While Dani Busboom Kelly has spoken about the importance of maintaining a lot of what made Nebraska volleyball so successful under John Cook, she also has her own way of doing things. One difference that was almost immediately apparent is the new Nebraska coach’s desire to carry a larger roster.
Cook carried 14 players in each of the last three seasons. During her eight-year tenure at Louisville, Busboom Kelly’s smallest roster was 16 players and her largest was 19, with the average at 17.4. That was before the House Settlement, which caps roster size at 18 but allows programs to offer up to that many scholarships.
When Busboom Kelly took over in Lincoln, she retained every player and commit and added two additional recruits of her own, pushing the roster to 17 for the 2025 season.
“It’s made it more competitive,” Busboom Kelly said. “It’s allowed us to not really hold back, because we don’t feel like we have to limit the middles, let’s say, or we have to watch out for somebody getting over-tired. We can really just structure practice how you want to structure it and know we have the breaks built in naturally, so we don’t have to really think about building in breaks or limiting a certain player or position. We can just run it exactly how we want to, and all those things that you worry as a coach for longevity of the season are just working out naturally.”
The larger roster is among several changes the players have had to adjust to during the transition from Cook to Busboom Kelly. Team unity has been a pivotal part of the team’s recent success, and the returners have put an emphasis on keeping everyone — including the eight newcomers — marching in the same direction.
“I think it gives us the ability to spread out a little more, and we can do two courts of things, whereas with 14 girls, we could only do one court, and a lot of people would be sitting out,” Bergen Reilly said. “That’s been really cool. We get to move around, people play different positions — it’s really expanding our range of things that we can do. I think it’s been really fun.
“It’s definitely a challenge culture-wise, just making sure that we’re all on the same page, and there are eight new people, so making sure that we’re all just going in with the same goal and the same mindset, and I think that fall camp has really helped us to get there culture-wise.”
Half of Nebraska’s newcomers — middle blockers Manaia Ogbechie and Kenna Cogill and opposite hitters Virginia Adriano and Allie Sczech — did not enroll early and go through the beach and indoor training seasons during the spring. Even so, Busboom Kelly said she hasn’t had to slow things down for them since official practices began.
“That’s a hats off to our upperclassmen that in open gyms they were showing them some of the drills and terminology, so we didn’t have to stop a lot,” Busboom Kelly said. “But also, the freshmen and Virginia, who’s sort of a freshman, are very talented, so they catch on really, really quickly. It’s been really nice to have that and not feel like you’re stopping every 10 minutes to explain a drill, or you’re changing practice because you have to explain a drill. So it’s been pretty seamless with those four.”
According to Reilly, another difference in Busboom Kelly’s approach is the amount of six-on-six the team plays in practice. The new head coach doesn’t believe in easing the team into practice; she wants them to hit the ground running.
“You want them to bring out the best in each other, and you want to prepare them for the battles of the season,” Busboom Kelly said. “If you’re not creating that in practice, how can you expect them to perform in matches?”
That approach has paid dividends so far, according to Busboom Kelly. Reilly said that despite the preseason No. 1 ranking, the Huskers are heading into the season with a chip on their shoulder after falling short of their ultimate goal the past two seasons, and that’s been evident in their gym.
“The way practices are, everything’s a competition, and whether it’s just a simple drill or an actual six-on-six drill, they take it very seriously,” Busboom Kelly said. “Also, the mindset in our morning practices — I feel like a lot of teams can go through the motions when that they know it’s going to be light and a lot of first contact, but this team has taken those maybe even more seriously than the afternoon practices. We did individuals [Tuesday], and I thought those were fantastic. Just the attention to detail, I think, is a sign of a very hungry team.”
While that elusive hump the Huskers haven’t been able to get over lies at the end of the season, the Huskers aren’t in any hurry to get there, and they aren’t looking ahead. Taylor Landfair said the team is focused on attacking every day with the same mindset and same high standards they had under Cook.
“I think we’re going to be really, really good this year, and I think that it’s only going to get better from here,” Landfair said. “We always come in with a super high intention of what we’re supposed to be doing, and then also really receptive to Dani’s feedback, and I don’t think that we’re really taking it for granted. And I think that honestly, if we keep going at this pace, we’re just going to keep getting better and better and better all the way through the end of the year.”
Fans will get their first look at the full 17-player roster at Saturday’s Red-White Scrimmage. Nebraska Public Media and Big Ten Plus will televise the match, which will last at least four sets. First serve at John Cook Arena inside the Bob Devaney Sports Center is set for 2:30 p.m. CT.
