1. There's no question that the Longhorns got the guy they were aiming for. I don't have the details of the last week, but I was told that the Longhorns have had a target on Nansen for a while and that there were some details that hadn't been worked out... until they were. Landing a rising defensive coordinator at a Pac-12 school as a linebackers coach (and as a co-DC) is a major coup, but Nansen actually checks a number of boxes outside of the Xs and Os side of the hire.
2. Nansen has major connections to the staff. In addition to working as an assistant under Steve Sarkisian at Washington and USC, Nansen also played college football with Jeff Banks at Washington State. One person even mentioned to us today that Nensen's daughter works as an intern in the Texas football department. There are connections all over the place with this move.
3. Nansen has some real recruiting juice. While he was at USC, he was responsible for the recruitments of 5-star cornerback Adoree Jackson, 5-star linebacker Palaie Gaoteote IV and a certain running back everyone will fondly remembr as Roland... oops... Ronald Jones. He's had success as a recruiter in California, Texas and even Bishop Gorman in Las Vegas.
4. He's been a power five defensive coordinator for two seasons at Arizona after serving as a defensive line coach, linebackers coach, inside linebackers coach and running backs coach. Since 2009, he's only worked in the Pac-12.
5. Nansen's defense gets a lot of credit for the success that Arizona had in 2023, as his unit ranked tied for 30th in FBS in scoring defense, which 15.4 points better than what the defense had done in the previous season. His defense forced six turnovers in the bowl game against Oklahoma last month.
2. Nansen has major connections to the staff. In addition to working as an assistant under Steve Sarkisian at Washington and USC, Nansen also played college football with Jeff Banks at Washington State. One person even mentioned to us today that Nensen's daughter works as an intern in the Texas football department. There are connections all over the place with this move.
3. Nansen has some real recruiting juice. While he was at USC, he was responsible for the recruitments of 5-star cornerback Adoree Jackson, 5-star linebacker Palaie Gaoteote IV and a certain running back everyone will fondly remembr as Roland... oops... Ronald Jones. He's had success as a recruiter in California, Texas and even Bishop Gorman in Las Vegas.
4. He's been a power five defensive coordinator for two seasons at Arizona after serving as a defensive line coach, linebackers coach, inside linebackers coach and running backs coach. Since 2009, he's only worked in the Pac-12.
5. Nansen's defense gets a lot of credit for the success that Arizona had in 2023, as his unit ranked tied for 30th in FBS in scoring defense, which 15.4 points better than what the defense had done in the previous season. His defense forced six turnovers in the bowl game against Oklahoma last month.
