It was only a matter of time before Mike Riley was forced to address the massive elephant in the Hawks Championship Center following Wednesday’s full-pads practice.

While the third-year head coach had already commented on the hiring of Bill Moos as Nebraska’s new athletic director this week, the question of what Moos’ presence would mean for Riley’s future with the Huskers still hovered over him like a dark cloud.

The issue finally came to the public forefront on Wednesday, as Riley was asked whether he felt he was auditioning for his job over the final five weeks of the season.

“I don’t know,” Riley said. “All I know is I want to do the Jim Harbaugh deal and just put that sign up above my door that says, ‘Coach The Team’. That’s all I’m going to worry about, and then we’ll let the rest take care of itself.”

While Riley and Moos never worked directly with each other, they did go head-to-head numerous times while Riley was at Oregon State and Moos was the A.D. at Oregon and Washington State.

Riley said that while he and Moos “never hung out or anything like that,” he had great respect for the work Moos did during his time with both the Ducks and the Cougars.

“I said this the other day, I think it’s a really good fit for Nebraska,” Riley said. “From what I know about Bill Moos, I think he’s good person. I think he can visit with every guy. He’s real good about that.

“He has done tremendous jobs at two places I’ve been close to and competed against, Oregon and Washington State. His work at Oregon is well-documented, and it’s visual there.

“It’s also visual at Washington State. It’s a whole new place since Bill Moos went there, and it’s given them a chance to do what they’re doing right now.”

- Robin Washut

Sitting at 3-4 overall and 2-2 in Big Ten Conference play, the opportunities for Nebraska to end the 2017 season on a high note are slimmer than they’ve ever been.

Even so, Riley said he’s seen the Huskers once again come to practice with impressive energy, focus, and positivity during their bye week.

“I don’t want to sound pie-in-the-sky, but I think it’s great,” Riley said of NU’s spirits this week. “I think the work for two days has been good. I have (thought) and won’t change my mind about this group of young men, I like them a lot and they work hard. I think their intentions are to practice hard and get better for the next game.”

As bad as things have gotten in back-to-back blowout home losses to Wisconsin and Ohio State, Riley said he and his staff are still pushing lofty goals for the Huskers to close out the year.

Among those includes still fighting for a Big Ten West Division championship.

“Frankly, yes, because I think the kids have to see what might be out there, and we don’t know,” Riley said. “We don’t know. Things happen. Some of them are out of our control, the other parts are in our control. Going to a bowl game is in our control. Finishing at least second in the West is in our control. Finishing first is not, but things happen.”

Riley said before any talk of a late push up the division standings, Nebraska knows it’s top priority has to be getting back on track next week at Purdue.

“It has to start with that,” Riley said. “It has to go there. But I think at this point in our situation, that we have to give them something that they can say, ‘That’s right.’ Give them something to be motivated by.

“Motivation comes in all different packages for people. I’ve got 128 guys, and there might be 128 different buttons, but whatever it is that turns you on, let’s push it. Let’s go.”

- Robin Washut

Over the last two games wide receiver JD Spielman has really blossomed in this Husker offense. Spielman has been targeted 27 times in losses against Ohio State and Wisconsin, while during that same period Stanley Morgan Jr. has just 12 targets, and De’Mornay Pierson-El has 8.

It’s a number that really jumps out on paper, and one that Riley said on Wednesday probably needs to balance out a little better going forward for this offense to have success.

“I’d like those two players to be balanced out in particular,” Riley said when comparing Spielman and Morgan’s targets. “And then how it fits with everybody else, you’ve seen bits and pieces of how it should look like.

"Our flankers – De’Mornay (Pierson-El) and Tyjon (Lindsey) have caught some balls, not necessarily the type of balls I envisioned early. Tight ends have been ok, but we’d like to up that a little bit.

“If we had good balance between somebody on the split end side of the field and somebody on the strong side of the field where JD (Spielman) is that would be good, and probably targeting them in that number kind of even would be good.”

- Sean Callahan

Originally Nebraska was only going to recruit on Friday over the bye week, but on Wednesday Riley said the plan now is to have some coaches out that will go into schools multiple days.

“We are going to have some coaches going out (Wednesday) night,” Riley said. “We are probably going to have one practice that will probably be run by half of our full-time coaches tomorrow, and it will be good. I thought we would benefit having one more day in high schools, I got kind of lobbied on that, and it was a good idea.”

Riley said it was corners coach Donte Williams that convinced him they needed to be out more than one day.

“Donte said it would help him with what he was trying to do to have one more day in the schools,” Riley said. “If they couldn’t go out until Thursday they could really only get out to some school Friday and some game Friday night, and maybe nobody is even playing Saturday, so that really limits them to one day. I think he’s got a good point.”

Riley will also go out to two different games – one locally and one out of town over the weekend.

- Sean Callahan

***Riley said they are “closer to some resolution” on a potential medical redshirt for running back Tre Bryant. He said he’ll probably have more information on Monday, but hinted that it would ultimately be up to Bryant. “That’s a good question for him,” Riley said.

***Riley said his biggest takeaways from watching the film of the Ohio State loss was the overall lack of execution by his team on both sides of the ball.

Riley said he wasn’t disappointed the in the defensive game plan, but was about the number of times players were just in the wrong place and not even in position to execute their assignments.

On offense, he once again said Nebraska’s inability to maintain any sort of consistency. He said the offense has shown signs of what it’s capable of at times all season, but it just hasn't been able to maintain that level of production on a consistent basis.

***Riley said there have been no discussions about him taking over the team’s play-calling duties, but there have been talks about what NU can do to “score more points”. That, of course, starts with better consistency, but Riley said the Huskers had to be better at finishing drives with touchdowns.

***The improvement of quarterback Tanner Lee since the second half of the Rutgers game has been a credit both to improved pass protection - Lee has only been sacked two times since then - and Lee just getting more comfortable in his role. Riley said what you’ve seen from Lee since that point is what you should expect to see from here on out.

***Riley said he hopes to get freshman running back Jaylin Bradley more involved in the offense over the next five games. He wasn’t sure how they were going to do that, but he wants Bradley to have a bigger role.