NEBRASKA FIRES AD EICHORST

For the second time in 10 years, Nebraska has ousted an athletic director during a football season that was failing to meet expectations.

The school’s top administrators said the Cornhuskers’ embarrassing loss to Northern Illinois last weekend wasn’t the sole reason for firing of Shawn Eichorst on Thursday. But the loss that dropped the Cornhuskers to 1-2 for the second time in three years under coach Mike Riley certainly was the tipping point.

“It’s never good to lose to a team that you should (beat). At least that’s the theory,” Nebraska president Hank Bounds said. “At the end of the day, one sporting event doesn’t cause you to make a decision.”

Eichorst was hired to replace retiring athletic director Tom Osborne in October 2012, and has about $1.7 million remaining on a contract that runs through June 2019.

Nebraska — which spent $101 million on athletics in 2015-16, the most recent year for which data is available — has not won a Big Ten championship in football or basketball (men’s or women’s) since joining the conference in 2011.

Eichorst hired Riley away from Oregon State in 2014, replacing the successful but volatile Bo Pelini.

Riley is just 16-13 at Nebraska, a school that has won five national championships, went to bowl games every year from 1969-2003 but has not won a conference title since 1999.

“I was probably flat-out saddened by the whole deal,” Riley said. “I really, really enjoyed working with Shawn. Besides being a good man, I think he had everyone’s best interests at heart, coaches and student-athletes.”

Footnotes.

Darius Tice rushed for 117 yards and two touchdowns and quarterback Quinton Flowers added two more rushing TDs as No. 21 South Florida (4-0) routed Temple (2-2) 43-7 in the American Athletic Conference opener for both teams. … Clemson has lost kicker Greg Huegel for the season after he tore his ACL when a player rolled into his leg on the last play of practice.