially promoted Special Teams Quality Control coach Joey Connors to special teams coordinator on Tuesday. The move followed Joesph’s promotion of special teams coordinator Bill Busch to defensive play-calling following the firing of Erik Chinander.

Chinander followed former coach Scott Frost to Lincoln following their success at UCF in 2017. Since 2018, Chinander called the defense and produced better results than the offense en route to minimal success throughout 4-plus seasons.

Joseph gave Chinander 1 game to fix the defensive woes against Oklahoma’s high-temp offense following Frost’s firing. That didn’t happen in front of a packed Memorial Stadium Saturday afternoon. The Sooners’ offense totaled 580 yards and 49 points on their way to their third win of the season.

Currently, Nebraska’s defense ranks 114th nationally in points allowed (35.5) and has only held 1 opponent to under 30 points through 4 games. The Huskers also rank 124th in run defense (233.5 yards per game) and 115th in pass defense (280.5), allowing 9 touchdowns in coverage against 1 interception.

Busch, who currently is in his 3rd stint as a member of Nebraska’s staff, has called plays before on defense. He served as Utah State’s defensive coordinator from 2009 to 2012 and later was named co-defensive coordinator title at Rutgers under the direction of Chris Ash.

The Cornhuskers return to Memorial Stadium on Oct. 1 to take on Indiana.

Cole Thompson

Cole Thompson is a freelance writer for Saturday Tradition who has covered college football and the NFL for multiple websites. Thompson is currently based in Houston, Texas, and also can be heard daily on SportsMap National Radio's 'Just Sayin It' from 3am-6am.