Before they worked together at Nebraska, Troy Dannen and Matt Rhule were American Athletic Conference rivals. Dannen took over as the athletics director at Tulane in 2015 as Rhule was winding down on his tenure at Temple, and their two years in the league was enough time to build a relationship.
Dannen watched from afar as Rhule took Temple to back-to-back 10-win seasons before heading to Baylor. It was another tough situation after the firing of Art Briles, but the Bears went from a one-win team to 11 in just three years under Rhule’s leadership.
Those coaching jobs are why Dannen had such respect for Rhule. In fact, when Trev Alberts hired Rhule to take over the football program last year, he got a call from the man who turned out to be his successor.
“I got to know him [Rhule] personally a little bit over the years,” Dannen told Big Ten Network’s Rick Pizzo. “So when Trev hired him a year ago, I called Trev and said I think that’s a brilliant hire. You put that guy in what I consider a goldmine, those two things are going to produce results.”
After taking over at Nebraska, Rhule talked about installing the principles he used at Temple and Baylor as part of his quest to take the Cornhuskers back to the top of college football. That includes toughness, which was a staple of both his previous college stops.
“If you go back to when he was at Temple and I was at Tulane, Temple was maybe a couple years ahead of where I thought we were at Tulane, trying to get the program off its back,” Dannen recalled. “And [I] just watched with great admiration what he did and knew he built it on great toughness. The thing I remember at Temple, the teams Matt played never won the following week because they were so beat up.”
Troy Dannen: Matt Rhule is ‘engaged in every sport’
Rhule hasn’t been a stranger around Nebraska’s campus since setting foot in Lincoln. He attended a men’s basketball game shortly after his hire became official and did an interview during the matchup. He also was in attendance for the Cornhuskers’ March Madness game against Texas A&M this past season.
But even beyond attending games, Dannen said the way Rhule handles himself around the building sets a good example. Considering football is perhaps the highest-profile college sport, that’s a big part of establishing a bond between the coaches.
“Just being with him a little bit, coaches so much set the culture of the department – football coaches in particular,” Dannen said. “And he’s engaged in every sport. He traveled to the NCAA basketball tournament to watch the men play. Coaches in meetings, I’ve already seen them just kind of turn their head and look to him like he’s E.F. Hutton to see what he’s thinking and what he’s saying. He cares about the entire department, not just about the football program.
“When you have that kind of cultural leader in the football program, let alone his ability to win and to coach in places that are much less-resourced than Nebraska is, I think the trajectory’s great with Matt at the helm.”
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