12/7/2021 football Edit

Nebraska football: Frost closing in on finishing off his coaching staff

Sean Callahan • InsideNebraska

Publisher

Sean Callahan has worked with Rivals.com since 2000, and has been the Publisher of HuskerOnline since 2007. He also reports for KETV Channel 7 in Omaha, NET's Big Red Wrap-Up and KFAB Radio in Omaha.

Things have moved at a rapid pace on Tuesday as Scott Frost and the Nebraska football team work on closing the final details of their 2022 coaching staff.

NU announced the hire of LSU's Mickey Joseph as their wide receiver coach on Friday. On Tuesday, they took another step closer to finishing off the final three hires.

Pittsburgh offensive coordinator Mark Whipple resigned from his post with the Panthers on Tuesday afternoon. He will not coach in Pitt's upcoming bowl game and presumably not be with his quarterback Kyle Pickett in New York for the Heisman Trophy ceremony this weekend.

Frost met with Whipple on Sunday at his permanent residence in Phoenix, less than 24 hours after he helped lead Pitt to an ACC Championship game win over Wake Forest, completing an 11-2 regular season and securing a spot in the Peach Bowl to play Michigan State. Frost also met with USC's Graham Harrell on Sunday.

The negotiation process started with Whipple first thing Tuesday which later led to his resignation with the Panthers. A Pitt, Whipple made just under $500,000 in 2021. Expect Nebraska to come close to doubling the number he made with the Panthers.

Also on Tuesday, HuskerOnline learned things moved one step closer to hiring an offensive line coach.

NU is in the final stages of locking things up with Bears assistant offensive line coach Donovan Raiola according to two sources close to the situation. Frost met with Raiola on Friday in Chicago. He also met with Notre Dame offensive line coach Jeff Quinn on that same day.

Raiola is the younger brother of former Husker offensive lineman Dominic Raiola.

The only other spot that Frost must fill is at special team coordinator.

All signs on Tuesday continue to point to former LSU safeties coach Bill Busch moving into that role. Busch worked for the Huskers in 2021 as an off-the-field analyst. He is most recently known for bringing Heisman Trophy winner Joe Burrow to LSU under Ed Orgeron, and he is responsible for recruiting the Huskers' last NFL first-round draft pick in cornerback Prince Amukamara.