Stryker Pregame Perspective: Tony White in a Landslide

Survey says defensive coordinator is best Husker football assistant of 2023

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It was a landslide.

With the 2023 season coming to an end, I asked 50 Husker fans on a blustery and cold Black Friday morning before the Nebraska-Iowa game to tell me which Nebraska assistant football coach performed best this season. It was no contest.

First-year defensive coordinator Tony White ran away with it, getting 94 percent of the vote. In my previous “best assistant coach” surveys, nobody had ever garnered 50 percent.

I tried to show the participants the list of 11 candidates below, but most of them quickly gave me their selection, and most immediately knew White by name, which is a bit unusual. I thought about finding 50 more people to survey, but it seemed pointless.

The only other coaches who received votes were offensive line coach Donovan Raiola (4 percent) and linebackers coach Rob Dvoracek (2 percent).

White was one of 57 nominees for this year’s Broyles Award, given annually to the best college football assistant coach, although he was not among the 15 on the semifinal list released earlier this week.

Husker fans hope White will stay at least another year instead of taking a head coaching job elsewhere. Comments like, “Think about how much better this year’s defense is than last year’s,” and “I think we’ll probably lose him to another school, but I don’t want to see that,” were commonplace.

The list of this year’s assistant coaches:

• Marcus Satterfield, offensive coordinator • Tony White, defensive coordinator • Ed Foley, special teams coordinator • E.J. Barthel, running backs • Evan Cooper, secondary • Rob Dvoracek, linebackers • Terrance Knighton, defensive line • Josh Martin, tight ends • Garret McGuire, wide receivers • Donovan Raiola, offensive line • Cory Campbell, strength & conditioning