Reports: Washington to Hire Tulane AD Troy Dannen

Washington appears to have their replacement Athletic Director after Jen Cohen left to take the same position at USC last month. The Huskies are reportedly set to hire Tulane AD Troy Dannen per multiple reports, first by Yahoo’s Ross Dellenger as well as by ESPN’s Pete Thamel.

[Update: Washington officially announced the hire this afternoon with an introductory press conference early next week.]

Dannen has spent the last 16 years as an Athletic Director with that time evenly split between his Alma Mater FCS Northern Iowa and more recently at Tulane. Athletics are at a high point for Tulane right now after their football team won the American Athletic Conference last season and upset USC in the Sugar Bowl. Their Men’s Basketball team won 20 games this past year for the first time since 2013.

This marks a critical time for Washington Athletics as the Huskies transition to the Big Ten next season. Washington will be at a resource disadvantage for several years as they only start out receiving a partial share of the TV revenue money through this contract. Debt payments on the Husky Stadium renovations will begin again next year and the basketball facility upgrades are still waiting to break ground.

On the coaching front, it seems likely that another raise will be needed to keep Coach DeBoer in Seattle for the football program if the rest of the season goes how Husky fans hope. Men’s Basketball might be looking for a new head coach if Mike Hopkins can’t deliver at least a tournament berth. This comes at a time when Washington is still dealing with the consequences of firing Jimmy Lake after just 2 seasons resulting in a lengthy buyout.

During his time at Tulane, Dannen has only made one football hire. He hired Willie Fritz during his first week on the job at Tulane. Last offseason Fritz was one of the hottest names in the coaching carousel but chose to remain at Tulane. His first Men’s Basketball hire of the flashy Mike Dunleavy very much did not work out but things appear to be turning a corner with Ron Hunter at the helm who had been successful coming up from Georgia State.

The hire of Dannen would make the first time since 2004 that Washington makes an external hire for their Athletic Director when Todd Turner came over from Vanderbilt.