Quick NU hires give Husker fans their Huskers back
Were they too quick on the heels of Alberts' abrupt departure? Time will tell. For now, the focus is back where it belongs.
March 20 has the potential to be a momentous day in the history of the University of Nebraska. We won’t know for a few years, but it’s not every day a college announces two essential leadership hires—president and athletic director—within about an hour.
Credit to those that made it happen. A week ago, in the wake of Trev Alberts’ sudden departure, plenty of people were left to wonder about the state of the university. Why would a seemingly all-in alum jump for another job that seemed about the same as the one he had? I wondered too.
The speed with which leadership made these key hires probably shouldn’t make those questions go away. At least not long-term. The hires will be judged on performance, not curb appeal. It’s good to have questions and seek answers.
But short-term, Wednesday’s news was a gift to Husker fans. Instead of needing to get up every 20 minutes to stir the pot of existential dread that may have been simmering on the back burner, now the Nebraska faithful can simply order pizza and wings and enjoy a Nebrasketball double-feature Friday night. If both teams play well, maybe do it again Sunday while checking in on wrestling throughout the weekend. Then, on Monday, spring football begins, and that’s plenty of time to have broken down all available clips of Dylan Raiola throwing at the Huskers’ pro day.
Everything in moderation, of course, but let’s not forget this is what being a sports fan is for at its most elemental level—a temporary escape from the stuff that actually means stuff in real life.
As someone who decided to chronicle these escapes professionally, I’m not going to pretend to be an expert in the stuff that actually means stuff, but Nebraska announced UNMC Chancellor Dr. Jeffrey Gold as its priority candidate for president in a unanimous vote from the Board of Regents.1 Gold attended high school in Brooklyn,2 studied engineering and medicine at Cornell and spent time at some of the best hospitals in New York and Boston before beginning to work his way up the higher-education ladder with most-recent stops at Toledo and Ohio before entering the Nebraska system in 2014 (full CV here if you’re interested).
You didn’t have to put your ear too close to the ground to hear rumblings that Gold was Alberts’ preferred pick for president. The two worked together at Nebraska-Omaha, where Gold was Chancellor from 2017 to 2021, and it stands to reason that having a president with broad appeal, a long list of accolades and diverse expertise and interests—just in Omaha, Gold sat on the boards of the Chamber of Commerce and the Symphony—only makes an AD’s job easier.
Make of it what you will that Gold was named priority candidate seven days after Alberts’ departure for Texas A&M. And, if you make something of it, tell me as I’m still not sure what to make of it.
Scooping the president news Wednesday morning were reports and then an official announcement that Nebraska had selected former Washington AD Troy Dannen to fill the vacancy atop its athletic department. He might more accurately be referred to as the former Tulane and Northern Iowa AD given his stint in Seattle lasted just six months before the Huskers came calling.
Still, it’s not as if Dannen just got to put his feet up and enjoy the Huskies’ ride to the national championship under Kalen DeBoer. After Alabama decided DeBoer would fill Nick Saban’s shoes, Dannen went out and got Jedd Fisch. Before that he hired Willie Fritz at Tulane, producing one of the best runs in the program’s 130-year history, including a Sugar Bowl win over USC in 2022. In 2014, Dannen was named FCS AD of the Year after the Northern Illinois football and men’s basketball teams advanced to the second rounds of their respective postseason tournaments.3
ADs are judged by more than what happens in football—though that’s a big slice of the evaluation pie at any power school—but Dannen has seen football success at each of his stops and he’s been tapped to serve on some high-profile NCAA committees over the course of his career. His football credentials look pretty good.
Dannen arrives in Lincoln with most of the major sports on relatively stable competitive footing. Amy Williams and Fred Hoiberg received contract extensions this week. Volleyball and wrestling hum along. We’ll see how softball and baseball finish the spring, but Dannen has maybe the biggest leg up an AD can here—the football coach isn’t in any imminent danger.
“I’m so fired up about this hire,” Matt Rhule said in the university’s release. “Interim President [Chris] Kabourek has found exactly the right person to lead the Huskers forward. Troy sees what we see––that Nebraska is a special place, with special people, a great vision and the courage to be unabashed about wanting to win across the board.”
Outside the lines, the biggest and most immediate item on Dannen’s agenda will be the planned improvements to Memorial Stadium. He’s expected to meet the media early next week.
“There is a storied tradition at Nebraska, but more work to be done,” Dannen said in his statement. “I truly believe our best years are ahead of us. I couldn’t be more grateful to Interim President Chris Kabourek for this opportunity. Chris has championed an inspiring vision for excellence across the University of Nebraska and he and I are completely aligned on where Nebraska needs to go in the future.”
Kabourek, in his statement, made it “vision” bingo.
We’ve heard that word a lot in the past week, from those going out the door, at the door and coming in. We heard it more than you want for mid-March, and we won’t know for a while if any of it is anything more than the sort of thing you put in a prepared statement.
But both Gold and Dannen were fitting hires for a school of Nebraska’s stature. It’s OK to feel excited about that. It’s OK to wonder about the timing.
It’s definitely OK to just feel a bit of relief that the games can be the only concern in the days ahead, even if that feeling is temporary.
There’s a 30-day period for public vetting for this position, at which point Gold is expected to be confirmed as the next president.
Hey, Matt Rhule knows about growing up in NYC!
While not the most important résumé item, it might be the most entertaining: Dannen, from Marshalltown, Iowa, refereed Fred Hoiberg in high school.