Nebraska hires Washington’s Troy Dannen to lead Husker athletics

After all of six months at Washington, Husky AD Troy Dannen is leaving Seattle for the job at NU, ESPN reported Wednesday morning. Dannen took the UW job in October when the Huskies’ outgoing AD, Jennifer Cohen, left for USC.

“Joining the Nebraska family is truly an honor,” Dannen said in a statement. He’ll be introduced next week at a press conference. “My family and I are humbled by the opportunity to be part of such a proud athletics program, institution, community and state. Growing up in Iowa, I watched a lot of Nebraska football on Saturdays with my family. I’ve spent a lot of time in the state and I’ve found that we share a similar approach to life, work and sports: Work hard, stay humble, compete and expect to win.

“There is a storied tradition at Nebraska, but more work to be done. I truly believe our best years are ahead of us.

NU interim president Chris Kabourek, who promised and made good on a quick search process, called Dannen a “perfect fit” for the Husker role.

“Troy sees the vision and momentum we have here at Nebraska, from our bold investments in facilities to our record success in the classroom to our bold plan to elevate our national reputation and competitiveness, and he is excited to be a part of it,” Kabourek said in a statement. “I am thrilled that we’ve found someone who is 100% aligned with our high expectations and will be all-in on Nebraska.”

Dannen’s direct report at the University of Nebraska is likely to be Jeffrey Gold, the University of Nebraska Medical Center chancellor named on Wednesday as a priority candidate for the job. Uncertainty around the presidential search played a contributing role in Alberts’ departure to A&M.

Previously, Dannen had been the athletic director at Tulane (2015-2023) and Northern Iowa (2008-2015). He also graduated from UNI, where he worked as a student in the sports information department. A move to Nebraska would be a move closer to home for him and his family.

Washington starts competition in the Big Ten next season. The Huskies will be looking to a replace an AD they just begun to know, one who just hired Jeff Fisch to coach UW’s football team after the previous coach, Kalen DeBoer, departed for Alabama.

Nebraska’s move for a new athletic director comes one day after announcing a five-year, guaranteed contract extension for men’s basketball coach Fred Hoiberg, who will make more than $26 million over the life of his new deal.

And Dannen’s arrival proves accurate from Kabourek that NU would move quickly to replace Alberts, who stunned the state, his staff and Husker coaches by leaving his alma mater just two-and-a-half years on the job – just four months after a lucrative, eight-year contract extension.

Dannen’s move is its own shock. He just hired Fisch and was in the process of hiring a new men’s basketball coach. Such decisions tend to buy an AD some security as key hires get a chance to implement their system and strive for success.

But Washington’s inability to retain DeBoer — who led UW to the College Football Playoff national title game — may have provided some pause for the job. According to Dannen, the Huskies tried — and failed — to sew up DeBoer in the months before Nick Saban retired at Alabama and DeBoer quickly took the job there.

Dannen started at Washington on Oct. 9. The next day, according to a Seattle Times story, Dannen began working on an extension for DeBoer, who won 11 games in 2022 at UW.

“We put numbers in front of him that were, quite frankly, unprecedented for this university,” Dannen said in January, according to the Times. “We put a Big Ten package in front of Kalen.”

The initial offer, Dannen said in his speech, was $8.7 million per year for DeBoer. After a Sugar Bowl win over Texas in the CFP semifinal, it was $9.4 million — a more lucrative contract than Nebraska has for Rhule.

DeBoer went to Alabama. Dannen hired Fisch. Now, Dannen is headed to Nebraska.

He’s a football guy — Dannen has been chair of the NCAA football competition committee for the last four years and currently serves on the executive committee of the NCAA Football Oversight Committee. At Tulane, he hired Willie Fritz, who across eight years won 54 games for the Green Wave. Fritz’s last two teams, in 2022 and 2023, finished 12-2 and 11-2. Fritz parlayed that success into the Houston job.

Dannen started his A.D. career at Northern Iowa in 2008; his time overseeing UNI coincided with former Nebraska coach Scott Frost’s last year as an UNI assistant. In 2009, with Northern Iowa’s athletic department facing budget cuts, the school eliminated the baseball program.

Prior to Northern Iowa, Dannen worked 19 years for the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union in Des Moines. During Dannen’s tenure in that role, Iowa high school girls basketball switched from 6-on-6 basketball played in half-court settings to a five-player, full-court game — a historic change in the history of the sport in Iowa.