Other Husker coaches spoke about the connection they have with the retired volleyball coach.
Who knows? Matt Rhule joked maybe he’ll even see John Cook around football practices more now at some point after his retirement. What the Husker football coach knows for sure is Cook has always been there for him and his program when needed. A coach’s coach for those throughout Nebraska’s athletic department.
«When you have a chance to be around the best, when you have a chance to be around greats, it obviously only makes you better,» Rhule said.
Rhule described Husker volleyball as such «an amazing feature» for the university. When he’s out recruiting that match at Memorial Stadium that drew 92,003 fans sometimes gets brought up by those he’s visiting. The Husker football coach expects the greatness to continue with Dani Busboom Kelly, who he had a chance to exchange a text greeting with after she was hired. There’s a kinship that comes with the shared responsibility of being a coach of a college program. Cook certainly shared it with his fellow Husker coaches.
«We all understand the pressures of these jobs, the opportunities, all the great things that come with it. When I see Fred Hoiberg, I have a special relationship with him that I only him and I can probably understand. When I see Amy (Williams), I probably have that same thing. Coach (Mark) Manning. And Coach Cook is right there,» Rhule said.
«It’s those people who, after you lose a game you thought you were going to win, it’s those people who usually text you. It’s those people who usually pick you up.»
Because Rhule said there’s that camaraderie of understanding how hard coaching and building a program can be. Husker men’s basketball coach Fred Hoiberg has certainly leaned on various Cook ideas during his time in Lincoln.
«I was able to talk to him and thank him. It’s been an honor working in the same athletic department as him,» Hoiberg said. «I see him a lot of times, he’ll be in the weight room and I’ll be in there, and we do an old man workout. He’s doing his thing, I’m doing my thing. But I always talk to him and I’ve adopted a lot of things that he’s done with culture. I think he’s one of the best that he’s been certainly in his sport, and in any sport, of creating a culture.»
Also, as much talent as Husker volleyball has obviously had, there are programs in other sports that have recruited top-end but not got the consistent top-end results Cook did.
«When you have that many All-Americans, and five stars and that type of thing, to get them all to mesh and the cohesion that he’s been able to bring to those teams, the national championships, that is not easy to do when you have players like that,» Hoiberg said.
Hoiberg wants to keep the relationship going. Hopefully they can get out on the golf course after the season sometime.
«I’m certainly going to lean on him and continue to talk to him about a lot of things,» said the hoops coach. «Very seldom do you get a chance to work with the greatest of all time in their sport, and I think John Cook is the greatest volleyball coach of all time.»
Husker athletic director Troy Dannen has said a larger role within the athletic department is under discussion for Cook in time.
«Just his ability to teach leadership,» Dannen added. «We need that. We need that for our student-athletes and not just the volleyball team.»
The coaches would concur.
«I’m not getting on a horse,» Rhule said in light-hearted fashion, «but I’ll go visit him.»