I'm halfway across the world in India right now preparing for my cousin's wedding so I did not expect to wake up at 7 in the morning to the news that defensive backs coach Evan Cooper was resigning. Obviously a significant development on and off the field. On the field, I wouldn't expect any immediate effects but if Nebraska doesn't address the opening with a good hire, there's a couple DBs on the roster that could look elsewhere come end of the season petal window. I will say, defensive backs coach is a position Nebraska has had some legit success finding over the years regardless of coach. Terry Joseph (now Texas' DBs coach) from 2012-2013, Charlton Warren (now UNC's DBs coach) Brian Stewart 2015-2016, Donte Williams (now Georgia's DBs coach) in 2017 and Travis Fisher from 2018-2022. Obviously this search will have to happen quick and because of the timing they could look for a temporary solution and find a more permanent hire after the season. There's veterans in the secondary like Gifford, Singleton, Buford and T. Hill that can serve as leaders in the room and "coaches on the field" so even if this turns into a situation where a GA, off field assistant and/or Tony White are the de facto leaders of the room, they'll have leadership.
On the recruiting side of things this really hurts, Cooper was a trusted evaluator, arguably Rhule's most trusted evaluator of talent, and had a knack for finding those diamonds in the rough. In the immediate future, his loss will impact Bryson Webber and Aiden Manutai's decisions. Webber had a lot of faith in Cooper, he visited and kept Nebraska at the top of his mind largely because of him. With Utah and TCU still in the mix, he could look at those other options now, but the door isn't necessarily closed. Manutai has deeper staff ties, Raiola, White and more have been working there, so that one could still go Nebraska's way.
As for the current commits, I wonder what type of impact this has on Jeremiah Jones, because of his versatility, this could be one Tony White and Rhule handle personally moving forward to maintain the relationship and trust. Don't anticipate this affects Tanner Terch or Jackson Carpenter, the two ATH commits with DB versatility. Caden VerMaas is locked in too, I wouldn't be worried there either. Probably closes the door for good on potentially flipping Antonio Branch Jr. from Penn State, but that was a long shot anyway.
Curious to see how Nebraska addresses this sudden departure, timing is awful but the good news is DB is a position they're almost finished recruiting anyways in 2025 and they can expand the board pretty easily if needed. They'd started to cast a wide net in 2026 but a lot of offers are in Texas and Florida, two states they have plenty of staff ties in.
One top 2026 target that has started to emerge is Manhattan (Kan.) High's JJ Dunnigan, but Dvoracek is the regional recruiter there so he'll maintain that relationship moving forward and given where his recruitment stands right now, I'm not expecting this to affect him all that much.
On the recruiting side of things this really hurts, Cooper was a trusted evaluator, arguably Rhule's most trusted evaluator of talent, and had a knack for finding those diamonds in the rough. In the immediate future, his loss will impact Bryson Webber and Aiden Manutai's decisions. Webber had a lot of faith in Cooper, he visited and kept Nebraska at the top of his mind largely because of him. With Utah and TCU still in the mix, he could look at those other options now, but the door isn't necessarily closed. Manutai has deeper staff ties, Raiola, White and more have been working there, so that one could still go Nebraska's way.
As for the current commits, I wonder what type of impact this has on Jeremiah Jones, because of his versatility, this could be one Tony White and Rhule handle personally moving forward to maintain the relationship and trust. Don't anticipate this affects Tanner Terch or Jackson Carpenter, the two ATH commits with DB versatility. Caden VerMaas is locked in too, I wouldn't be worried there either. Probably closes the door for good on potentially flipping Antonio Branch Jr. from Penn State, but that was a long shot anyway.
Curious to see how Nebraska addresses this sudden departure, timing is awful but the good news is DB is a position they're almost finished recruiting anyways in 2025 and they can expand the board pretty easily if needed. They'd started to cast a wide net in 2026 but a lot of offers are in Texas and Florida, two states they have plenty of staff ties in.
One top 2026 target that has started to emerge is Manhattan (Kan.) High's JJ Dunnigan, but Dvoracek is the regional recruiter there so he'll maintain that relationship moving forward and given where his recruitment stands right now, I'm not expecting this to affect him all that much.
