When new Nebraska football offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen gave his first press conference as a member of the staff, he made a joke that’s getting all the attention. Some of that attention is good and some of it, unfortunately has been rather negative.
Holgorsen was asked why he took the offensive coordinator job with three weeks to go in the season. He started his answer with the thing that has gotten all the attention. “I was bored.”
That response led some people to think that his bluntness was exactly what the program needed. Others immediately went negative and decided that the Nebraska football program had made a massive mistake. Of course, both responses were jumping to conclusions. After a short pause to let the joke land, he explained the real reason.
Nebraska football OC getting the wrong kind of attention
To start with, Holgorsen confirmed that there was talk late last year about the former West Virginia and Houston head coach joining the Huskers staff. Holgorsen admitted he didn’t think he had the drive to do the job at the time and instead, took an analyst job with TCU.
However, his “boredom” stemmed from not being a coach once he got there. Not being involved in the decisions and just watching from the sidelines or a suite. In other words, this isn’t a guy who was just sort of bored and took the first job that came calling.
It was someone who had talked about joining Nebraska before, and needed some time to get the fire back. He’s got it now.
“Coach Rhule called and said ‘let’s come try to figure this out. I need your help.’ I was grateful to him for saying that ‘I needed your help.’ I think a great deal of him. I think a great deal of this program. I was excited to jump on it. Rules allow it now. In years past, rules wouldn’t have allowed it. I just wanted to insert myself and try to help Coach Rhule and try to help this football team and try to help this great program.”
If you’re counting, that was about four times in a 30 second answer where he praised the Nebraska football program. There are some who are now worried that there’s an OC on staff who doesn’t really care about getting things right. Others look at him like a rockstar. The truth is, he’s a guy who will hopefully help turn the offense around in the next two weeks. And then stick around to see it through next season.