CHICAGO — After Scott Frost wrapped his intro press conference at 2019 Big Ten Media Days, Athletic Director Bill Moos held court to address a number of topics surrounding the program.
Here’s what he covered.
>> The most pressing matter: Moos was not caught in travel limbo with the morning storms in Chicago. He and his wife got to the Windy City Wednesday night from their ranch in Washington.
>> Asked about expectations, Moos doesn’t really want to put a number on things yet. He echoed Frost in saying the Huskers are a young team, he praised the depth of the conference and said it’s going to be a challenging season regardless of how favorable the schedule might look.
But he’s a fan of the expectations being out there.
“I think Scott has his people under control and they’re going to play within themselves,” he said. “Hype is good. … This is Nebraska. We’ve got a brand. We need to get it dusted off and back where it belongs.”
He would give a floor though. Anything less than six wins is unacceptable. He wants a bowl game because of the visibility for the program but also because of the extra practices. Moos said he ran the numbers at some point a few years ago and figured a fifth-year senior who goes to a bowl game every season will end his collegiate career with an extra year of practice coming just from those bowl practices. That’s important for what’s a young team.
>> After Frost praised strength coach Zach Duval, Moos did the same: “Our players look more like football players now.”
>> Facilities have been a hot topic around the program. It’s an arms race in college football and Moos gets that. But he said Thursday the Huskers don’t currently have approval for a renovation project and “we’re a ways away from it if indeed we do it at all.”
>> Earlier this week, Nebraska announced the hiring of John Johnson to serve on Moos’ senior athletic staff. The former Weber State athletic director who worked with Moos at Washington State will serve as Moos’ men’s basketball liaison.
“Fred reports directly to me … but I always have an administrator to take care of some of the busy work day to day and make sure things are going well for the programs,” Moos said.
>> With softball coach Rhonda Revelle on paid leave pending a look into her program, Moos commented on the situation.
“We’re looking into some situations that occurred and trying to get a real good look at it before we make any moves,” he said. “I think she’s doing fine and I hope we can get everything buckled up here very shortly.
“We’ve got people both internally and externally looking at some things that may have been of concern. I don’t like to break up the furniture unless I know there may be an issue. I’m not sure of that at this point.
“We go through the seniors and really the whole team and just review the experience they’re having. We do that in all of our programs. In the past I’ve done these things before. Sometimes retention was the outcome, sometimes it wasn’t.”
Asked if there were any concerns from outgoing players, Moos said “enough to look into it a little deeper.”
>> Moos said he’s “curious” about what might come from the NCAA forming a working group to consider the concept of players profiting off their likeness. He said he likes the amateurism model but acknowledges times have changed and he knows this is going to continue to be a hot topic. But Moos reiterated that as long as he’s in charge, amateurism will be at the forefront of the conversation.
>> BTN announced it is planning “extensive” coverage of the Nebraska-Iowa Black Friday game at the end of the season. Moos appreciates that. He’s also hoping the Huskers get a little more visibility on gamedays.
“We’ll take GameDay for Ohio State, we’ll take GameDay for any of them,” he said. “We need to get that thing back in Lincoln.”
Derek is a newbie on the Hail Varsity staff covering Husker athletics. In college, he was best known as ‘that guy from Twitter.’ He has covered a Sugar Bowl, a tennis national championship and almost everything in between (except an NCAA men’s basketball tournament game… *tears*). In his spare time, he can be found arguing with literally anyone about sports.
