Adam Carriker gives the new AD a thumbs up.
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00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 To the Carriker Chronicles, the people show.
00:10 Checking the pulse of an excited,
00:12 busy Husker Nation, ladies and gentlemen.
00:15 This is my gut reaction to Troy Dannen
00:18 being named the athletic director here
00:20 at the University of Nebraska.
00:23 Now, the family and I are on spring break,
00:25 hence the beautiful background.
00:27 Hey, they say if you love what you do,
00:29 you never work a day in your life.
00:30 So I'm technically still on vacation
00:32 even while I'm doing this, right?
00:33 Okay, so, Troy Dannen.
00:35 All right, first of all, Matt Rule said,
00:37 and I quote, "We took a step forward today," end quote.
00:40 Now, I'm gonna cover a whole bunch of things in this video.
00:42 Admittedly, I had to edumacate myself as quickly
00:45 and as fully as I could on our new AD,
00:48 so I'm gonna do the best I can with that.
00:49 If I'm a bit all over the place, just bear with me.
00:52 Let's have some fun together.
00:54 Also, we pretty much know, for the most part,
00:57 who our next president is going to be here
00:59 at the University of Nebraska.
01:00 We have a priority candidate and president,
01:02 again, gonna be covering a bunch of stuff.
01:04 All right, real quick, smash that like button
01:07 if you're excited that Matt Rule
01:09 not only has positive things to say, of course,
01:11 okay, but he has a history on a professional level
01:14 from his time at Temple, okay,
01:16 with our new athletic director, and Rule does.
01:19 He seems legit excited about our new AD.
01:22 And also, smash that like button if you're excited
01:25 that the leadership here at Nebraska
01:26 has stepped it up.
01:27 Now, real quick, put out a lot of content recently.
01:31 It's been about a week ago, but it kinda got buried
01:33 with the Trev Alberts gut reaction.
01:36 If you missed my quarterback Dylan Raiola show,
01:38 go back and check that out.
01:39 But I literally just put out like 90 minutes ago
01:41 one of my favorite interviews I've ever done.
01:43 If you don't go back and check out anything
01:45 that we've done recently, check out my interview
01:47 with interim AD, Dennis LeBlanc, okay?
01:51 Truly one of my favorite interviews ever.
01:53 Smart, intelligent, articulate, raw, okay, and hilarious.
01:57 He talks about, briefly, Will Compton,
02:00 yours truly as well, but he shares some hilarious stories
02:02 about Tom Osborne, Christian Peter,
02:04 and just a great interview.
02:05 Check that out if you get a chance.
02:08 And obviously, there's gonna be new stuff
02:09 coming up real soon.
02:10 We're gonna have a new president.
02:11 Okay, there's a 30 day vetting period,
02:13 but it's probably gonna be a gut reaction to that.
02:15 Possible gut reactions to men's and women's
02:17 Nebraska basketball games versus Texas A&M
02:19 in the NCAA tournament on Friday.
02:21 If you haven't done so yet, ladies and gentlemen,
02:23 hit the subscribe button so you don't miss
02:25 anything here on the Carriker Chronicles.
02:28 Now, I'm gonna go to some screen grabs that I took.
02:32 Okay, in a span of 60 minutes this morning,
02:35 this is via Mitch Sherman, Nebraska has found
02:37 its president in Jeffrey Gold, if I hadn't said his name yet,
02:41 and its AD in Troy Dannen.
02:43 All right, Nebraska football coach, Matt Rule,
02:45 says he talked with Troy Dannen about the AD job.
02:49 Rule is excited to work with Dannen,
02:50 who wants to get back to his Midwestern roots.
02:53 Okay, the coach said and understands
02:56 the lofty expectations at Nebraska.
02:59 Now, real quick, kinda getting to the president thing
03:02 of this real quick, and we're gonna do a whole
03:04 'nother video on this eventually.
03:06 Okay, the Nebraska Board of Regents picked
03:08 Dr. Jeffrey Gold, Chancellor at UNMC,
03:11 to become the priority candidate of the university system.
03:15 Dr. Gold, okay, let's see, I'm sorry,
03:18 Regent Jim Shearer of Norfolk said,
03:21 "We're not on the moon, so it's not a step for mankind,
03:24 "but it's sure as hell is a step for Nebraska."
03:27 Okay, Regent Rob Schaefer of Beatrice gives a long kudos
03:30 to interim president Chris Kaborik,
03:31 says he's going to be a leader of the university someday,
03:35 and I hope, of a university someday, and I hope it's here.
03:38 Now, the Regents voted eight to zero
03:40 to approve Gold as the priority candidate.
03:43 All right, student Regents vote four to zero,
03:46 but their vote doesn't officially count, just to be clear.
03:49 But the Regents, Schaefer and Tim Clear,
03:51 they did actually leave the room, okay,
03:54 to go make that phone call to Dr. Gold today.
03:57 Gold has accepted, the clock has started
03:59 on a 30-day vetting period.
04:01 There will be more info about public forms posted shortly,
04:06 okay, in the near future, I should say.
04:07 Now, back to the AD.
04:10 Okay, now, I've seen, I did some quick research,
04:12 I learned about him, but I just kinda scanned online.
04:15 Why not, everything you read online is 100% true
04:17 and everyone's unbiased
04:18 and nobody's a keyboard warrior, right?
04:20 Now, I actually do love this account, @cornnation,
04:22 John Johnson does a great job.
04:24 He just posed a question I thought was interesting,
04:26 "Does it bother anyone that this new AD guy
04:28 "was at Washington for only five months?"
04:30 Now, this was a funny response.
04:31 One guy goes, "Make his buyout 800 million
04:33 "and I'll be good with it."
04:34 But some of the other responses,
04:36 Dr. Rob Zadica flat out said no.
04:38 Okay, ruler of Husker Nation on Twitter said,
04:40 "Got two promotions within that time frame
04:43 "and moving close to home,
04:44 "Tulane to Washington to Nebraska."
04:46 Quite the promotions, okay?
04:49 James Stevenson on Twitter,
04:50 no, his whole family and his wife is from Iowa.
04:54 Nebraska is a dream gig for him for that reason, okay?
04:59 Vansity Skur, I hope I said that right on Twitter,
05:01 was also the AD at Tulane for eight years,
05:03 so he has been some place for a pretty long period of time,
05:06 darn near a decade.
05:07 Zach McCloud on Twitter says,
05:09 "No, he wants to be closer to family and home.
05:11 "Loyalty, didn't keep the last guy here,
05:14 "why should we worry about that right now?
05:15 "It's just a different world, ladies and gentlemen."
05:18 Okay, back to what rule had to say on our new AD,
05:22 and I quote, "I'm so fired up about this hire.
05:24 "Interim President Kiborek has found exactly
05:27 "the right person to lead the Huskers forward.
05:29 "Troy sees what we see,
05:31 "that Nebraska is a special place with special people,
05:33 "a great vision and the courage to be unabashed."
05:36 Great word about wanting to win across the board.
05:39 The fact that someone of Troy's caliber
05:40 wants to join Nebraska will light a fire
05:43 across our entire department, let's go, end quote.
05:47 All right, a little bit more from Coach Rule on Troy.
05:51 Quote, and I quote, "I think Troy fits all the criteria
05:53 "that I think we're looking for.
05:54 "He's an accomplished athletic director,
05:56 "he knows the issues facing college football,
05:58 "he's an unbelievable guy.
05:59 "It's no slight to the University of Washington,
06:01 "which is an unbelievable place.
06:02 "My sister's alma mater, not mine,
06:05 "this is Coach Rule talking,
06:06 "but I just know that he wanted to come home.
06:08 "He wanted to be here, I'm fired up,
06:09 "I'm excited to have him.
06:11 "I think the University of Nebraska
06:13 "took a step forward today."
06:16 All right, now, I'll be honest,
06:18 I didn't know hardly anything
06:20 about our new athletic director, okay?
06:23 So I did some research,
06:24 but before we dive into that research,
06:26 and we learn a little bit more together, okay,
06:28 and then I give you some thoughts,
06:29 check out dpsconstruction.net.
06:32 If you're looking at have work done
06:33 in the Omaha metro area, go to dpsconstruction.net.
06:38 If you're looking for a great employer,
06:39 if this is up your alley as far as your line of work,
06:42 again, dpsconstruction@dpsconstruction.net.
06:46 Now, here's some of the recon,
06:47 some of the research I was able to do.
06:50 By the way, my wife didn't want me to wear the sunglasses
06:52 'cause she's recording,
06:53 and she didn't want her beautiful face
06:55 to be seen on camera.
06:56 My wife does a great job behind the scenes.
06:58 All right, "University of Nebraska
06:59 "interim president Chris Kiborek
07:00 "announced today that he has named Troy Dannen
07:02 "a leading voice in college collegiate athletics
07:05 "with extensive experience as an athletic director
07:08 "and a deep ties to the Midwest and Big Ten
07:10 "as Nebraska's next AD effective Friday."
07:13 All right, "Dannen currently serves
07:15 "as director of athletics at the University of Washington,
07:17 "a fellow Big Ten institution.
07:19 "Previously, he was an AD at Tulane,
07:21 "and before that, led athletics at his alma mater,
07:23 "the University of Northern Iowa.
07:25 "Dannen brings Midwestern roots,
07:26 "having grown up on a farm just outside Marshalltown, Iowa."
07:31 Hope I said that right.
07:33 Oh, quite, okay.
07:35 And I quote, "From my first conversation with Dannen,
07:37 "I knew he was a perfect fit for Nebraska."
07:38 End quote, Kiborek said, "He is a fierce competitor.
07:41 "He holds himself and his programs
07:43 "to uncommonly high standards,
07:45 "and he cares personally about the success
07:47 "of student athletes in sports, school, and life.
07:50 "Troy sees the vision and momentum we have here,
07:52 "from our bold investments in facilities,
07:55 "to our success in the classroom,
07:57 "to our bold plan to elevate our national reputation
07:59 "and competitiveness, and he is excited to be a part of it.
08:02 "I am thrilled that we found someone
08:04 "who is 100% aligned with our high expectations
08:07 "and will be all in on Nebraska."
08:09 Now, I've got more info,
08:11 but just a couple of thoughts real quick.
08:12 I think it is important that Matt Rule's on board.
08:15 Now, we gotta get the football program
08:16 going in the right direction,
08:18 but it seems to be going that way,
08:19 and Matt Rule is that guy,
08:20 and he has said that he wants to be here,
08:22 and the AD and the football coach, let's be honest,
08:24 they tend to go hand in hand, okay?
08:26 And so I like, of course he's gonna say positive things,
08:30 but it feels legit, it feels real.
08:32 He had conversations before he was hired,
08:34 and I guarantee Rule was like,
08:36 "Hey man, they got high expectations here.
08:38 "Hey, this is a special place.
08:40 "Like, if you wanna be a part of it,
08:41 "you gotta really want to be a part of it."
08:44 Okay, and it's pretty clear
08:45 that Rule feels good about all of those things.
08:47 So that's something that I genuinely feel good about
08:50 at this very early stage, very early moment.
08:52 I have had some textual exchanges,
08:54 some conversations briefly, briefly with people.
08:57 Okay, it's all been positive so far,
08:59 but I like that it seems that our new athletic director
09:01 understands what Nebraska's about.
09:03 He wants to be here because of family ties.
09:06 Closely, we'll ignore that they're from Iowa, wink wink.
09:08 Close enough, if you will.
09:10 And he seems to be, from what I understand,
09:12 on board with those important things.
09:14 All right, let's move on.
09:16 Dannon has been at Washington since 2023.
09:19 He's also in his fourth year
09:21 as a chair of the NCAA Football Competition Committee,
09:25 and as an executive committee member
09:28 of the Football Oversight Committee.
09:29 A lot of committees in there.
09:30 From 2021 through 2023,
09:32 Dannon served on the NCAA Constitution Committee,
09:35 and then the Division I Transformation Committee
09:37 as one of a small group of chancellors, presidents,
09:39 directors of athletic commissioners,
09:41 and faculty athletic representatives
09:43 across all three NCAA divisions
09:45 tasked with chartering a future path for college athletics.
09:49 In 2022, Dannon was a finalist
09:51 for the Sports Business Journal's
09:53 Athletic Director of the Year Award,
09:55 and he received the Distinguished American Award
09:58 by the Sugar Bowl Chapter of the National Football Foundation.
10:01 Now, I'm not gonna pretend to know what all those things are.
10:04 Okay, I know some of 'em, not all of 'em.
10:06 Here's what I'll tell ya.
10:07 Those are good indicators when you have things like that
10:10 that you can put on your resume.
10:11 When you're going somewhere new
10:12 and people are trying to learn about you,
10:15 makes a good impression.
10:17 All right, he arrived at Washington
10:18 after serving as director of athletics in Tulane since 2015.
10:22 While at Tulane, the Green Wave student-athletes
10:25 earned 49 All-American honors,
10:27 won a national championship, 21 conference championships,
10:30 and earned 41 postseason appearances.
10:32 In 2023, Tulane football has been on the rise,
10:36 if you haven't been following 'em.
10:37 They darn near made a New Year's Six Bowl game
10:39 again last year, like they did two years ago.
10:42 In 2022, 2023, Tulane football won
10:45 their first American Athletic Football
10:47 Conference Championship and won the Cotton Bowl
10:49 over USC, who was ranked ninth in the nation at the time.
10:52 All right, two short paragraphs left.
10:55 Dan has spearheaded fundraising efforts,
10:57 and this is gonna apply to what's been
10:59 going on here at Nebraska, okay.
11:01 Dan has spearheaded fundraising efforts
11:03 and numerous capital projects at Tulane.
11:05 He helped secure the largest unrestricted gift
11:07 in Tulane athletics history, an endowment gift
11:10 which funds the operation of a new sport, sailing.
11:12 Sailing, I like that.
11:14 And a $10 million lead gift for capital renovations,
11:16 which is the second largest gift in department history.
11:19 In addition, marketing and licensing revenue grew fourfold.
11:23 And in 2023, Tulane football, basketball, and volleyball
11:26 set ticket sales and revenue records
11:28 under Danon's leadership.
11:29 The Green Wave Club annual fund grew by 40%
11:33 in terms of donors and 45% in terms of dollars.
11:36 I don't know if people know this,
11:39 and I don't know if people wanna admit this.
11:41 Being a fundraiser is a huge part
11:44 of being an athletic director.
11:45 It's ginormous, okay.
11:48 So as I learn more about him, it's hard to learn much
11:50 from his time at Washington, it was short.
11:53 But you learn a lot of great things
11:55 from his time at Tulane, which is why Washington hired him.
11:58 Okay, and it's why Nebraska went after him as well.
12:01 Increases in fundraising and major gift donors
12:04 positively impacted capital projects, development,
12:07 and completion of $13 million renovation
12:09 to the Riley Natatorium, hope I did that justice
12:12 trying to pronounce it right, home of the swimming
12:14 and diving program, as well as an $8 million
12:16 in renovations to locker rooms
12:19 and the Wilson Center Sports Medicine Center
12:21 were completed in 2023.
12:23 Dannon also oversaw construction
12:25 of a new dining facility, weight room,
12:27 basketball and volleyball locker room.
12:28 Tulane also completed a $2.4 million academic center
12:32 renovation, a $5 million television
12:34 and digital production center.
12:36 Now I tried to read that quickly
12:37 'cause it was a lot of information, so I tried to go fast.
12:40 I don't know if I paused at all the appropriate commas
12:42 and periods and everything, but I tried to go quick.
12:46 If you think about what's been going on at Nebraska,
12:47 if you think about what we're trying to do
12:49 with the future here in Nebraska,
12:52 a lot of that applies directly,
12:53 and it makes a lot of sense, okay?
12:56 Now again, it's very early on,
12:58 but I've heard nothing but positive things,
13:00 I've heard nothing but good things, okay?
13:02 There's always gonna be concerns,
13:04 but those are always gonna exist no matter what,
13:07 especially with the new unknown person
13:08 that we're trying to edumacate ourself
13:10 a little bit more about.
13:11 But I have received multiple texts,
13:13 honestly from some of the AD candidates
13:16 who didn't get the job themselves, okay?
13:18 And they had nothing but great things to say, all right.
13:21 I think initially, I feel like it's a good hire.
13:26 How do I say this without this sounding like a shot?
13:30 And I know some people are openly taking shots at Trev,
13:33 that is not my intent.
13:34 Maybe Trev leaving was for the better
13:40 across the board when it comes to,
13:44 we have someone who seems to wanna be here now,
13:47 we have someone who, and then Matt Ruhle and Trev
13:48 are on the same page or seemingly so before.
13:50 Matt Ruhle's excited about it,
13:52 someone who seemingly wants to be here,
13:53 he has roots here locally, okay, family locally,
13:57 and a lot of what he's done
13:58 is similar to what Nebraska was doing, okay?
14:01 As we know, Trev was kinda seeking out other jobs
14:04 at points in time while he was here, okay?
14:06 That just is what it is.
14:08 And I feel like we, from all indications early on,
14:12 we may have someone who's a little bit more on board
14:14 for the long term going forward,
14:16 at least that's my initial impression.
14:18 All right, ladies and gentlemen,
14:20 questions for you fine folks at home,
14:21 let me know in the comments below,
14:23 Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
14:25 Number one, do you like this hire?
14:27 Just simply put yes or no, if you wanna elaborate,
14:28 go ahead.
14:29 Number two, do you like who it appears
14:31 our next president is going to be?
14:34 And keep in mind, all eight boards of regents
14:37 voted him to be our next president
14:39 or our priority candidate,
14:40 and I've seen nothing but positive things online
14:42 about him so far.
14:44 Number three, do you like how our leadership
14:46 at Nebraska has responded since Trev Alberts did leave?
14:50 All right, until next time, Husker Nation,
14:51 go big red, and always remember to throw the ball.