Former Nebraska defensive coordinator Erik Chinander has landed a new job: He is being hired as Boise State's DL coach and defensive run game coordinator, per a report from The Athletic's Bruce Feldman.
Chinander was fired as the Huskers' DC after four games in 2022 by former interim coach Mickey Joseph.
Chinander spent four-plus seasons as the Huskers' DC. He arrived with Scott Frost in 2018 when the two made the move from UCF. Chinander was a Broyles Award nominee for the nation's most outstanding assistant coach in 2016 with UCF and Nebraska in 2021. He was named one of Rivals' Top 25 Recruiters of the Year in 2021.
He helped the Huskers rank in the top 20 nationally in takeaways on three separate occasions, including two top-five rankings, and he helped guide 26 players to All-Big Ten honors – which was more than twice as many (12) as the Husker defense had garnered in the previous four seasons prior to his arrival.
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Chinander's defenses saw steady improvement in his first four years, but last season's unit saw a major setback. In the first three games, the Huskers allowed a Big Ten-worst 31 points per game and 5.65 yards per rush, which ranked 123rd in the country. Then, Chinander was fired after a 49-14 blowout loss to the Sooners in which Nebraska allowed 580 total yards — 312 of which came from the rushing attack.
Each of Nebraska's four opponents to begin the season — Northwestern, North Dakota, Georgia Southern and Oklahoma — rushed for at least 175 yards and 4.55 per carry. Georgia Southern, a Sun Belt Conference team, rushed for a whopping 233 yards and seven touchdowns while averaging 7.77 yards per carry. The Golden Eagles racked up a staggering 642 total yards, the most of the Frost era and most since UCLA's 652 in 2012.
Chinander, though, has a clearly proven track record of success and has a well-earned reputation as a great football mind and standout defensive coach who was well-respected by his players. He has nearly 20 years of coaching experience since his start in 2003, which includes one season spent with the Philadelphia Eagles as an assistant DL coach in 2013 and five total seasons across multiple stints as an Oregon assistant, two seasons as the outside linebackers coach in 2014-15.
He will now get another shot to prove himself in the college coaching world with the Broncos.
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