Troy Dannen in His Own Words

From Dave Feit, a collection of quotes from Nebraska's new athletic director that shed light on who he is, what his vision is for the program and how he plans to achieve it

Troy Dannen speaks during his public introduction March 26 as Nebraska's new athletic director. / Kenny Larabee, KLIN

During Troy Dannen's two introductory events - a welcome ceremony with his family and Nebraska dignitaries, and a press conference with the media - Nebraska's new athletic director said many noteworthy things.

But these quotes caught my attention, gave insight to who Dannen is, and what his tenure at NU will look like:

"If Nebraska calls, you have to take the job."

One of the first stories Dannen told was about one of his employees at Tulane discussing a job offer with him. Dannen's advice was simple: "If Nebraska calls, you have to take the job." The recipient of that advice - Tyler Kai - listened, and is currently the Associate AD of Leadership Gifts & Capital Projects at Nebraska.

Some people may have concerns over Dannen's six-month tenure as Washington's AD prior. But when Interim NU President Chris Kabourek called, Dannen followed his own advice and took the job.

"Nothing beats a high give-a-darn factor."

There are many reasons why the Nebraska job was interesting to Dannen. But one of the biggest was the unmistakable passion within the department and, especially within the fan base.

Dannen referred to this as the "give-a-darn" factor. Nebraska shows an undeniably high amount of give-a-darn in multiple sports. That passion can be trouble when it is not all pointed in the same direction, but as Dannen said later, "it sure beats them not caring."

Dannen has already gotten to see Nebraska's give-a-darn factor on display. The Big Red takeover of Memphis for Nebrasketball's first round NCAA tournament game should tell him everything he needs to know about Nebraska's passion and desire for winning teams.

"Page one, paragraph one of the 'How to Be an Athletic Director Handbook' is 'Do no harm'."

Dannen said this as part of a statement on how he wants to "understand the culture; how we got here".

Part of that is gaining an understanding for Nebraska's history and speaking with those who played a role in shaping it. Dannen said he wants to sit down with Tom Osborne as soon as his schedule allows.

But the other part of it is not screwing up the situation he inherited.

Think of NU’s most popular sports (football, volleyball, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball, softball, soccer, and wrestling). Nebraska is either strong or trending up in every single one. Give credit to the stable of excellent coaches at NU (and to Dannen's predecessor who hired or retained them). But Dannen’s charge is simple: Do no harm. Don’t disrupt the momentum.

For the first time since Bill Byrne, the new NU AD won't be expected to fire a football coach within his first year. And there have been a lot of new ADs since Byrne left 21 years ago. I'm of the opinion that we'll look very fondly upon Dannen's tenure if he never has to make a major hire*.

*With one exception that we'll talk about later…

"(Nebraska) will lead. We'll look around corners. We will embrace whatever's there - even if we don't like it."

I love this quote. One of the things that I really liked about Trev Alberts's tenure was his ability to operate with vision and foresight. Being able to see what was coming - and plan for it - was one of Trev's biggest strengths.

As the college sports landscape continues to evolve at a lightning pace, being able to see three or four steps ahead will be crucial to improving Nebraska - and ensuring NU continues to have a seat at the table. We'll see what Dannen does, but I'm encouraged that he wants to operate as a forward-thinking leader.

"If you think the last five years in college athletics have been wild, the next five years are going to put it to shame."

A quick - and very incomplete list* - from the last five years: the COVID-19 pandemic and COVID year eligibility, major shifts in the membership of the Big Ten, SEC, Big XII, and other leagues, the end of the Pac-12, college football playoff expansion, the explosion of NIL and collectives, the court ruling that now allows players to transfer freely after every season, exponential growth in women's sports, and the Big Ten signing a billion-dollar TV rights deal.

*I can't wait to see which seismic shift events I omitted from this 30-second blitz.

While nobody can predict what the future will hold, the smart money - and recent history - suggests more chaos and upheaval. Having a leader with a strategic vision, and a seat in the room where it happens, will be critical. Dannen does not strike me as a guy who's going to sit in the corner and await his fate.

 "Success is about our collective. You're going to see me wearing 1890 stuff as much as I wear Nebraska stuff."

Of all of the things Dannen said, this is the one that drew the biggest reaction from me. While I think there is hyperbole in that statement - I don't actually expect him to alternate between Husker quarter zips and 1890 polo shirts - it helped drive his point home.

Dannen understands how the game is currently played in college athletics. We don't have to like the idea of players getting de facto signing bonuses under the guise of "name, image, and likeness". We don't have to like the middle men that collect and distribute the money. But we damn sure better understand how that money brings talented players in and (hopefully) keeps them around. At Nebraska, for better or for worse, that is the 1890 Initiative*.

*As recently as December 2023 I was hearing whispers of a new collective coming online to serve as an alternative to 1890. If that group is still in the forming stages, their road became a lot harder this week.

We all saw that - for whatever reason(s) - Trev kept 1890 at arm's distance. Don't buy the revisionist narratives that Trev had no relationship with the collective, but I do think Trev wanted to maintain a clear separation between NU and 1890.

Later in the press conference, Dannen said "Today, it's NIL. Tomorrow, it's going to be something different, and we will pivot and evolve into that." He understands that someday student-athletes will be a "line item in the budget", but until then he cannot "avoid the reality". Doing so would be malpractice.

Dannen does not seem as concerned with maintaining a line in the sand between the AD's office and the people writing the checks. Maybe that's because, as an outsider, Dannen doesn't have the institutional knowledge and/or biases about the folks who run and finance 1890 as Alberts did. Or maybe Dannen understands that Nebraska's best chance to win is by having an NIL collective / running at full throttle.

Dannen clearly wants to win.

"Recruitment and retention of our student athletes (is) number one."

I expect "recruitment and retention" to be one of his core mantras. Dannen's predecessors recruited good coaches. His job is to retain them.

In addition, every one of Nebraska's varsity sports needs to recruit excellent student athletes to compete for championships. With the transfer portal and NIL essentially creating annual free agency for the entire roster, retention is a huge challenge.

Obviously, NIL - and, by default, the 1890 Initiative - will play a key role in both recruitment and retention. But know that "R & R" can be about more than just the number of zeroes on their NIL deal. The entire student athlete experience - training facilities, academics, coaching, and more factor in.

"Nebraska Cornhusker athletics will be the standard by which everyone else will measure themselves."

He said this will be an "unyielding" expectation for the entire department, from coaches to ticket takers.

I'll be curious to see how this line ages in a year or two. Is this the standard introductory press conference confidence and grand expectations (i.e., "we want to be the best")? It wouldn’t be the first – or last – time that’s happened.

Or does he truly want to have - as he used in his example - the best ticket taking operation in the Big Ten? Because while that is a great goal (I hate standing in lines to get into games), it involves getting into the weeds of obstacles and being courageous enough to try - and fail - in the pursuit of excellence.

 "My job is to be out in front, plowing thing out of the way, so they can run uninterrupted behind me."

As an unabashed fan of a good analogy, I appreciate Dannen painting a picture with his words. Can’t you see Dannen sitting behind the wheel of a giant snowplow clearing the road for Matt Rhule (and other coaches) to maximize their potential? In my mind, it looks like .

Bad bosses add obstacles. The best ones foster a culture where employees feel empowered to bring those obstacles forward, and work to remove them.

 "Does it help us win?"

Dannen said this is as part of his response to a question about the Memorial Stadium renovation project. He said that did not know the full details of the project and did not yet have any additional thoughts on the future of the project.

But "does it help us win?" tells me everything I need to know about Trev's $450 million modernization plan. It's not going to happen*. Especially if the money has to come from donors who are also being asked to support recruiting and retention via the collective.

*We should - and at a later date, will - have a discussion about how improvements to the 100-year-old stadium would, directly or otherwise, help Nebraska athletics win.

I'm not saying we should move forward with Trev's original vision. But if we all acknowledge that a good home field advantage can be worth 3-7 points, some targeted improvements could go a long way.

But that's a discussion for another day.

Dannen said that he wants every dollar of athletic department expenditure measured through a lens of academic, social, and on-field impact.

 "Standing up for and representing the institution and it's student athletes is something you will never have to question."

Dannen said that he will be an advocate for student athletes, coaches, teams, and the University at every opportunity.

Dannen talked about knowing the proper channels to get things done. He set the important expectation to understand that his advocacy may not always happen in the public eye.

For example, Dannen said that he can't wait to ask his boss (the NU system president) to call Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petiiti to question an official's call in a game or match. Given the state of officiating in the conference, I expect that to happen sooner rather than later. But I don't expect Dannen to tweet about a blown call, or give the World-Herald a list of calls he questioned.

Nebraska won't get their way on every issue. That's just not realistic in a (soon-to-be) 18-team conference. Especially one where Nebraska is not bringing in multiple championships. But that doesn't mean Dannen won't be in there fighting the good fight.

"I can get emotional, but I don't make emotionally based decisions."

He understands that "data sells" when trying to convince his peers of a change he is championing. Dannen said that he doesn't want to make decisions on things that can impact student athlete health and welfare without seeing research and data.

I love this. I don't need my AD overreacting to a single loss, getting caught up in message board mob mentality, or trying to bully his way to a consensus in the B1G board room. Dannen appears to be a skilled communicator, which should serve him well.

"There isn't a sport here that can't be Nebraska volleyball."

Let's say Dannen's vision for the department (striving to the best at everything, removing obstacles from his head coaches, and a healthy NIL operation fueling player recruiting and retention) comes to fruition. If so, more sports could achieve the very high standard set by John Cook's program, which is easily the best in Nebraska.

It's a very lofty goal. We could list off all of the "why it won't happen" reasons, but the majority of those reasons - at one point in time - also applied to Nebraska Volleyball. Cook - and Terry Pettit before him - worked tirelessly to lay out, achieve, and maintain their vision.

Above, I said that we'll look very fondly upon Dannen's tenure if he never has to make a major hire. Without knowing how much longer Cook plans to coach, there's a chance that Dannen's first hire at NU will be the person to replace the "John Wooden of volleyball".

No pressure.