It’s certainly not new that the Nebraska football team is facing some issues. real question marks about special teams. For whatever reason, that particular side of the game has been a sore spot for the Cornhuskers for years. Long before Matt Rhule came to Lincoln. But that’s no excuse.

In fact, Rhule and his hand-picked special teams coordinator have failed to put a unit on the field that better than what we have seen the last two years is part of the problem. But you can’t say they’re not trying.

On Monday, Rhule announced he had hired former Nebraska football players kicker Brett Maher Unpleasant help the special teams unit. That’s the good news. The bad news is that this isn’t a new move. Maher has been with the team since the start of fall camp. And yet, the special teams are far from great.

Starting kicker Tristan Alvano was unavailable Friday night and while his replacement John Hohl made a short field goal against Illinois, he missed a 39-yard kick that ultimately would have been the winning goal.

Even if Alvano had been healthy, there was no guarantee he would have made that kick. The Nebraska native has had his own issues since taking the starting job as a true freshman.

The special teams units aren’t just plagued by persistent field goal kicking. Punter Brian Buschini had a hard time occasionally in 2023. While there are indications he is more comfortable, he still appeared to make a mistake on a cracking punt against Illinois.

It appeared that Buschini had kicked the ball to the wrong side of the field, allowing the Illini to make a nice return and move from the ball inside their own 20-yard box to a spot near midfield.

Kick coverage was a concern last year and this year. All of this shows that the Nebraska football team knows there are problems. Rhule is trying to solve them with hires like Brett Maher. But none of the solutions have been realized overnight.