‘A perfect fit’: Nebraska hires Washington’s Troy Dannen as new athletic director

Nolan Dorn,

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – Troy Dannen is Nebraska’s next athletic director, university officials announced Wednesday.

Dannen, the athletic director at Washington, will become Nebraska’s fourth athletic director in the last 10 years.  He assumes his new role on Friday.

This comes a week after Trev Alberts announced that he would take the athletic director job at Texas A&M.


Interim Nebraska President Chris Kabourek said Dannen is “a perfect fit” for the Huskers.

“He is a fierce competitor, he holds himself and his programs to uncommonly high standards, and he cares personally about the success of student-athletes in sports, school and life,” Kabourek said in a press release.  “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.”

Dannen was hired at Washington in October.  During his five-month tenure there, he replaced football coach Kalen DeBoer with Jedd Fisch and fired basketball coach Mike Hopkins.

Dannen is also in his fourth year as chair of the NCAA Football Competition Committee and as an executive member of the Football Oversight Committee.

Before Washington, Dannen had served as Tulane’s athletic director since 2015, leading the Green Waves to 49 All-American honors, 21 conference championships and 41 postseason appearances.

He also spent eight years as the athletic director at his alma mater, the University of Northern Iowa.

Dannen grew up on a farm near Marshalltown, Iowa, and said he remembers watching Nebraska football with his 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,” he said in a statement.

Dannen said there is a “storied” tradition at Nebraska but thinks the best years are still to come.

“I look forward to doing my part to helping Nebraska win championships across the board, graduate our student-athletes and elevate the world-class reputation of the University of Nebraska,” he said in the statement.  “I can’t wait to arrive in Nebraska and get to work.”

Nebraska football coach Matt Rhule called Dannen “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,” Rhule said in the press release.  “The fact that someone of Troy’s caliber wants to join Team Nebraska will light a fire across our entire department.”

Alberts congratulated Dannen in a post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

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