Sunday, it was confirmed that Bill Moos was leaving his job as athletic director at Washington State to take the same position at Nebraska. It didn’t take long after the official announcement of the move for the speculation to commence.
A home loss to Northern Illinois was the football program’s first-ever to a MAC school and its first home loss to a Group of Five team since 2004, sparking talk as to how much longer Mike Riley could last as the Cornhuskers’ head coach. Losses by a combined 63 points the last two weeks to Wisconsin and Ohio State did nothing to alleviate those concerns.
Enter Moos, whose last football hire at Wazzu has turned into a very significant upgrade for that program. Taking over a team that won a combined nine games the four years before he was hired by Moos, Mike Leach guided the Cougars to 12 wins his first three years after being hired in 2012. The past two seasons have turned into breakout ones of sort for the Cougars as they won nine games in 2015 (most since 2003) and eight in 2016. They were off to a 6-0 start this season before Cal stunned them in Week 7.
Add Riley’s struggles to Leach’s successes and mix in Moos’ departure Pullman for Lincoln, and the recipe was there for Leach-to-'Huskers talk. Monday, the coach downplayed such a possibility.
“I don’t have any plans to do that and then they already have a head coach there and he’s a pretty good one, Mike Riley,” Leach said according to the Spokane Spokesman-Review. “Wish Bill the best and we just move forward.”
Leach did, though, have high praise for his now-former boss. Extremely high praise.
“He’s the best AD that I’ve ever met,” Leach said. “Everything from active to retired to dead. Bill’s the best AD I’ve ever even met. ...
“Bill’s a very honest, straightforward guy and he was a guy you could count on, who you knew had your best interest.”