Nebraska is hiring Dana Holgorsen as its full-time offensive coordinator after bringing in the former Houston and West Virginia coach as a consultant on Matt Rhule’s staff last month.
The school announced Monday that Holgorsen has agreed to a two-year contract that will pay him $1.2 million annually.
Holgorsen was added to the Nebraska coaching staff as an offensive consultant and was promoted to offensive coordinator and play-caller to replace Marcus Satterfield, who was demoted to tight ends coach. Holgorsen served as offensive coordinator for the final three games of the regular season and helped the 6-6 Huskers reach bowl eligibility for the first time since 2016 with a 44-25 win over Wisconsin on Nov. 23.
“We are excited that Dana Holgorsen has agreed to be our offensive coordinator moving forward,” Rhule said. “Dana is one of the elite offensive minds in football, and the progress we made in our final three games provides a glimpse of the potential of our offense under his direction. We look forward to Dana leading our offense into the bowl game and building for the 2025 season.”
Nebraska pursued Holgorsen for a role on its staff previously, but he initially opted to work as an analyst at TCU after getting fired from Houston. Holgorsen posted a 92-69 record between head-coaching jobs at West Virginia and Houston and is regarded as one of the top offensive minds in college football. Holgorsen had a hand in coaching Graham Harrell, Case Keenum, Brandon Weeden, Geno Smith, Will Grier and Clayton Tune.
Before his time leading the West Virginia (2011-18) and Houston (2019-23) programs, Holgorsen had stints as offensive coordinator at Texas Tech, Houston and Oklahoma State.
With the promotion to the full-time OC at Nebraska official, Holgorsen will be tasked with aiding the development of star freshman quarterback Dylan Raiola. The No. 2-ranked quarterback in the 2024 recruiting cycle by 247Sports has thrown for for 2,595 yards, 12 touchdowns and 10 interceptions during his first college season.
Nebraska’s offense averaged 358.7 yards per game (95th among FBS teams) and 23.8 points (tied for 98th) in Year 2 of the Rhule era. The Cornhuskers started the 2024 season with a 5-1 record before dropping five of their final six games.
