While Nebraska football head coach Matt Rhule was telling the media and Husker fans that he had the utmost confidence in offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield, his actions were telling another story. Rhule was busy trying to hire Dana Holgorsen well before he finally did.
Holgorsen joined the Huskers' staff last November during a period where Nebraska was struggling mightily on the offensive side of the ball. He took over for Satterfield, who was demoted to tight ends coach, but stayed on the staff. However, according to the former West Virginia and Houston head coach, Rhule asked him far sooner to take over the duties. Still, he simply wasn't ready to do so.
Dana Holgorsen recounts mid-season call from Rhule to lead Nebraska football’s offense
"When I got let go in December, I came up a couple weeks later and he [Rhule] tried to get me to be the OC for the entire 2024 year, and I just wasn’t ready," the Nebraska football offensive coordinator told the Big Ten Network. "It wouldn’t have been fair to me, my family. It wouldn’t have been fair to Coach Rule and his Husker family. I just wasn’t ready. I’ve been doing it for a long time and needed a break."
🤔🏈 Very interesting: Dana Holgorsen says #Huskers head coach Matt Rhule approached him after the 2023 season to try to get him to be the OC. Video Courtesy: BTN pic.twitter.com/HJGkUUKe0O
— Adam Krueger (@AdamKruegerTV) August 2, 2025
There has been a lot of talk that Holgorsen was offered the job earlier than was known. However, during his appearance on the network, he confirmed Nebraska was on the lookout for a new OC earlier than expected.
"Towards the sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth game, somewhere in there, had a feeling that call was coming, you know, and he did. And so I was like, you know, you think that much about. You know me to be able to call me and come up here to help absolutely I come to help, had no idea what that was going to look like, you know, and we were on a bye week and I was going to play USC two weeks later, and it took me about five days to agree to step in and be the OC and call the plays."
The rest is history. After helping the Nebraska football team get to and win its first bowl game in nearly a decade, Dana Holgorsen begins this season as the full time OC and quite a bit is expected of his unit in 2025.