Nebraska has employed Washington athletic director Troy Dannen to the identical place, the college introduced Wednesday. Dannen will formally exchange Cornhuskers legend Trev Alberts, who departed for Texas A&M final week. Dannen’s preliminary deal will cowl six years, in line with ESPN.
“Becoming a member of the Nebraska household is actually an honor,” Dannen stated in an announcement. “My household and I are humbled by the chance to be a part of such a proud athletics program, establishment, neighborhood and state. Rising up in Iowa, I watched lots of Nebraska soccer on Saturdays with my household. I’ve spent lots of time within the state and I’ve discovered that we share an identical lifestyle, work and sports activities: Work onerous, keep humble, compete and count on to win.”
Dannen’s departure leaves Washington scrambling for an athletic director for the second time in lower than a 12 months. In August 2023, the Huskies misplaced former boss Jennifer Cohen to USC, which led to Dannen’s eventual hiring in October.
Although Dannen’s time at Washington was temporary, it was impactful. He was employed in the midst of one in all Washington soccer’s most profitable seasons in program historical past. The Huskies completed the common season 12-0, gained the Pac-12 championship and made all of it the best way to the School Soccer Playoff Nationwide Championship earlier than struggling their first loss by the hands of Michigan.
On the again of that success, and within the wake of legendary coach Nick Saban’s retirement, Washington misplaced coach Kalen DeBoer to Alabama in January. That left Dannen with a training search simply 4 months into his tenure. He labored rapidly to lure Arizona’s Jedd Fisch, with the hiring made official simply 4 days after DeBoer’s departure. Fisch, who led Arizona to a 10-win season in 2023, acquired a seven-year contract that pays him slightly below $8 million yearly.
Now, at the very least, Dannen ought to have a while to ascertain himself at Nebraska earlier than dealing with any main choices. On the gridiron, the Huskers are coming into their second 12 months beneath coach Matt Rhule, who simply missed out on making a bowl in his first 12 months with this system. The lads’s and girls’s basketball packages are each enjoying within the NCAA Match (coincidentally sufficient, towards Texas A&M in each brackets), and the ladies’s volleyball program not too long ago hosted the most-attended girls’s sporting occasion of all time with greater than 92,000 followers inside Memorial Stadium.
If Dannen ever must make a transfer, although, he has a confirmed monitor report of figuring out profitable coaches. Previous to his stint at Washington, Dannen was the athletic director at Tulane from 2015-23 and employed former Inexperienced Wave coach Willie Fritz in 2016. Fritz subsequently took the Inexperienced Wave to 3 AAC Championship Video games, posted a 3-1 report in bowl video games and amassed a 23-4 report during the last two seasons. Fritz parlayed that success into an appointment at Houston this offseason.
