Bill Busch is no longer with Nebraska after spending the last two seasons with the football program.
New coach Matt Rhule on Tuesday elected to part ways with Busch, sources have confirmed. Busch was a defensive analyst in 2021 and began this season as special teams coordinator before serving as interim defensive coordinator spanning NU’s last eight games. Busch spent a full decade with the Huskers across three stints including 1990-93 as a graduate assistant and 2004-07 as an assistant under Bill Callahan primarily working with safeties and special teams.
The native of Pender was a key reason Nebraska special teams this year improved from awful to decent, with Busch seamlessly handing off duties to Joey Connors early in the season. One week after Mickey Joseph took over as interim coach he elevated Busch, who – through clear and thorough teaching, players said – stabilized a defense that had given up 94 points in consecutive weeks at home to Georgia Southern and Oklahoma.
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“It’s detail,” Joseph said earlier this month. “The kids understand pursuit angles, they understand what’s going into the game plan. They don’t look confused anymore.”
The chance for Busch – a lifelong Husker fan and personable individual – to lead the Big Red defense had him tearing up recalling the moment with his family after his first game in the role in a win over Indiana. Joseph took away the honorary Blackshirts before his first game but the unit performed well enough down the stretch that players recouped them after the finale against Iowa.
Busch also understood his appointment was likely temporary.
“When a new staff comes in, it’s usually a whole new staff,” Busch told the World-Herald earlier in the month. “That’s how the business works. That’s what I signed up for.”
Nebraska may have already hired its next special teams coach in Ed Foley, who held the position under Rhule with the NFL’s Carolina Panthers for two-plus seasons before he was let go in October and brought on Monday.
