This past weekend was especially bad for both the Nebraska football staff and a couple of former Husker assistants who thought they got out while the getting was good.
Saturday night's Nebraska Blackout collapse has led many Husker fans to call for the heads of coaches like Matt Rhule and Dana Holgorsen. Meanwhile, Florida State's embarrassing loss to an extremely mediocre Clemson squad didn't just prompt fans to call for Mike Norvell's head again; on Sunday, it cost him his job.
Alongside Norvell, FSU announced it had fired former Nebraska defensive coordinator Tony White and former Huskers safeties coach Evan Cooper. Both coaches were in the middle of their second year in Tallahassee.
The Seminoles sit at 3-5 on the season, including 1-3 in Atlantic Coast Conference play. They are coming off a 36-24 rivalry loss to Clemson at home on Saturday evening. Clemson quarterback Tait Reynolds threw two touchdown passes, matching the team's season total entering the game, and added a 79-yard touchdown run to seal the win.
Tony White and Evan Cooper fired at Florida State while Nebraska football suffers third straight loss
That performance cemented White's dismissal, as the defensive coordinator had been almost as unpopular as his head coach since arriving at Florida State from Nebraska. When FSU hired him, White was coming off two very successful campaigns in Lincoln, where the Huskers had one of the best defenses in the country.
Almost immediately, things went quite a bit worse with the ACC school. In 20 games as the D.C., White’s defense gave up an average of 25.44 points per game. This season, Florida State ranks 111th out of 138 FBS programs in rushing yards allowed per game and 114th in passing yards allowed per game.
Some of the 2026 season's lowlights included allowing Alabama to score on nine consecutive possessions and surrendering a 44-6 run to Louisville, which rushed for nearly 400 yards.
Just weeks before fall camp in 2024, Cooper resigned as Nebraska's safeties coach. He also served as the passing game coordinator and had worked with Rhule at several previous coaching stops.
Neither Nebraska nor Cooper has officially explained why he left the Huskers so abruptly. Cooper followed White to FSU that December, joining defensive line coach Terrance 'Pork Chop' Knighton as the third former Nebraska coach on staff.
For now, Florida State has retained Knighton, though his future on staff will depend on the new head coach.
Meanwhile, as Florida State cleans house, Husker fans wonder whether anyone on the Huskers' staff will be held responsible for an appalling three-game losing streak, even as Nebraska remains the only program in the country to hold a fourth-quarter lead in all eight games. Falling from 5-0 to 5-3 is becoming a habit for Rhule's teams, which have started hot in each of the last three years, only to fade in the second half of the season.
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