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Daikiel Shorts Jr. is in his first season as Nebraska's wide receivers coach in 2025. He is reunited in Lincoln with Husker offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen, who coached Shorts at West Virginia for four seasons and then had Shorts on his coaching staffs at West Virginia (2018) and Houston (2019-23).
Shorts is in his eighth season as a college coach, seven of which have been spent with Holgorsen. Shorts spent the past four seasons as a wide receivers coach at Houston (2021-23) and Kentucky (2024).
At Houston, Shorts tutored Tank Dell who earned All-America honors after leading the nation with 109 catches in 2022. Shorts was a standout receiver himself who ranks fifth all-time at West Virginia in career receptions and sixth in career receiving yards.
BEFORE NEBRASKA
KENTUCKY: Shorts spent the 2024 season as the wide receivers coach at Kentucky. In his lone season with the Wildcats, Kentucky junior wideout Dane Key caught 47 passes for 715 yards to lead the UK passing attack. Key set career highs in receptions and yards under Shorts. Key finished with the third-most receiving yards (1,870) in Kentucky history despite playing only three seasons for the Wildcats.
HOUSTON: Shorts spent five seasons with Holgorsen at Houston from 2019 to 2023. Shorts began his tenure with the Cougars as the director of player development in 2019 and 2020 before coaching the wide receivers his final three seasons on staff.
Shorts' first season as a full-time assistant coach was in 2021, when he coached Tank Dell to first-team American Athletic Conference honors. Dell ranked eighth nationally in receiving touchdowns (12), 12th in receiving yards (1,329) and 13th in receptions (90). His breakout season came after Dell caught only 29 passes for 428 yards the previous season.
Dell had an even better 2022 season when he was a second-team All-American and a semifinalist for the Biletnikoff Award. He caught 109 passes for 1,398 yards and 17 touchdowns in his third and final season at Houston, leading the nation in receiving yards and receiving touchdowns and ranking second in receptions.
Dell had 199 receptions for 2,727 receiving yards and 29 touchdowns in two seasons with Shorts as his position coach. He led the nation in each of those three categories during the two-year span from 2021 to 2022.
Also under Shorts’ tutelage, Matthew Golden set Houston’s true freshman record in 2022 with seven receiving touchdowns. Golden also tied for first nationally among true freshmen with four receiving scores of 20-plus yards and was second among true freshmen in receiving touchdowns (7).
In Houston’s first season in the Big 12 in 2023, a young receiving corps made an immediate impact. According to Pro Football Focus, five of the league’s top 11 graded underclassmen wide receivers came from Houston.
WEST VIRGINIA: Following an outstanding playing career at West Virginia, Shorts first ventured into coaching as a program assistant with the Mountaineers in 2018.
PLAYING CAREER (WEST VIRGINIA)
Before entering the coaching ranks, Shorts was a standout receiver under Holgorsen at West Virginia from 2013 to 2016. The four-year letterwinner led the Mountaineers in receiving in three of his four years. As a senior team captain in 2016, he earned second-team All-Big 12 honors and the Iron Mountaineer Award after totaling a team-high 63 receptions for 894 yards and five touchdowns.
He finished his collegiate career ranked fifth on the WVU career chart with 177 receptions and sixth with 2,263 receiving yards and 14 scores. He owns the program’s freshman receptions record with 45. He was on the Buffalo Bills practice squad in 2017.
PERSONAL
Shorts, originally from Clayton, N.J., graduated from West Virginia in 2016 with a degree in multidisciplinary studies. During his career, he was named to the Garrett Ford Academic Honor Roll and the Big 12 Commissioner’s Honor Roll.
COACHING CAREER
2025: Nebraska (Wide Receivers)
2024: Kentucky (Assistant Coach, Wide Receivers)
2021-23: Houston (Assistant Coach, Wide Receivers)
2019-20: Houston (Director of Player Personnel)
2018: West Virginia (Program Assistant)