Deep down in his cowboy heart, Nebraska coaching icon John Cook knew it was time to ride off into the sunset. The Huskers volleyball coach has known for years who should inherit the position.

Dani Busboom Kelly was the starting libero on the Huskers’ 2006 national championship team. She later went into coaching and built Louisville into a national contender.

The team standing in Louisville’s way from breaking through in 2019? The team that might have slowed Busboom Kelly’s ascent? Jerritt Elliott’s Texas Longhorns.

Louisville’s win over Texas in the 2019 NCAA tournament at Gregory Gym was a seminal moment in Busboom Kelly’s rise as a premier coach and, at least in Cook’s mind, the clear signal she could be the coach at Nebraska someday.

WATCH AND SUBSCRIBE: Follow A to Z Sports’ Texas Longhorns channel on YouTube.

Asked Thursday when he knew Busboom Kelly could handle the Nebraska job, Cook said, “The first was when they beat Texas in the NCAA tournament.” Indeed, Busboom Kelly was named Cook’s successor on Wednesday.

The Cardinals beat the second-seeded Longhorns in five sets before a stunned burnt-orange home crowd. Most had Texas cruising all the way to the national semifinals. It has been called one of the top-10 upsets in NCAA tournament history.

Ironically, Louisville lost to Minnesota in the next round and didn’t even make the Final Four, but Busboom Kelly’s program was on its way.

The pandemic forced the NCAA to push its 2020 postseason into the spring of 2021. But that Louisville loss had a slow-burn effect on Texas star Logan Eggleston.

“We didn’t forget,” Eggleston said before the tournament began in April 2021. “It’s been in the back of our mind ever since it happened and it’s been pushing us the past year-and-a-half. We’re going to continue to let that drive us forward to winning those big games.”

Texas got all the way back to the national championship game but wound up losing to Kentucky.

Elliott and Busboom Kelly finally crossed paths again in the 2022 national championship game. This time, the Cardinals weren’t the up-and-comers; they were huge threats to the Longhorns.

But Elliott, Eggleston and the rest of the Horns celebrated a three-set sweep on the game’s biggest stage.

“Yeah, it's a lot more fun to not be crying sad tears at the end of the season,” Eggleston said after winning it all. “We can actually say we won our last game. It feels amazing.”

Elliott’s Horns would win it all again in 2023, beating the Huskers in the final match in a 3-0 sweep.

Busboom Kelly’s Cards might have won it all this year if not for Anna DeBeer’s injury in the national semifinals. It was even more impressive the Cardinals reached the national championship game the same year they were hosting it in downtown Louisville.

In Cook’s mind, that was all the more reason Busboom Kelly was the right fit to go back home and coach her alma mater.

Cook may be riding away, but the Huskers and Horns aren’t going anywhere.