It only took a few minutes into Dave Rimington’s official introduction as Nebraska’s new interim athletic director for him to put any speculation about him possibly being the next full-time hire to bed.

Asked straight up if he was a candidate for the permanent A.D. position, Rimington said without hesitation: “No, I’m not.”

“I love this place, and I’ll do anything I can to help,” Rimington said. “I talked with the coaches today, and I’m here for them. I’m not here to fire anybody. I’m just here to calm things down. We’ve got a great university here, and I’m going to do the best I can and do whatever I can to make it better.”

Since he’s only going to be in the position for a period of up to 60 days, Rimington knows there won’t be many major decisions on his plate. Two things he’d like to help with while he’s at Nebraska would be to continue to improve the football team’s walk-on program and rebuilding the relationships with former players.

“If I can do something to improve those two conditions here, I think I’d be pretty satisfied in the short time I’m going to be here,” Rimington said.

Chancellor Ronnie D. Green said Rimington was the very first person he thought of for the interim athletic director position, and the hiring was almost exclusively Green’s idea.

It seems that everyone is on the same page with what Rimington’s role will be during his brief stint, which makes this about as seamless of a transition as Nebraska could have hoped for.

Green said he could have chosen from a number of candidates currently serving in senior leadership positions within the athletic department for the interim A.D. job, but thought he would be a “missed opportunity” not to bring in someone outside the university who could provide new ideas and perspectives.

Now, the attention goes fully towards finding a permanent athletic director.

Green said they have been working since the middle of last week towards “framing the search” for a new A.D., and they soon plan to announce their partnership with “a highly-recognized search firm” to aid them in the process.

Nebraska will also utilize a search committee that will work directly with Green, which he said will include university leadership, former athletes, and current athletic staff and leadership.

On top of that, there will be an advisory group “demographically representing the interests of Husker athletics and the University of Nebraska” that will provide input to the search committee early in the process.

Green said they are committed to finding the “absolute best leader for our program” and Nebraska will be “very confidential” with future developments as the search goes along.

While Rimington quickly shut down the idea that he could be a permanent candidate for Nebraska’s athletic director search, he didn’t rule out the possibility of returning to Lincoln down the road for another position within the athletic department.

“Two years from now I’m going to retire from the Boomer Esiason Foundation when I turn 60 and come back here to Nebraska,” Rimington said. “It’d be great to be able to come back.”

Rimington added that he hopes to “have some influence” in the selection of Nebraska’s next permanent A.D., so that could help open a window of opportunity for a potential return in an athletic administrative role.