Evan Bland Omaha World-Herald
LINCOLN – John Butler left the NFL in search of the chance to coordinate his own defense. Now he’s doing it with Nebraska into a training camp that is already providing him with valuable reps.
The Husker coordinator — promoted from defensive backs coach last winter — wore a black short-sleeved hoodie, black shorts and a Blackshirts hat Tuesday as he chatted with reporters following a morning practice. He’s been leading the unit for months. But with August comes the fully padded, live-tackling ramp-up to actual football.
“We know who we want to be defensively from a cultural standpoint,” Butler said. “We want to be physical. We want to run to the ball like nobody’s ever seen. And we want to make big plays and finish.”
The 52-year-old Philadelphia native flashes a bit of East Coast attitude as he says the words. Preaches them. He’ll use a little colorful language. He’ll raise his voice. Talking defense is what he loves to do.
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One adjustment to being coordinator? He’s not around the players as much as he’d like. The job comes with a “heavy burden” of organization and aligning with coach Matt Rhule’s vision. Planning for walk-throughs and practices and play scripting takes time.
Cornerback Ceyair Wright approached Butler recently and said he missed the coach. Butler was dubious.
“I think he was joking,” Butler said. “But that was his way of probably busting my chops a little bit about not being in his meeting room yelling at him like I was last year. I made sure I took it out on him on the field the last couple days.”
Players say the Butler experience is distinct. Defensive lineman Riley Van Poppel figures he learns something new in every meeting. He feeds on the on-field fire.
“I love his play calls,” Van Poppel said. “He’s not afraid to send some guys at the offense.”
“High intensity,” D-lineman Elijah Jeudy said. “High energy.”
Butler is a football lifer. He coordinated defenses at the NCAA Division III and II levels in the 1990s, became a positional assistant in major college football and served as Penn State’s D.C. in 2013
A decade in the NFL with the Houston Texans and Buffalo Bills had him on the verge of being a pro coordinator. Instead Bills coach Sean McDermott chose another candidate for play-calling duties, prompting Butler to leave in February 2024. Rhule and Nebraska hired him that summer to work with defensive backs.
Butler spent last season under coordinator Tony White, who left for Florida State in the winter. He’ll continue to deploy a variation of the 3-3-5 defensive structure. Now, the team is out of the “install realm” and on to executing plays better and faster.
Unlike his offensive counterpart Dana Holgorsen, Butler prefers not to go into too much detail about his group. Asked separately about what the Blackshirts are doing best or need to improve upon, he declined to single out an area.
The coach also cut short a question about whether he addresses with the defensive linemen the external narrative that the position group is a question mark (based on a general lack of experience and what it lost in productive veterans like Ty Robinson and Nash Hutmacher).
“What the outside says about any of us really doesn’t have an impact on what we’re doing,” Butler said. “What has an impact on what we’re doing is what we’re doing here every single day.”
As defenders improve, Butler wants to be around the players more. At position meetings or during meals or outside the football process. The Blackshirts are all for it from their new leader.
“He’s amazing to have because he has confidence in all of us,” Van Poppel said. “Then he’s going to pin his hair back and he’s going to go. That’s what he wants us to do so it’s been fun to follow behind that.”
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