Nebraska fans were dealt a major surprise Friday evening at 6 p.m. when it was reported and later confirmed that Husker defensive backs coach and pass game coordinator, Evan Cooper, had resigned from his position.
About 13 hours later, it's being reported Nebraska has its next DBs coach.
At 7:01 a.m. on Saturday, ESPN college football senior writer Pete Thamel reported Nebraska will hire former Buffalo Bills secondary coach John Butler to replace Cooper.
Butler has spent the past 10 seasons in the NFL with the Bills and Houston Texans. He coached the Bills' DBs for the past 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 was the Nittany Lions' defensive coordinator/DBs coach under Bill O'Brien in 2013.
There's a connection between Nebraska's general manager, Sean Padden, and Butler. 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.
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