Tad Stryker: Better Off Without Trev

What has happened since the first anniversary of Dannen’s arrival? Well, things have stabilized, to say the least. The Board of Regents ultimately selected its president in Jeffrey Gold, one of whose stated goals is to pursue the University of Nebraska system’s readmission into the Association of American Universities. But as for the front porch of the operation, just a few weeks ago, Nebraska was in eighth place in the Learfield Directors’ Cup standings, which measures postseason performance of all sports teams. Texas A&M was poking along in 29th place, by the way. The jury’s still out, and there’s still a lot of oil money in College Station, Texas, but maybe the pastures weren’t quite as green in Aggieland as Alberts anticipated.

Meanwhile in Nebraska, consider this, those who say you want results and you want them right now. Within the first 15 months of Dannen’s arrival:

• Wrestling placed second in the NCAA Tournament and runner-up in the ultra-competitive Big Ten, trailing only Penn State at both meets.

• Wrapping up an amazing run of success by coach John Cook, Nebraska volleyball made the Final Four, and seemingly has made a solid transition of leadership to Dani Busboom Kelly.

• Women’s basketball made the NCAA Tournament where it lost in the first round. Men’s basketball missed the Big Ten conference tournament but showed some late-season bounceback in winning the inaugural College Basketball Crown event in Las Vegas.

• The men’s and women’s track and field teams each placed in the top six in both the conference indoor and outdoor meets, and have competitors with a realistic chance at individual national championships.

• Featuring possibly the best player in the nation, softball finished one win shy of the Women’s College World Series, and the baseball team clawed its way into the postseason by winning its second consecutive Big Ten Tournament, playing most of the schedule without its injured preseason All-America pitcher.

So far, Dannen shows ample evidence that he is a “do-er.” It would seem that Rhule and Dannen are already on the way to a highly successful partnership, but first, there’s an important wall to scale this fall.

Football did just the bare minimum to show progress in 2024. It had its first winning season in eight years, finishing 7-6 by beating Boston College in the Pinstripe Bowl. So football, the sport that means the most, that pays the way for almost every other sport at Nebraska, is still lagging behind. That simply cannot continue if the Husker athletic program is to remain healthy. To enable the other Cornhusker sports to flourish, football must flourish even more, because major college football is on the brink of creating a new upper division and to bring in the revenue needed to sustain the rest of the sports, Nebraska football must prove it is worthy to keep running with the big dogs. Now, there’s some urgency for you. The Devaney and Osborne years have carried this program as far as they can. NU needs an eight-win season in 2025 just to stay in the conversation and nine wins to remove all reasonable doubt that it belongs.

How are Rhule and Dannen showing urgency when it comes to football? Most notably, they’ve shown little fear of ruffling a few feathers. They appear to be managing people and resources well and gaining momentum as they head into what everyone knowns will be an uncertain summer, given that the House v. NCAA settlement is not yet final. And they’re aggressively pursuing a plan they think will result in more victories on the field.

• Dannen is shoring up existing revenue streams and seeking new ones, including selling beer at athletic contests, to ensure the department’s finances are in order to handle revenue sharing, which officially begins this season. He rankled Husker fans by cancelling a long-awaited home-and-away series with Tennessee, mainly because it would have negatively impacted revenue in 2027.

• Rhule is building a winning culture, and jealously guarding his roster. One of his moves, allegedly made to ward off tampering by other schools, was the cancellation of the traditional televised Red-White spring game, which also rankled Husker fans. In addition, Rhule is not giving in quite yet to the 105-man roster limit that everyone assumed would be official by now. He’s not cutting anyone he thinks can help the team win.

• Rhule is raising the bar in recruiting, pursuing four-star recruits around the nation at the expense of offering lower-rated Nebraska prep athletes, which might have further rankled Husker fans had he not already pursued and signed many of the Cornhusker State’s best and brightest the previous cycle.

• Dannen has decided to keep investing in infrastructure by moving ahead with the replacement of the South Stadium and refurbishing of the East and West stadiums, while replacing the field surface.

The stadium project is fascinating. Upon his arrival, Dannen put Alberts’s original stadium renovation plan on hold, and asked one main question: “How will it help us win?” About a year later, after looking things over for himself and getting advice from people he trusts, he’s moving forward with the main points of the plan, which means he thinks the South Stadium renovation is needed and will ultimately improve Nebraska’s chances of winning more games. By all indicators, the South Stadium will be torn down after the 2026 season, which will limit seating in 2027, and which prompted Dannen to book additional home games with mid-major schools for 2026 and 2027 (by cancelling the Tennessee series) to make up the anticipated revenue shortfall. The immediate replacement of what many would consider an adequate Field Turf covering, installed in 2021, certainly speaks of urgency. Rhule is convinced that a grass field ultimately will reduce injuries, and frankly, the NFL Players’ Association is on his side. But the stadium remodeling project won’t allow for a grass field until the major infrastructure work is completed. So the Huskers are opting for a new artificial surface which likely will live only two years.

Apparently Rhule, who saw two of his players get injured in the 2024 spring game, was spooked by the experience and decided that after four years of wear and tear, the current surface has reached its tipping point. He wants to invest in his roster by installing Hellas Matrix Helix turf, which is used by numerous NFL teams, including the Dallas Cowboys, Indianapolis Colts, Tennessee Titans, Houston Texans and Los Angeles Rams.

That’s a lot of building and investing in a relatively short time, which makes sense, because realistically, the window of opportunity for Nebraska athletics to thrive is a short one. There’s a lot riding on 12 football games this fall.

More From Nebraska on SI

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• Dave Feit’s Greatest Huskers by the Numbers: 94 – Jared Crick and Patrick Kabongo
• Nebraska Runs Past UCLA to Win the Big Ten Baseball Tournament
• Tennessee Outlasts Nebraska Softball to Win the Knoxville Super Regional
• Echoes of a Dynasty: Rhule, Devaney, and Nebraska Football’s Repeating History