Nebraska fires defensive coordinator Erik Chinander

Scott Frost has company.

One week after Frost was fired as the head coach of Nebraska football and Mickey Joseph was named the interim, another major change to the coaching staff has been made: The Huskers have fired defensive coordinator Erik Chinander, and Bill Busch will take over as defensive coordinator.

“We appreciate Erik and the work and dedication he has given to our football program,” Joseph said in a statement via press release. “At this time, I feel that it is in the best interest of the Nebraska Football program to take the leadership of the defense in another direction and decided Bill Busch will take over as defensive coordinator.”

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Chinander's defense has struggled mightily this season. Going into Saturday's game against Oklahoma, the Huskers allowed a Big Ten-worst 31 points per game and 5.65 yards per rush, which ranked 123rd in the country.

Then in Saturday's blowout loss at home to Oklahoma, Nebraska allowed 580 total yards — 312 of which came from the rushing attack — and 49 points. The Sooners averaged

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.

"We take great pride on this unit putting the fire out. When we get put in an unfavorable situation, we fix it. That's life, that happens in football," Chinander said after the Northwestern loss. "It's nobody's fault, we need to fix it, we need to put out the fire. And we did not do that this week. And that's got to improve."

Chinander came to Nebraska with Frost from Central Florida five seasons ago. His defenses saw steady improvement in his first four years, but this season's unit has faced a major setback.

Chinander's best defense came in the 2021 campaign when he had veterans at the line of scrimmage — Ben Stille, Damion Daniels and Deontre Thomas — and in the defensive backfield with corner Cam Taylor-Britt, nickel JoJo Domann and safeties Deonte Williams and Marquel Dismuke.

The 2021 Blackshirts kept the team in every game and allowed an average of just 19 points per game if you take out the safeties, pick-sixes and punts returned for a touchdown that they were not on the field for. Even if all those miscues were put on the defense’s tab, the average comes out to 22.7, which was still Chinander’s best mark since he arrived in Lincoln in 2018.

That defense limited big passing plays down the field, too. It gave up the second-fewest completions of 20 and 30 yards in the conference.

The losses of those veteran leaders from 2021 were too hard to overcome for the 2022 defense. Misses in defensive line recruiting and players not developing quickly enough during their time in the program have helped lead to a leaky defense.