One of the reasons Matt Rhule brought aboard trusted friend and coach, Phil Snow, to be Nebraska’s associate head coach in 2025 was to improve Nebraska’s defense — especially on third down and in the red zone.

But another benefit to adding the 69-year-old Snow is development. Not just with the players, but those will be coaching them. Rhule has a coaching staff with young guys on it.

One of them, outside linebackers coach Phil Simpson, is in his first season as a position coach at the FBS level. Simpson will handle the outside linebackers, also known as the Jack 'backers.

Oh yes, Simpson is taking full advantage of being on the same staff as Snow.

“I'm like the little parrot sitting on the guy's shoulder,” Simpson said of what it’s been like working with Snow. “I just sit there, try to feed off everything coach Snow says. He's a smart guy. He knows the game. He's been around for a long time. Some things I might spend 10 minutes on, he could probably do it in 30 seconds.”

Simpson, an elite recruiter with ultra-strong ties to the Miami area, was a part of Rhule’s first coaching staff in 2023 as a defensive quality control coach. After spending the 2024 season at Florida State, Simpson returned to Nebraska, this time with a brand new job title and role.

Simpson will have a big job. His room, which was coached last season by assistant Jack Potenza, who followed Tony White, Terrance Knighton and Josh Bringuel to Florida State this offseason, will be expected to create havoc in the backfield and generate a pass rush.

But the best players in those two areas from 2024 aren’t around anymore. Nebraska loses its top seven sack artists and top eight tackles-for-loss producers. On Wednesday, he said he likes what he has at his position.

“You got a good group, you got depth, you got young guys, but guys coming in who are hungry and need to prove themselves. We got coaches coming in who need to prove themselves,” Simpson said. “So it's a good opportunity for us to come in and grow together, develop in a room. And you got guys who have really good traits and really good football skills in terms of rushing the passer.”

The outside linebackers room is unique, Simpson said, and one that will have him sharing some of his players with defensive line coach Terry Bradden and inside linebackers coach Rob Dvoracek.

While sacks get the highlights, Simpson knows you need to earn the right to rush the passer in the first place. That means stopping the run on early downs. Do that first, then you can worry about the sacks.

“We’re with coach Terry a lot in terms of working on the run production and stopping the run and just getting fits,” Simpson said. “But we also work with the pass rush stuff with coach Terry as well, but then we get with coach Rob and kind of mutate into getting into the scheme of things and how we kind of get into the cover. So it kind of goes back and forth. We put a system in place, a plan in place, throughout the week to kind of just be able to make sure we get to work in for both sides of it.”

Who will be in Simpson’s room when spring practices kick off March 24? Willis McGahee IV will be, as will Maverick Noonan, an Elkhorn South product and Husker legacy who’s entering his third year in the program. After suffering a season-ending leg injury in fall camp 2023, Noonan got through 2024 healthy.

“They’re doing a phenomenal job this offseason,” Simpson said of McGahee and Noonan. “They’re kind of getting out there pretty good, pushing those guys to take a step, a step up.”

But there’s another player who’s expected to begin his Husker career in Simpson’s room — Dasan McCullough, the mighty intriguing transfer from Oklahoma, where he spent the past two seasons after a Freshman All-American campaign at Indiana in 2022.

“Got Dasan working in the room right now, just moving around,” Simpson said. “So he's doing a pretty good job as well, just seeing what he can do. So overall, it's a good, healthy room. Guys are kind of just getting after it this off season, working pretty hard.”

The 6-foot-5, 235-pound McCullough played Oklahoma’s ‘Cheetah’ position, which is a hybrid linebacker-safety. The role is uber versatile and meant for players who can play in the tackle box and defend the run on one play while dropping in coverage or manning up on a receiver in space on the next.

While playing for Tom Allen at Indiana, another defensive-minded head coach, McCullough was primarily an EDGE, aligning outside of offensive tackles as a 5 technique or even a wide 9 when there was an in-line tight end.

“He has game experience, but obviously you’re coming from a different system, a different style of play,” Simpson said of McCullough. “So for him, it’s all about reps and kind of just developing that and seeing what he can do, and some things we got to work on moving forward. But he's a natural athlete. He's obviously an explosive player. He can move around in space and things of that nature. But as we continue to just develop that relationship and continue to see what he's capable of doing naturally, and things that we can work on, that’s kind of a development thing we continue to work through.”

At Nebraska, McCullough will likely be used more as a pass rusher than he was at Oklahoma, Rhule said earlier this month.

“We have to take his athleticism, we have to add some bulk to him so that he can withstand rushing the edge, and then hope that that translates, and I think it will,” Rhule said.

McCullough is listed at 6-foot-5 and 235 pounds on the online roster, which hasn’t been updated with current heights and weights yet.

>> GAIN ALL-ACCESS with an annual or monthly subscription for less than $10/month

>> NEW SUBSCRIBERS get 30 days FREE

>> Sound off on the hot topics on our INSIDER'S BOARD

>> Follow us on Twitter (@NebraskaRivals)

>> Follow us on Instagram (@nebraskarivals)

>> Subscribe for FREE to the Inside Nebraska YouTube channel