On Monday, Matt Rhule got on the pulpit and stumped for the type of candidate he wanted as the next Nebraska athletics director after Trev Alberts’s stunning departure for Texas A&M.
For both of their sakes, here’s hoping Rhule had Washington AD Troy Dannen
in mind.
ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported Wednesday that Dannen is set to leave Seattle to take the top chair in Nebraska’s athletics department on what is expected to be a six-year contract.
Dannen took the Washington job in October. He was Tulane’s AD from 2015-23, and Northern Iowa’s AD from 2008-15. “I’m not moving again. This is my third job. This is going to be my last job,” Dannen said at his introductory press conference five months ago.
From a football perspective, Dannen’s brief Washington tenure was marked by the unsuccessful pursuit to sign Kalen DeBoer to a contract extension, and then the hiring of Arizona’s Jedd Fisch as his replacement. At Nebraska, no football hire is on the horizon.
“The issues everyone thinks are out there, I don’t think they’re out there,” Rhule said Monday.
“I think we’re just on the precipice of a really, really important time to get the right leadership in here, who’s not worried about making tough decisions, who’s not worried about making tough decisions, who’s not worried about, ‘Man, what are people going to say if we hire a few more people?’ This is the time.”
