Rhule Completes His Staff

What do we know about these Nebraska football assistant coaches?

South Carolina Athletics

Matt Rhule's new staff comes from such football programs as Baylor, Arizona State, Stanford, Temple, Notre Dame, South Carolina, Syracuse, San Diego State, Tennessee Tech, Hawaii, Penn State and the Bears and Panthers of the NFL.

But who are these assistants whose charge it is to turn around a program that has had six consecutive losing seasons?

Let's take a closer look at Matt Rhule's new staff.

Marcus Satterfield
Born: Greenback, TN
Title: Offensive Coordinator
Replaces: Mark Whipple
Age: 46
Salary: $1.4 million
Previous Job: OC at South Carolina

Facts: Satterfield is the highest paid football assistant in Nebraska history. He's been a coach under Matt Rhule at Temple, Baylor and the Carolina Panthers.

Tony White
Born: Key West, FL
Title: Defensive Coordinator
Age: 43
Salary: $1.0 million
Previous Job: DC at Syracuse University
Replaces: Bill Busch (Interim DC) and Erik Chinander

Facts: White played LB for Oklahoma State and UCLA. He spent most of his youth living with his mother in NYC but moved to El Paso, Texas to live with his father.

Donovan Raiola
Born: Honolulu, HI
Title: Offensive Line Coach
Age: 40
Salary: $325,000
Previous Job: O-line coach for Nebraska in '22
Replaces: No one. Donovan is the only existing Husker assistant who was retained by Matt Rhule.

Facts: Raiola is the brother of former Husker two-time All American center Dominic. Donovan is also the uncle of Dylan Raiola who is a 5 Star QB prospect for the '24 class. Dylan decommitted from Ohio State and is being heavily recruited by Matt Rhule at Nebraska.

E.J. Barthel
Born: Santa Cruz, CA
Title: Running Backs Coach
Replaces: Bryan Applewhite
Age: 38
Salary: $285,000
Previous Job: Offensive Assistant and Scouting Intern for the Carolina Panthers under Matt Rhule

Terrance Knighton (Nickname: Pot Roast)
Born: Hartford, Connecticut
Age: 36
Title: Defensive Line Coach
Salary: N/A
Replaces: Mike Dawson
Previous Job: DL coach for the Carolina Panthers under Matt Rhule

Facts: Played in the NFL for Jaguars, Broncos, Redskins and Patriots. Terrance probably earned his nickname "Pot Roast" because when he was playing football, he stood at 6-3 and weighed 355 pounds.

Ed Foley
Born: Cherry Hills, NJ
Age: 55
Title: Special Teams Coach
Replaces: Joey Connors (Interim) and Bill Busch
Salary: N/A
Previous Job: Assistant Special Teams for the Carolina Panthers

Facts: Foley is another new Husker assistant who has been with Rhule throughout Rhule's coaching career.

Evan Cooper
Born: N/A
Title: Secondary
Replaces: Travis Fisher
Age: 35
Salary: N/A
Previous Job: Carolina Panthers Cornerbacks coach and Director of Player Evaluation

Facts: Cooper has been with Matt Rhule for 10 consecutive seasons before coming to Nebraska.

Bob Wager (WAY-grr)
Born: Johnstown, NY
Title: Tight Ends Coach
Age: 41
Replaces: Sean Beckton
Salary: N/A
Previous Job: 17 years as Martin High School (Texas) head coach

Facts: Wager has never coached college football. His son, Gage, is walking on at Nebraska. Wager's high school head coaching career record is 206-100. He played college ball as a running back at Springfield (MA) college.

Garret McGuire
Born: Cedar Hill, TX
Title: Wide Receivers Coach
Age: 23
Salary: N/A
Previous Job: Offensive Assistant under Matt Rhule at the Carolina Panthers
Replaces: Mike Cassano (Interim) and Mickey Joseph

Facts: Garret was a backup QB at Baylor when Matt Rhule was the Bears' head coach. At age 23 (he'll turn 24 next month) Garret has to be the youngest Husker football assistant in school history.

Rob Dvoracek
Born: Allentown, PA
Title: Linebackers Coach
Age: 28
Salary: N/A
Previous Job: Defensive Assistant for the Carolina Panthers
Replaces: Barrett Ruud

Facts: Dvoracek played one year for Matt Rhule at Temple. He went with Rhule to Baylor serving as a defensive quality control coach.

Let's hope these coaches can find a way to a re-boot of our beloved Husker football program.

How Bout Them Huskers

In this week's episode, grandson Will and I recap our first full year of doing our weekly podcasts. We also talk about some the people we've interviewed including such greats as Heisman winner Johnny Rodgers, Nebraska astronaut Clayton Anderson, sportswriter Mike Babcock, former Husker place-kicker Byron Bennett, receiver Jordan Westerkamp, HuskerMax co-founder David Max, Patriotic Productions' founder Bill Williams, Husker TE Tom Banderas and Super Bowl winner Russ Hochstein. We look forward to another year of talking about the world of Husker sports.

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