Troy Dannen Q&A: Part I
- By Guerry Smith
- Joe Kennedy's Wave Crest
- 10 Replies
This will be on the front page when Rivals debuts its new look later today (or soon), but I don't want you to wait any longer for the first part of the Q&A I conducted with Tulane AD Troy Dannen.
New athletic director Troy Dannen spent his first week on the job hiring a football coach after setting up base in New York City, barely getting a chance to see the Tulane campus. A little more than a month after accepting the job, he sat down for an extensive interview last Friday.
Here is the first part of a three-part Q&A with him. He talked about why football coach Willie Fritz will make that program successful, the impediments in place that have hindered men’s basketball and discussed his priority order for new facilities.
You didn’t exactly ease into the job when you took over as athletic director. What has the first month been like?
“The first two weeks were a mad rush. To hire a football coach six days into the job really without having been on campus was a challenge. I didn’t know the culture of the institution. I couldn’t communicate a lot about the team. It was more about a vision of what I thought we needed and more about understanding the vision of the coach. I had thought I had a pretty good handle on what we needed here and what was lacking.
“When I met with Willie (Fritz), I knew he had the vision and the experience. I’ve said it before, but I knew I had to have somebody that wasn’t going to learn on the fly because I’m going to learn on the fly. I didn’t need to be mentoring somebody in how to coach football. If I had been here a while and I had thought that was the right type of person, I would have been more open to it, but given my situation I want somebody that knew how to coach the game and that I could work with in getting all those resources, not just financial, but all those other resources put together behind him.
“Then I went right into volleyball. When I came back down for Willie’s press conference, I interviewed Jim Barnes and offered him the job, so the first two weeks I hired two coaches that in eight years I didn’t hire at Northern Iowa. So it was a totally different start that I’d experienced there because the people were in place there, and most of our focus here in the first month has been on people.”
Fritz appears to fit perfectly the description of the coach you mentioned you wanted to hire in your introductory press conference. There’s a reason for that, right?
“Yeah, you know from the time that I knew I was going to be a finalist, I had a pretty good idea that there was going to be an opening and that I wasn’t going to be creating the opening --it was going to be an opening that I would inherit—I started talking to some folks and looking around the country, and when I found that Willie may be movable, he became my quick focus. So when I was here for my introductory press conference, when I talked a lot about characteristics and profiles (of his ideal candidate), I was talking a lot about Willie. But again, you don’t know if he will take the job, so I had some backup plans.”
You’ve mentioned a few times that you tried to identify why Tulane wasn’t winning and take steps to change the culture. What specifically have you identified?
“I think some of those reasons are gone now. The infrastructure was a hang-up. We wouldn’t have gotten Willie if we were playing in the Superdome, but to have a stadium and the ownership of the stadium (helped land him). I don’t know enough about the history, but what I was able to tell Willie is the commitment from the institution is absolutely there in every way that it could be there. The commitment from the board and from all the names that are on or inside that stadium are on my search committee. I used the term institutional ego in my press conference, but I saw all of that here. I don’t know if that’s always been here or not, but that has to be here in order for us to be successful.
“What I’m really trying to do right now, as I told Willie, I can hire a championship football coach, but if I don’t have championship level marketing, championship level development, championship level sports information, championship levels in every way that we support the program—academic services—the team won’t win championships.
“Part of it is making sure every unit in the department is behind the effort and we’re all pushing in the same direction, so whether that was there or whether it wasn’t there, we’re moving in that direction pretty quickly. And Willie’s very engaging, very personable and is quickly building just phenomenal relationships with the staff. He’s been very good at communicating what the football program needs to have in all of those other areas.”
Fritz’ offenses have been run-heavy since his days at Sam Houston State and rarely threw at all at Georgia Southern. They also have been very successful, but was that run-dominance any concern at all for you?
“No. I want a system that wins. In 16 of his 17 years he’s had winning records. The other thing that I like about him, and a lot of coaches say they can do this, but he’s proven it—he builds his team and builds his offense around the players that he has. You know, he has a preference. In a lot of ways he’s one of the creators of the pistol, he and Chris Ault, and that’s an offense that in the last five years has become very prevalent nationally, so yeah, it works.
“You may want to run five-wide, you may want to do a lot of things, but frankly the talent that you have and the talent that you’re going to have and the type of offense that can be a consistent winner and not have highs and lows where you never know what to expect (is Fritz’ offense). It doesn’t matter what the weather is. It doesn’t matter what the location is. It doesn’t matter who you’re playing. It doesn’t matter if they are bigger or smaller on the other side of the ball. It doesn’t matter if they’re faster or slower. That offense can win. It wasn’t the fact that he ran or passed. He has an offense that wins.”
You mentioned your feeling that Yulman Stadium helped land Fritz. Can Devlin Fieldhouse can be seen as a detriment, and is there anything you can do about it?
“I would tell you the arena should be the greatest asset the basketball program has. Let me back up. The city is the greatest asset that any of these programs have. The arena should be the greatest specific asset the basketball program has, and the reason for it is, and you lived it in the Perry Clark days, when it’s good, it’s packed and it’s loud and it’s the greatest home-court advantage in the league. I don’t care if you have a beautiful 20,000-seat stadium that’s one-third full every night and looks gorgeous. The fact is when allowing the building to help you win games, our building can help us win games more than any other building in this league. Duke doesn’t have the nicest arena in the ACC. It hasn’t held them back. It’s ours, we own it and I actually think it’s a great asset.
“And even the stadium (Yulman), people want to talk about the stadium size. There is something to be said about demand. It’s perfect. If you look at what’s happened with attendance nationally, there are five people that need 100,000-seat stadiums, but this fits us. I would rather have 25,000 people in a 25,000-seat stadium than I would 25,000 in a 40,000-seat stadium. The cost-benefit, you’ll never get that back, but the home-field advantage in either building that we can create is phenomenal.”
New athletic director Troy Dannen spent his first week on the job hiring a football coach after setting up base in New York City, barely getting a chance to see the Tulane campus. A little more than a month after accepting the job, he sat down for an extensive interview last Friday.
Here is the first part of a three-part Q&A with him. He talked about why football coach Willie Fritz will make that program successful, the impediments in place that have hindered men’s basketball and discussed his priority order for new facilities.
You didn’t exactly ease into the job when you took over as athletic director. What has the first month been like?
“The first two weeks were a mad rush. To hire a football coach six days into the job really without having been on campus was a challenge. I didn’t know the culture of the institution. I couldn’t communicate a lot about the team. It was more about a vision of what I thought we needed and more about understanding the vision of the coach. I had thought I had a pretty good handle on what we needed here and what was lacking.
“When I met with Willie (Fritz), I knew he had the vision and the experience. I’ve said it before, but I knew I had to have somebody that wasn’t going to learn on the fly because I’m going to learn on the fly. I didn’t need to be mentoring somebody in how to coach football. If I had been here a while and I had thought that was the right type of person, I would have been more open to it, but given my situation I want somebody that knew how to coach the game and that I could work with in getting all those resources, not just financial, but all those other resources put together behind him.
“Then I went right into volleyball. When I came back down for Willie’s press conference, I interviewed Jim Barnes and offered him the job, so the first two weeks I hired two coaches that in eight years I didn’t hire at Northern Iowa. So it was a totally different start that I’d experienced there because the people were in place there, and most of our focus here in the first month has been on people.”
Fritz appears to fit perfectly the description of the coach you mentioned you wanted to hire in your introductory press conference. There’s a reason for that, right?
“Yeah, you know from the time that I knew I was going to be a finalist, I had a pretty good idea that there was going to be an opening and that I wasn’t going to be creating the opening --it was going to be an opening that I would inherit—I started talking to some folks and looking around the country, and when I found that Willie may be movable, he became my quick focus. So when I was here for my introductory press conference, when I talked a lot about characteristics and profiles (of his ideal candidate), I was talking a lot about Willie. But again, you don’t know if he will take the job, so I had some backup plans.”
You’ve mentioned a few times that you tried to identify why Tulane wasn’t winning and take steps to change the culture. What specifically have you identified?
“I think some of those reasons are gone now. The infrastructure was a hang-up. We wouldn’t have gotten Willie if we were playing in the Superdome, but to have a stadium and the ownership of the stadium (helped land him). I don’t know enough about the history, but what I was able to tell Willie is the commitment from the institution is absolutely there in every way that it could be there. The commitment from the board and from all the names that are on or inside that stadium are on my search committee. I used the term institutional ego in my press conference, but I saw all of that here. I don’t know if that’s always been here or not, but that has to be here in order for us to be successful.
“What I’m really trying to do right now, as I told Willie, I can hire a championship football coach, but if I don’t have championship level marketing, championship level development, championship level sports information, championship levels in every way that we support the program—academic services—the team won’t win championships.
“Part of it is making sure every unit in the department is behind the effort and we’re all pushing in the same direction, so whether that was there or whether it wasn’t there, we’re moving in that direction pretty quickly. And Willie’s very engaging, very personable and is quickly building just phenomenal relationships with the staff. He’s been very good at communicating what the football program needs to have in all of those other areas.”
Fritz’ offenses have been run-heavy since his days at Sam Houston State and rarely threw at all at Georgia Southern. They also have been very successful, but was that run-dominance any concern at all for you?
“No. I want a system that wins. In 16 of his 17 years he’s had winning records. The other thing that I like about him, and a lot of coaches say they can do this, but he’s proven it—he builds his team and builds his offense around the players that he has. You know, he has a preference. In a lot of ways he’s one of the creators of the pistol, he and Chris Ault, and that’s an offense that in the last five years has become very prevalent nationally, so yeah, it works.
“You may want to run five-wide, you may want to do a lot of things, but frankly the talent that you have and the talent that you’re going to have and the type of offense that can be a consistent winner and not have highs and lows where you never know what to expect (is Fritz’ offense). It doesn’t matter what the weather is. It doesn’t matter what the location is. It doesn’t matter who you’re playing. It doesn’t matter if they are bigger or smaller on the other side of the ball. It doesn’t matter if they’re faster or slower. That offense can win. It wasn’t the fact that he ran or passed. He has an offense that wins.”
You mentioned your feeling that Yulman Stadium helped land Fritz. Can Devlin Fieldhouse can be seen as a detriment, and is there anything you can do about it?
“I would tell you the arena should be the greatest asset the basketball program has. Let me back up. The city is the greatest asset that any of these programs have. The arena should be the greatest specific asset the basketball program has, and the reason for it is, and you lived it in the Perry Clark days, when it’s good, it’s packed and it’s loud and it’s the greatest home-court advantage in the league. I don’t care if you have a beautiful 20,000-seat stadium that’s one-third full every night and looks gorgeous. The fact is when allowing the building to help you win games, our building can help us win games more than any other building in this league. Duke doesn’t have the nicest arena in the ACC. It hasn’t held them back. It’s ours, we own it and I actually think it’s a great asset.
“And even the stadium (Yulman), people want to talk about the stadium size. There is something to be said about demand. It’s perfect. If you look at what’s happened with attendance nationally, there are five people that need 100,000-seat stadiums, but this fits us. I would rather have 25,000 people in a 25,000-seat stadium than I would 25,000 in a 40,000-seat stadium. The cost-benefit, you’ll never get that back, but the home-field advantage in either building that we can create is phenomenal.”
