Nebraska football hires well-experienced Bill Moos as athletic director

Last month University of Nebraska-Lincoln Chancellor Ronnie Green and University President Hank Bound hired Bill Moos as the schools’ Athletic Director. This was a day after an unscheduled memorial to the 2007 football season and Bill Callahan, as the Huskers fell behind Ohio State 35-0 at halftime and lost 56-14, ten years to the week after Oklahoma State lead Nebraska 38-0 at halftime and beat Nebraska 45-14.

The football program is the reason why former AD Sean Eichorst was fired, his dislike in public appearances and failure to connect with athletes did not help. Green said he was looking for a veteran AD when the search for a new AD on September 21, he got one in former Oregon and Washington State AD Bill Moos.

Moos brings a ton of experience to Lincoln, and that is a good thing. He was at Oregon from 1995-2007, during that time the Duck football program soared to unprecedented heights under legendary coach Mike Bellotti. Moos was also instrumental in making Nike founder Phil Knight start writing the big checks to Eugene. This resulted in the Oregon Athletic Department nearly tripling their fundraising efforts.

In 2007, Moos left Oregon due to a falling out with Knight, and retired for three years. In 2010, he was hired by his alma matter in Washington State. There he made his big football hire by picking Mike Leach to lead the Cougers’ football program. In year four under Leach, Wazzu started the year 6-0 and in the top 10 of the AP poll. Moos has been in the Pacific Northwest nearly his entire life, and knows a lot of people including oddly enough, current Nebraska head coach Mike Riley, from his days at Oregon State.

Mike Riley is of course, the reason why Moos is here in the first place. Moos will need to decide if he will fire Riley later this month when the season ends, the Huskers are trending towards a record that could be an incomprehensible 4-8. This would of course require a coaching change, perhaps the most important in Husker football history.

This is why Moos is a good hire: his main task here is clearly to hire the right replacement for Riley. Moos is a football guy as he was an all Pac-8 player at Washington State in his college days, as well as being involved in the sport for nearly his whole life. Because of his connections, Moos will have an easier time finding the right guy. Two years after he left Oregon, the current head coach at Central Florida was hired by Oregon. If Riley is indeed fired, Scott Frost will be the frontrunner to get the job.

Moos also had a reputation in Pullman as being a media friendly AD. This is also something Nebraska needs desperately. Moos is also able to connect with people and start a conversation with anyone quite easily, something Eichorst failed to do. At the end of the day, Green and Bounds made a hire that makes sense and could end up being very good for Nebraska. Hopefully, it ends up like the last former Oregon AD who became the Nebraska AD, Bill Byrne, would lead Nebraska from 1992-2003.