When Nebraska football brought in Brett Maher and Nick Humphrey last spring, there's no way the plan was for them to be leading the special teams program less than a year later. Here we are anyway.
Earlier this month, Mike Ekeler, who was heralded as a miracle worker with the one-year turnaround of the unit, is off to USC. One of the guys who was expected to stick around (the one with the most special teams coaching experience), Josh Martin, has inexplicably taken a head coaching job at a Texas high school.
On Tuesday, Matt Rhule made it official, naming Maher and Humphrey as Nebraska's Special Teams Coordinators. It appears that Maher will be the lead and the voice of the unit, but will be helped by Humphrey, who followed Ekeler to Lincoln from Tennessee.
Nebraska football’s special teams gamble enters a make-or-break season
Reports indicate this development was not a byproduct of Martin's leaving, as the direction was decided about two weeks ago. Instead, Martin's leaving appears to be a reaction to Maher and Humphrey being named coordinators over him.
As Rhule said, even before Ekeler left, the plan for the Huskers is to keep the "blueprint" that the ex-coach put in place last year.
The question now is how well equipped the two men are to keep following that blueprint. Neither has much in the way of coaching experience and will be proving what they can do in what might be a make-or-break season for Rhule.
That's not to say they're guaranteed to fail. Maher certainly understands what it takes to succeed at a high level. After a fantastic career at Nebraska, he took his powerful leg to the NFL and played parts of six seasons with three teams. He finished with just under an 80% accuracy rate on field goals.
Nebraska now heads to the spring with its coaching staff set and ready to focus on putting together a successful 2026 campaign. Here's hoping the myriad of moves pays off.