The Nebraska football team added to its coaching staff this offseason, bringing back a a former Husker in Mike Ekeler to serve as special teams coordinator.
Before returning to Nebraska, Ekeler served as the special teams coordinator and outside linebackers coach for the Tennessee Volunteers for four seasons. He previously coached for the Huskers under former head coach Bo Pelini from 2008 to 2010.
Although it was coach Rhule’s decision on who the next special teams coordinator would be, a familiar face to the Nebraska football team helped recruit Ekeler.
“It started off with Will Compton,” Ekeler told Hail Varsity at the Jet Award. “When Coach made the change, literally Will Compton called me like 30 seconds later and said “Ek, you need to go home man. You need to go back.'”
Compton told Ekeler that he was going to give Rhule a call and this got the ball rolling to bring Ekeler back to Nebraska.
Ekeler was born in David City, Nebraska, and will now get to come back home for the second time. He said that he is excited to be back.
“Born and raised here, Nebraska football’s everything,” Ekeler said. “It’s the fabric of the state … I had no idea what I was really getting into. I had never met Coach Rhule before. Coming back here, I’m just so thankful and just I prayed a lot about it and all my prayers have been answered so far.”
Ekeler wants to help Nebraska win more games and bring back the success he had in his first stint with the team.
Nebraska has had a lot of struggles on special teams in recent years, and Ekeler plans on using his knowledge and success that he had during his time at Tennessee to help Nebraska improve.
“Just do everything we can from a special teams standpoint to win,” said Ekeler. That’s the bottom line. It’s a plus or a minus; you either get the job done or you don’t. I just came back to do my part to help Coach Rhule and help the University of Nebraska win.”
Ekeler has only been back in Nebraska for a couple months, but the team and its culture have made a great early impression on him.
“I just love them,” said Ekeler. “The culture here, it all starts with Coach Rhule. The culture here is amazing. It is a true team, and you’re talking about discipline, you’re talking about toughness, you’re talking about accountability. Those things don’t go out of style, and that’s how you win.”
Ekeler said he’s learned a great deal since his first stint at Nebraska and is looking forward to using that knowledge to help the current group of Huskers develop and succeed. For him, words like ‘wishing,’ ‘trying’ and ‘hoping’ hold no weight. His philosophy is to do things.
“The standard’s to be the best and that’s the standard and that’s what we’re going to do,” Ekeler said.
