Nebraska sets staff salaries heading into Matt Rhule's third season
What's notable about Rhule's staff is not the salaries, but its size.
Zach Barnett Feb 13, 2025
Nebraska got over the hump in Matt Rhule's second season, improving from five wins to seven and returning to a bowl game for the first time since 2016. Now the Huskers are bracing for Third Year Matt Rhule: a phenomenon that saw Temple jump from six wins to 10, and Baylor grow from seven wins to 11.
Ahead of what's surely a breakthrough season on the horizon -- there's no way Nebraska football can break its fan base's hearts* -- we know how much the Cornhuskers will pay Rhule's staff in 2025.
Tight ends coach Marcus Satterfield, demoted from offensive coordinator midseason in 2024, will be the highest paid coach on the staff at $1.4 million, followed by offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen and his $1.2 million salary. New defensive coordinator John Butler, promoted after one season as Big Red's secondary coach, checks in at third place with a $1 million salary.
Butler takes over for Tony White, who earned $1.6 million in 2024. White is now Florida State's defensive coordinator.
Addison Williams is now coaching the secondary, replacing Butler, at a $625,000 salary. Butler made $700,000 to coach Nebraska's secondary in 2024. New defensive line coach Terry Bradden will make $400,000, and identical figure to what Terrance Knighton made to coach that group last season. Knighton joined White at Florida State. Phil Simpson, who returned to Nebraska after a year as an analyst at Florida State, will make $350,000 in 2025.
New wide receivers coach Daikiel Shorts will earn $400,000, a sharp increase from the $114,000 Garret McGuire made coaching the position in 2024. McGuire is now Texas Tech's running backs coach.
Rhule's own salary grows by $1 million as part of the 8-year, $74 million deal he signed upon taking the job. He'll make $1 million more in 2026, then get a $1.5 million bump in 2027 on his way to an eventual $12.5 million salary in 2030.
Most notable about Rhule's staff is not the salaries, but its size. With two "walk-around" coordinators, a stand-alone special teams coordinator and an associate head coach, Nebraska has 14 coaches that either serve as coordinators or position coaches.
Via Husker Online, here is the salary information for Nebraska's 2025 coaching staff, all numbers rounded to the nearest thousand.
* Via ESPN's David Hale: Nebraska is 20-48 in 1-score games since 2014, which is 11 more losses than the next-closest FBS program (Iowa State, 37). That includes a 2-5 mark in 2024