Nebraska fans are having a field day right now at Wisconsin's expense. With Wisconsin athletics closing in on a new athletic director, and it looks to be Shawn Eichorst, Cornhusker fans are loving it. He was once the AD at Nebraska, and he ended up being miserable enough at the job that he was fired. Nebraska fans are laughing and bringing out all the greatest mishandlings of Eichorst's tenure. It's a mess online right now.
I reached out to FanSided's Nebraska insider, Oliver Vandervoort, to ask about Eichorst, and his immediate reply was "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA." So that might be a little telling. He then was able to give some intel about Eichorst's time in Nebraska and why it went so poorly.
Oh and there's this other insider that posted this online:
Don’t know if I’ve ever heard a more apt description of somebody than when Shawn Eichorst was once described to me as having “the social skills of an earthworm.” https://t.co/IiYPMY4ycp
— Jacob Bigelow (@JacobABigelow) June 30, 2026
Shawn Eichorst as the Wisconsin AD is making Nebraska fans happy and that's not a good thing
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Vandervoort explained why Nebraska fans are laughing, "He was the standard-bearer for everything wrong with Nebraska athletics in that era. People were shocked when he was hired because they didn't think he was ready to be an AD at a major university, and then he proved them right." After only two years at Miami, Vandervoort said that Eichorst was simply too green to be any good and that all the Nebraska fans who were worried about his inexperience were proven right.
Eichorst hired Bo Pelini and Mike Riley and then forced Riley to hire a new defensive coordinator, Bob Diaco, who was terrible. The claims of Diaco are wild, especially if true: "That Eichorst had 'mandated' a way for Nebraska players to tackle that made them bad at it." Vandervoort explained that this is just part of the reason Eichorst failed miserably at Nebraska.
You wouldn't get that gist from the Nebraska staff profile page of Eichorst. It's a glowing review of his time as the AD for the Cornhuskers. Granted, he was also fired and had to move on. He truly may have been too green. However, it does seem like Wisconsin is chasing down two major things in Eichorst: the fact that he's from Wisconsin and part of the Barry Alvarez tree. This is a major play in how Wisconsin typically hires in the athletic department, and it's happening again.
The second reason seems to be his experience after Nebraska. His time at Texas as the chief operating officer for the athletic department is a big win for the Badgers. He's doing everything that it seems McIntosh was terrible at. This could be a bit of a pendulum swing.
Hopefully, he used up all his green and inexperience at Nebraska, he's learned a ton since, and he comes in ready to rejuvenate the Wisconsin athletics department. However, for now, Badger fans are going to have to listen to the laughing of Nebraska fans. Hiring a failed Nebraska administrator to clean up and propel a Wisconsin athletic department forward isn't great for optics. Yet, Eichorst can silence all the doubters pretty quickly if he shows he's learned from Nebraska and uses his Texas experience to get Wisconsin right.
For now, Wisconsin fans may feel a bit deflated or even mixed about the potential hire. Especially, listening to laughter in the rearview mirror.
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