Highlights from Nebraska AD Troy Dannen’s introduction

Nebraska formally introduced Troy Dannen as its new athletic director in a grand event Tuesday at Memorial Stadium.

It’s the latest in a hectic start to the job for Dannen. Since he was hired last Wednesday, the AD has already supported both Nebraska basketball teams in the NCAA Tournament in Memphis, Tennessee, and Corvallis, Oregon.

He also gave a speech to the Husker football team on the lawn of the State Capitol and watched Nebraska softball and baseball games last weekend in Lincoln.

On Tuesday, he donned a red tie and a Nebraska pin, and spoke for 16 minutes at the main podium, and then fielded questions from the media. Below is a quick-hitting recap of the highlights.

* Nebraska interim president Chris Kabourek revealed he and Dannen reached an agreement at 4 a.m. Wednesday. Dannen later confirmed it was 3:51 a.m.

* Nebraska Board of Regents Chairman Rob Schafer of Beatrice on if the Board trusted Kabourek, in an interim role, to make the hire of Dannen: “Astoundingly, 100 percent yes.”

* Dannen calls this past week the best of his professional life. The Nebraska job is an “opportunity of a lifetime,” he said. 

* Dannen says his key mentor is Bob Bowlsby, longtime AD and former Big 12 commissioner. He called Bowlsby about the Nebraska job, and Bowlsby told him to take it.

* Dannen said he called Tom Osborne early in the process in hopes of learning the history and culture of Nebraska Athletics. 

* Dannen: “I can promise you this: Nebraska will lead, not follow.”

* Dannen has done his homework. He made a reference to Bob Devaney hiring Boyd Epley in 1969.

* Dannen on name, image, likeness: “You’re going to see me wearing 1890 stuff as much as Nebraska stuff” because recruitment and retention are “important.”

* Dannen’s closing line: “We will recruit, we will retain and we will send everyone out a winner because that is what Nebraska is. This is the greatest time at the greatest of places. I am thrilled, my family is thrilled. It’s an honor to be here.

* Dannen will “embrace” the 1890 collective because that is what is prevalent in college athletics “today.”

* Dannen says part of the reason he took the job was to work with football coach Matt Rhule. 

“Put that guy in this gold mine and great things are going to happen.”

* Dannen says he and Rhule will be “attached to the hip” for a while because he wants to know what the football coach needs to succeed. Made a snowplow analogy, too! 

* Dannen says he doesn’t know a lot about the Memorial Stadium renovation project. He says he has meetings later this week to get up to speed. If it helps Nebraska win, he says, he’s up for it.

* Dannen: “I could have stayed at the University of Washington forever — if Nebraska had not called.”

* The AD also says he made a “financial commitment to Nebraska” in terms of the buyout in his contract. 

“I asked that my buyout be different because I wanted my buyout to be every dollar that was left in the contract. That doesn’t happen,” Dannen said.

* Dannen on the Big Ten: “I think the world is going to revolve around the Big Ten and the SEC. I think we saw that with the CFP revenue distribution model that came out.”