Commentary: New UW athletic director Troy Dannen appears ready to put in work

SEATTLE – Rarely, if ever, will an athletic director get more attention than the high-profile hires he or she makes. For every 20 college football coaches the average fan can name, they can likely list one AD.
But this doesn’t mean that the person running an athletic department isn’t paramount to any program’s – if not every program’s – success. Which is why Washington hiring Troy Dannen to replace Jen Cohen is the top story on Montlake right now … even with the Huskies’ showdown with Oregon looming.
To lock down this position, Dannen’s résumé had to be replete with achievements. After serving as Northern Iowa’s AD for seven years – where he earned FCS athletic director of the year honors in 2014 – he took the reins at Tulane and watched the Green Wave’s football team finish 12-2 with a Cotton Bowl win over USC last season.
But the challenge at Washington is much grander than what he took on in Iowa and New Orleans. And not just because it’s a Power Five school with multiple teams in position to win national championships.
It’s because this is an athletic department that’s (A) on the brink of a historic conference transition; (B) has a floundering men’s basketball program; and (C) is facing financial issues that could twist an unprepared AD’s insides into eagle-scout-worthy knots.
So with Dannen’s introductory news conference now out of the way, here are the three most significant tasks he faces:
1. Shepherding the Huskies into the Big Ten
This is a unique undertaking for anybody who has sat in Dannen’s seat. Cohen might have been the one that brokered the deal to move Washington out of the Pac-12 and into the Big Ten, but overseeing that transition is the harrowing part.
Granted, there might be one built-in advantage for Dannen here. Now that he is part of a veritable super conference, it could be easier to lure formidable nonconference opponents to Husky Stadium – something that proved rare over the previous two decades. You have Utah one time zone away, and up-and-coming Colorado, too. Perhaps the prestige of the Big Ten – which has long exceeded that of the Pac-12 – will prompt other big-name programs to make the trek to Seattle as well.
But the bigger test is what to do about all the other sports.
On KJR Monday, Dannen said that it’s his job to make sure the golfer has the same athletic experience as the quarterback. No putting nonrevenue sports on the back burner for the new AD. And given all the potential travel chaos that the softball, soccer, baseball, basketball and other teams will have to endure, Dannen will have his work cut out for him.
2. Fixing the men’s basketball program
You don’t have to remind UW die-hards that Huskies men’s basketball has gone 28-50 in the four seasons since last making the NCAA Tournament. The shortcomings have endured regardless of how well coach Mike Hopkins and his staff have recruited, too. It’s hard, if not impossible to meet Mike, get to know Mike and not like Mike. But since signing his six-year, $17.5 million extension, he simply hasn’t produced.
Dannen fielded a question on KJR on Monday about what to do with the men’s basketball program and answered in an appropriately diplomatic fashion.
“My job is to find a way to put people in a position to win. Really, what I need to do with every program – not just basketball – is sit down with the coaches and staff and figure out what they need from me to be in a position to win,” he said. “If you’re not winning, then you need to be pretty introspective every day to figure out why not and what are you doing to change?”
Dannen didn’t end the quote there – he added that winning coaches need to figure out how to continue to stay ahead of the pack. It wasn’t a shot at Hopkins, but it’s clear the chance to win titles on the biggest stage is what lured Dannen to Seattle.
It’s unlikely he’ll tolerate another poor season from the men’s basketball team.
3. Repair UW’s shaky financial situation
Washington’s athletic department experienced a loss of close to $6 million in fiscal year 2023. That deficit is expected to expand to nearly $8 million for the next financial year. UW is still paying off the loan that financed Husky Stadium’s renovation 11 years ago, and debt service is expected to increase from $9.8 million annually to $17.7 million over the next few years.
This might not be on the minds of the tailgaters, but it’s a major concern.
“You gotta take care of the money,” Dannen said bluntly Monday.
That means fundraising. That means getting more people into Husky Stadium against lower-profile opponents. That means a lot of effort in the nonglamorous aspect of the AD job, but effort necessary to survive.
Dannen was pleasant and gregarious and witty in his soft introduction on the airwaves Monday.
Credit the man for winning the job – but there’s still a whole lot of credit he’ll have to earn.