Huskers to hire John Butler as next defensive backs coach, ESPN reports

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – Husker fans didn’t have to wait long for a new defensive backs coach.

Nearly 13 hours after former DBs coach Evan Cooper resigned from the program, ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported John Butler will take Cooper’s place.

Butler has spent the last 10 seasons in the NFL, coaching defensive backs in Buffalo for the last six years, while also coaching the Texans’ secondary from 2014-2017.

Sources: Nebraska is expected to hire former Buffalo Bills assistant coach John Butler as the program’s new secondary coach. He’s a longtime NFL defensive backs coach with stints at the Texans (2014-17) and Bills (2018-23). pic.twitter.com/9XJtEum6Oe

— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) July 6, 2024

Before the NFL, the 51-year-old coach was in the Big Ten coaching defensive backs at Penn State in 2012.

Butler was the defensive coordinator and DBs coach for the Nittany Lions under Bill O’Brien in 2013.

Husker general manager Sean Padden and Butler both played football in college at Catholic University in Washington D.C.

Butler was the DBs coach there in 1995, while Padden won Scout Team Player of the Year with the program in the same season.