Carpenter: Dannen left UW after 6 months; why will NEB tenure be different?

It struck me halfway through writing this story, one that serves as a ho-hum exploration of Troy Dannen and his official introduction Tuesday as Nebraska’s new athletic director.

We heard almost this exact same thing – in a positive way – from Trev Alberts a little over 18 months ago.

Dannen’s predecessor stood at the podium on Sept. 11, 2022 to address his decision to fire Scott Frost. The question was thrown around by some, because of the buyout dates, “why now?” But that was easy and obvious to answer: Among other debacles and detoriations inside the program, 16-31 was staring all of us in the face. It was flat-out not good enough.

Simple enough.

The “why” question was fired much more aggressively, consistently, incredulously and – above all – fairly just two weeks ago today when Alberts departed his alma mater for Texas A&M, leaving his jersey number clinging to the walls of the Lincoln Cathedral – a pain so confusing and anger-inducing that it left more than a handful of people wanting UNL to take down the retired number. (Which is an absurd, very incorrect opinion, but everyone is allowed their way to grieve unless we want to just do away with the 24-Hour Rule.)

The answers to that question? Complicated and complex enough that it could still result in division among UNL administrators for years to come. And it will, no doubt, create well-earned, well-justified feelings of hesitancy, skepticism and distrust within the Nebraska fan base as it looks onto its favorite program.

Alberts was officially (“ceremoniously” is the more accurate word) replaced by Dannen on Tuesday. The former, briefly tenured Washington AD was first introduced by interim president Chris Kabourek, Nebraska governor Jim Pillen and had a brief monologue upstairs inside the West Stadium Club, then knocked out hand shakes and baby kissing before heading downstairs for a 30-minute Q&A with Husker media.

On days like yesterday, it would be impossible to put any blame on a single Husker fan who looked on with listless eyes and listened with malaise.

After all, Dannen just took the job at Washington, being sworn into appointment on Oct. 7. He was on the plane ride for the Huskies’ incredible run to the College Football Playoff, thrilling advancement to the national championship game and was set for a first-class ticket to the Big Ten this summer when Washington will be officially booked into the conference on Aug. 2.

And yet, less than six months after officially beginning his AD duties on Oct. 9 – a span of 5.5 months to be more specific, or 163 days to be even more exact – he was gone, leaving Seattle to pop on an (assumedly) private jet for his ASAP swearing-in to lead the Nebraska Athletics department.

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