Husker Dan: Big Red Loves White

tony-white

Husker head football coach Matt Rhule may have hit a grand slam home run when he plucked Tony White out of Syracuse University to be his defensive coordinator at Nebraska.

Judging from my recent Husker football survey, readers also endorsed White as their top assistant coach.

What’s not to like? Here are some stats that might tell us a lot about Tony White’s impact on the Husker defense in 2023.

Scoring Defense:

2022 #77

2023 #13

Rushing Defense:

2022 #108

2023 #9

Pass Defense:

2022 #68

2023 #40

Total Defense:

2022 #100

2023 #11

Thankfully, Matt Rhule (and Trev Alberts) rewarded White’s performance with a $700,000 raise that bumped White up to $1.7 million annually. That makes White the highest paid assistant football coach in program history.

But the biggest worry Husker fans have is how long will he stay at Nebraska before taking a head coaching job elsewhere?

What do we know about Tony White? I got a chance to meet and visit with him last week at a football banquet in Omaha.

White’s story includes several references to the fact that football “saved my life.”

Although he was born in Key West, Florida, he spent several years living in New York City with his mother. He lived in a neighborhood that didn’t offer many positive options for young kids.

So he went to live with his father in El Paso, Texas where he (Tony) discovered the game of football. More importantly, he credits his coaches for “saving my life.”

His father was in the military and got transferred to San Antonio. But young Tony wanted to stay in El Paso with his teammates and coaches.

It was there White knew he wanted to be a coach some day . He wanted to be able to help young kids the way his coaches had helped him.

By the time he was a high school senior, he had become a really good linebacker-good enough that he was offered a scholarship to UCLA. Bruin linebacker coach Rocky Long recruited White. It was Long who is credited with developing the 3-3-5 defense.

“I was Mr. Irrelevant. I got the very last scholarship to UCLA and when I arrived on campus, nobody knew who I was. But once again, football saved my life,” White said.

He was a three year starter at linebacker for the Bruins. He went undrafted in 2002, but was a free agent for one year for the NFL Buffalo Bills. He also played in the CFL for four more years.

After his playing days ended, he coached high school football in LA for a year.

Then came another life saving moment. He was offered the job of grad assistant at UCLA.

Another huge break came later when Rocky Long got the head coaching job at New Mexico. Long hired White to be his linebackers coach. When Long took the head coaching job the next year at San Diego State, White became his cornerbacks coach. The two stayed at SDS for nine more years before White coached at Arizona State and eventually was the DC at Syracuse.

If you’re looking for words to describe Tony White, try these: Genuine, humble, classy, honest, passionate, kind, funny, sincere and compassionate,

When I presented Coach White with the above defensive stats, he refused to take credit. He was quick to laud his other defensive coaches and most of all head coach Matt Rhule.

“Matt Rhule created a practice schedule that allows our staff and players to go full bore each week. Steel sharpens steel. That’s how you get better.”

How Bout Them Huskers

Our podcast topics this week include Caitlin Clark’s record breaking game, the Husker men’s basketball win over Penn State and the women’s basketball win at Purdue. We also review Husker baseball, softball and talk about DC Tony White.