Bill Moos hired as athletics director at Nebraska

In a fairly shocking development this morning, Washington State Cougars athletics director Bill Moos will be leaving the school, having accepted the same job at the University of Nebraska.

To say this comes out of left field would be an understatement. Moos still has a few years left on his contract and, at 67 years old, seemed to be comfortable at WSU ahead of his retirement.

Not so, apparently. Nebraska fired their previous athletic director Shawn Eichorst earlier this football season after his hire of Mike Riley from Oregon State turned out to be somewhat disastrous. The Huskers didn’t waste much time in their search ... we just didn’t think it would end up being a guy who was seen as fairly comfortable with where he is.

The other, perhaps more worrying dynamic, is with Mike Leach. Moos was very, very public about his adoration for Leach and the hefty support of an athletic director is something he considers very important. Now, halfway through a 6-1 football season, with rumors swirling that other schools will come calling for Mike Leach, he has lost the athletics director.

This weekend went from horrible to, somehow, worse. More as we get it.

UPDATE, 12:00 p.m.: Here’s the official release from the University of Nebraska.