Nebraska announced the hiring of athletic director Bill Moos, who vowed to return the Cornhuskers to a position of "the hunted" in college football.

Moos, 66, comes from Washington State, where he has led the athletic department since 2010 after serving in the same role at Oregon from 1995 to 2007. He agreed to a five-year contract at Nebraska that will pay him $1 million annually, plus incentives.

He will start in Lincoln on Oct. 23.

Moos replaces Shawn Eichorst, fired on Sept. 21 because of the poor on-field performance of several Nebraska programs, primarily the football team. Nebraska, which won more games than any program nationally and five national titles in the 1970s, '80s and '90s, has not claimed a conference title since 1999.

Third-year coach Mike Riley is 18-15 at Nebraska and 3-4 this season after consecutive home losses -- including a 56-14 defeat to Ohio State on Saturday night, a game that emptied half of Memorial Stadium at halftime.

"Dee and I had a chance to meet briefly with Bill and Kendra this afternoon and it was great to reconnect," Riley said via statement. "I've known Bill for a number of years from our time in the Pac-10 and Pac-12. I have great respect for the job he did at both Oregon and Washington State, and the success he built at those schools. I look forward to working with him in the near future and to talk about our vision for the Nebraska football program."

The Huskers have sold out an NCAA-record 359 consecutive home games.

"We need to get back into that position where everybody's putting Nebraska [in red] and circling it on the schedule," Moos said at an introductory news conference Sunday. "I believe that's the Huskers' rightful place, and we're going to see what we can do to get back there."

Moos described Nebraska as "a storied place" and said he grew up as an admirer of the Oklahoma-Nebraska rivalry.

"There's no substitute for tradition and legacy," Moos said, "and Nebraska certainly has that."

The school deserves mention "in that same breath," with the top three to five athletic programs nationally, Moos said.

Moos said he's familiar from their time together in the Pac-12 with Riley, who coached at Oregon State for 14 season before arriving at Nebraska in 2014. The new AD said he looks forward to visiting soon with the embattled coach.

"As we speak right now, he's my football coach," Moos said. "I'm going to support him and certainly hope for some victories here toward the latter part of the season."

Speculation about a coaching change has already started at Nebraska. The appointment of Moos figures to spark discussion about Mike Leach, whom Moos hired at Washington State in 2011.

Moos described Leach on Sunday as "a brilliant individual."

Nebraska chancellor Ronnie Green said he consulted a group of more than 20 current and former student-athletes, administrators and supporters in addition to all of the school's head coaches in the 24-day search for an athletic director.

Moos emerged as the top candidate, Green said, despite his lack of connections to Nebraska. Moos was raised in Washington and has worked his entire career in Montana, Oregon and in his home state.

"I would emphasize, knowing Nebraska, fit is extremely important," Green said, "even more so perhaps than in a lot of other places. When we met Bill Moos and we talked to him, it was so apparent that the fit was right.

"When you meet Bill and [his wife] Kendra ... it's almost like they're Nebraskans who have lived somewhere else for all of their life -- and now they're coming home. And I mean that very sincerely."