Nebraska has fired head football coach Mike Riley, athletic director Bill Moos announced on Saturday.
The Cornhuskers ended their season with a 4-8 record, the worst in program history, following a 56-14 loss to Iowa on Friday, which included allowing 42 unanswered points.
Nebraska currently faces a four-game losing streak and has lost six of its last seven games after starting the 2017 season with a 3-2 record.
Following Friday's loss, Riley told reporters he wasn't given "any indication" about his job status, but planned on returning to the team the following season.
"I'm going to, I'm going to anticipate [being the coach next season], and when I go to bed tonight I'm going to hope for that because I would love to do this. I truly believe I'm exactly the right person to do this. The football parts, I've been doing this so long we know how to fix, and we also are doing a good job recruiting. Those two things are going to be the key to Nebraska getting back to where everybody wants to go. The football has to grow, and the recruiting has to continue to be high level to get really back there."
Riley, 64, signed a one-year contract extension in September that would have kept him employed through 2020 and was scheduled to make $2.9 million annually, which ranked 41st among FBS coaches, according to USA Today.
He finished his career at Nebraska with a 19-19 (12-14) record after going 93-80 (58-63) during 14 seasons at Oregon State.
Moos is expected to meet with media members at 1 p.m. on Saturday to discuss Riley's termination, according to Brian Rosenthal of Huskers.com.
Sports Illustrated's Bruce Feldman linked several coaches to the Nebraska position prior to Riley's termination included former quarterback and UCF head coach Scott Frost, Mississippi State's Dan Mullen, Texas A&M's Kevin Sumlin, former Arkansas coach Bret Bielema and Washington State's Mike Leach.
