“Our kids are eating, studying, compliance — everything is in a dungeon,” Moos said last week. “It’s in a dungeon. It’s one of the first things I observed. Ideally, with an open checkbook, you’d build a building with the specs that address all these things.”
So is Moos going to build it?
“I might,” he said. No more than that. Moos did not hint that a giant overhaul of Nebraska’s football facilities was imminent. But he didn’t lie about where NU’s facilities rank inside the Big Ten, either.
“Football facilities? Out of 14? Probably eighth, ninth,” Moos said.
That’s the truth. In 2011, when it joined the Big Ten, Nebraska’s Tom and Nancy Osborne Athletic Complex and Hawks Championship Center indoor practice field – attached by a skywalk – was probably third or fourth in the league. That’s my take. Iowa still had a dishwater-colored, hot-in-the-summer practice bubble. Wisconsin and Minnesota were behind. Northwestern’s outdoor practice field looked like something from your high school.
I could argue all four schools are even with or ahead of Nebraska now. The Huskers’ North Stadium/Hawks combo was top-flight in 2006. Not so much anymore.
“If I could, I’d revamp that whole football facility,” Moos said. He did it at Washington State, which he said has the best football building in the country, “though I’ve heard Clemson’s is really good.” Moos put together that project by touring many of the top football buildings in the country, including, at the time, Nebraska.