There are accomplished volleyball head coaches, and then there are legends like John Cook. Throughout his 25 years as Nebraska’s volleyball mastermind, Cook achieved everything a coach dreams of, and more. So when Cook suddenly retired in January, quoting Neil Young’s lyric, “It’s better to burn out than fade away,” all eyes fell on the replacement.

Yet, what fans didn’t know then was that they were in for another surprise. That’s because Nebraska volleyball named their former assistant coach-turned-Louisville head coach, Dani Busboom Kelly, as Cook’s successor. Despite the show of support from the athletic department, players, and Cook himself, some have raised the question of Kelly living up to her legendary predecessor’s legacy.

Yet, Dani Busboom Kelly is not one to buckle under the pressure of expectations. Instead of trying to compete with John Cook’s vast array of accolades, the 39-year-old is looking to take the Nebraska Huskers forward in her own way. “I’m not John Cook and I never will be,” Coach Kelly said in an interview with Big Ten Volleyball on YouTube. Yet that’s not all.

DBK won’t abandon her predecessor’s methods. “A lot of what I believe in and the way I coach is part of his coaching tree, so there is some familiarity. But I want to stay true to myself,” added the former Cardinals coach, who took the team from conference to regular national championship contenders within seven years.

In fact, DBK was the Cardinals volleyball program’s first coach to take the team to a final four match in 2021. She then made history again the following year, taking the Cardinals to their first NCAA championship final. So, Dani Buboom Kelly wanted to integrate that learning with John Cook’s system at Nebraska. And guess what? The new head coach is already hard at work implementing those changes.

How DBK is tweaking John Cook’s system

“I want to stay true to myself and what’s made me successful up to this point. Yes, it was in a different location, but I can blend some of the past here,” DBK added during the interview. In fact, the coach has already done that with the assistant coaches in Nebraska. One of the biggest advantages Kelly started off with was that no one left the program when Cook retired.

The players and the rest of the coaching staff trusted John Cook in choosing DBK as his successor. So not only did the Louisville coach find it easy to settle into the team, but she also found it easy to “switch up” a few things, as per Harper Murray. These changes reflected the bleeding of what she learned during her time at Louisville and what Cook left behind.

Instead of making any massive changes to how the Huskers trained, Kelly simply tweaked the assistant coaches’ roles. Assistant coach Jaylen Reyes “isn’t with the middles as much anymore. He was with them all the time last year…” Murray added during a recent presser. Yet, under John Cook’s former pupil, he is primarily working with the hitters on the roster.

Meanwhile, Kelly (Hunter) Natter, who worked with setters under cook, has shifted to focusing on liberos and defensive specialists. Dani Busboom Kelly herself is looking after the setters instead. Yet, these distinct roles are only part of the training. “Maybe 10 to 15 minutes in practice a day, you’re really working with just one coach,” Kelly said in the same presser.

“But other than that, everybody’s involved with everybody,” added DBK. However, John Cook’s successor’s collaborative approach will soon be tested in the spring game against Kansas on April 26. What do you think will be the outcome? Give us your predictions in the comments.