John Butler will be sticking around the Nebraska football program for the long term.

Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule and the Huskers' search for a new leader of the defense ended on Tuesday. Rhule stayed in-house with the decision by promoting Butler, the team's secondary coach and pass game coordinator, to full-time defensive coordinator, sources confirmed to Inside Nebraska.

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Rhule said last Wednesday (Dec. 4) that Butler would be the interim DC for the Pinstripe Bowl against Boston College on Dec. 28. Butler will be handling the full-time position long-term now as he takes over for Tony White, who spent the past two seasons as the Huskers' DC before leaving for the same role at Florida State.

“John's definitely a candidate for the (defensive coordinator) job right now," Rhule said last week. "I brought him in knowing that, at some point, Tony was gonna leave, whether it was a coordinator job or a head coaching job. John's been a DC before, so right away I just said, ‘Here you go, John, I need you to take this over and run with it.’"

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Rhule said he wanted to keep the same defense that's been run the past two seasons at Nebraska, the 3-3-5.

"I think what’s important to me is that I like how we play defense. I like this defense. I like these fronts. I like the multiplicity of what we did. We did some different things against Iowa I thought were great," Rhule said. "I don’t want to switch to something different. I want to do this defense. Whoever that is, I don’t want to make that decision for a short term, ‘oh we feel good about it.’ I don’t want to make a splashy hire. If we’ll remember when I hired Tony with the 3-3-5, my phone didn’t stop blowing up. People were asking how the 3-3-5 was ever gonna work. People were panicking. I think it’s worked out pretty good. I have no timetable other than to just get it right. Just to make it right.”

Prior to the 2024 season, Butler had spent the previous 10 seasons in the NFL with the Buffalo Bills and Houston Texans. He coached the Bills' defensive backs for six seasons and the Texans' DBs before that, from 2014-2017.

Before his time with the Texans, the 51-year-old Butler was in the Big Ten coaching at Penn State. He held the role of DBs coach in 2012, and he was the Nittany Lions' defensive coordinator/DBs coach in 2013 under Bill O'Brien, who is now the head coach of Boston College and who Butler will go toe-to-toe with in the bowl game later this month between the Huskers and Eagles.

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There's a connection between Butler and Nebraska general manager Sean Padden. Both went to Catholic University, a Division III program in Washington, D.C. That's where Butler played and started his coaching career, and it's where Padden was a player as well. Butler was the DBs coach in 1995 and the DC in 1996. Padden was the scout team player of the year in 1995.

Butler has Big Ten coaching experience outside of his time at Penn State as well. He was the special teams coach/linebackers coach at Minnesota from 2007-10. After his stint with the Golden Gophers, he went to South Carolina for the same role.

Butler also spent two seasons, 1999 and 2000, at Midwestern State, which is the same program current Husker quarterbacks coach Glenn Thomas coached for seven years (2001-2007) before landing a coaching gig with the Atlanta Falcons, but it doesn't appear the two coaches overlapped at Midwestern.

Butler joined the Nebraska staff in July, taking over as secondary coach when Evan Cooper resigned just before the beginning of fall camp. Butler brought with him 30 years of coaching experience, including 20 years in the college football coaching ranks.

This season, Butler was part of a Nebraska defense that ranked in the top 20 nationally in rushing defense, total defense and scoring defense. Included on Butler’s impressive resume are those two seasons on the Penn State staff under O’Brien.

“John Butler has been a great addition to our staff this season and has proven he is the right coach to lead our defense,” Rhule said on Tuesday. “John has previous success as a defensive coordinator in the Big Ten Conference and has a history of coaching elite defenses throughout his career.”

With Butler leading the secondary in 2024, the Huskers returned three interceptions for touchdowns, the most by Nebraska since 2013, and they also limited six different opponents to 13 points or fewer.

“I appreciate the confidence Coach Rhule has shown in me to lead the Blackshirts," Butler said on Tuesday. “I knew Nebraska was a special place before I got here, but it is better than I imagined. I look forward to our continued work with our players to develop them on and off the field. The Blackshirt tradition is one of the best in college football, and we are committed to playing great defense at Nebraska.”

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Nebraska: Defensive Coordinator (bowl game interim/2025), Secondary Coach (2024)

Penn State: Defensive Coordinator/Cornerbacks Coach (2013), Secondary Coach (2012)

South Carolina: Special Teams Coordinator/Outside Linebackers (2011)

Minnesota: Special Teams Coordinator/Linebackers (2007-10)

Harvard: Special Teams Coordinator/Linebackers (2003-06)

Texas State: Special Teams Coordinator/Safeties (2001-02)

Midwestern State: Defensive Coordinator/Linebacker/Safeties (1999-2000)

Texas: Graduate Assistant (1997-98)

Catholic University (PA): Defensive Coordinator/Secondary (1996), Secondary (1995)

**********

NFL

Buffalo Bills: Defensive Backs/Passing Game Coordinator (2022-23), Defensive Backs (2018-21)

Houston Texans: Secondary (2014-17)

Separate ESPN reports noted Nebraska will also add longtime Rhule assistant Phil Snow and Terry Bradden to the coaching staff.

The 68-year-old Snow will be the associate head coach, per the report. Snow is a veteran coach who was Rhule's DC at all three of his head coaching stops: Temple, Baylor and the NFL's Carolina Panthers. Most recently, Snow did consulting work with Nebraska's defense following the loss to UCLA in November.

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Bradden is set to be Nebraska's defensive line coach and take over for Terrance Knighton, who left for the same position at Florida State.

Bradden most recently served as the assistant DL coach for the NFL's Kansas City Chiefs the past four seasons. He's been with Kansas City the past eight years — he spent his first three seasons in Kansas City as a defensive quality control coach (2018-20) and one season as a defensive assistant (2017).

Bradden is a Riviera Beach, Fla., native who played quarterback for three seasons at Howard University (2009-11) in Washington, D.C., before transferring to Tuskegee University (2011-13), where he also played quarterback. Before joining the Chiefs, Bradden was a quarterback graduate assistant at Bethune Cookman in 2016.

Snow and Bradden are the two most recent staff additions. On Monday, Phil Simpson announced he's returning to Nebraska to coach outside linebackers. Simpson, an excellent recruiter with strong ties in Florida, spent the 2023 season at Nebraska as a defensive quality control coach before spending 2024 at Florida State.