Nebraska’s search for an offensive coordinator has a name worth watching in Kevin Decker, the Memphis play-caller whose offenses have consistently produced big numbers without leaning on a traditional power-running identity.
Decker has made his reputation with an attack that spreads defenses out, creates clean matchups and still keeps the run game alive. He’s shown that approach can travel, too, because he has done it with different quarterbacks and different personnel along the way.
His path to this point started at New Hampshire, where he was an outstanding quarterback and won Colonial Athletic Association Player of the Year honors in 2011 before moving into coaching. From there, he worked at Montana State and Brown, then became offensive coordinator at Brown in 2018. He later spent four seasons running Fordham’s offense before taking the same job at Old Dominion in 2023.
Memphis head coach Charles Huff brought him in last December, and Decker is now the Tigers’ offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. The results have been strong right away.
The system he runs is built on the veer-and-shoot offense made famous by Josh Heupel and Alex Golesh. While at Fordham, Decker was introduced to a lot of those ideas by David Weeks, a former UCF assistant who helped explain the system to him.
At its core, the offense uses wide receiver splits to stretch defenses side to side and force favorable numbers near the line of scrimmage. If defenses overcommit to the run, the quarterback gets chances to attack single coverage downfield. It’s the kind of structure that can generate explosive passing plays without giving up the ground game.
Fordham was where the system really took off. In 2022, the Rams led the FCS in total offense at 608.9 yards per game and finished second in scoring at 49.5 points. They also paced the FCS in passing at 413.8 yards per game.
Quarterback Tim DeMorat was the engine for all of it, throwing for 4,891 yards and 56 touchdowns that season while winning his third straight Patriot League Offensive Player of the Year award.
Decker then proved the offense wasn’t just built for one type of quarterback at Old Dominion. After a relatively modest first season, the Monarchs climbed from 23.8 points and 348.2 total yards per game in 2023 to 32 points and 454.7 yards in 2025. Even more notable, they finished seventh nationally in rushing at 238.3 yards per game.
Quarterback Colton Joseph earned Sun Belt Offensive Player of the Year after throwing for 2,624 yards and 21 touchdowns and adding 1,007 rushing yards and 13 scores. Offensive linemen Zach Barlev and Ryan Joyce also picked up all-conference honors.
His first season at Memphis has brought more of the same. The Tigers are fifth nationally in total offense at 513.3 yards per game and tied for 14th in scoring at 37.6 points. They rank ninth in rushing at 222.8 yards and 13th in passing at 290.6.
That balance matters, especially because Decker stepped into a new quarterback situation and got his system moving quickly.
There’s also a financial angle here that Nebraska would have to like. According to reports, Decker got a two-year, $1 million deal from Memphis, and Nebraska has the ability to pay much more. The school could triple his salary.
The biggest question is whether that offense would hold up against Big Ten defenses. Decker has never coached at the Power Four level, so the weekly jump in competition would be real.
Even so, his track record is hard to ignore. He’s built productive offenses at multiple stops, developed quarterbacks and shown that his run game can be a weapon rather than just a supporting piece. That makes him a name Nebraska should absolutely have on the radar.
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