Dannen Letter

[ml wave]

Nope...it's the AD's fault. If you want money from your fan base, you have to be engaged with your fan base: verbally, physically, in writing (not just today's email). He also fails at sharing his vision for the future. A good AD lives in the present but is always pushing the department towards future success.

So if this is the differentiator, I'd be really curious - because I honestly don't know - how communicative and engaged the ADs of any major P5 programs are. My bet is they are less communicative and less engaged than Dannen - if for no other reason than they probably have way more people demanding their time and are incredibly busy 24/7/365. I'm betting not a lot of Alabama or Ohio State fans really care much about their AD's engagement; why would they? They (along with many others, *cough* Penn State *cough*) have shown there's not a scandal in the world that would reduce their fanbase or cause them to lose their top-tier status.

Be honest, winning and raising money and building facilities would soothe all your concerns, right? Troy Dannen could forego his August update letter and his December update letter and be completely and totally invisible but if we were in a P5 conference making tons of money and ensured to be on the good side of any potential future NCAA split, you wouldn't really care, would you? (I mean, none of us would, I'd assume.) From that point of view, it's not actually about the AD being engaged with the fanbase at all, it's just making the AD the scapegoat for all the failures of athletics, whether they be the doings of him, his predecessors, or long-held institutional policies and priorities. How much of that can really be remedied by a single AD is debateable.

For whatever it's worth, I've been down to athletic events at Tulane 4 or 5 times during the Dannen era and I've seen him at every single one. I visited a basketball practice in the Dunleavy era and Dannen was there watching (I sat and chatted with him for about 30 minutes). I've seen him at tailgates, I've seen him at football games, I've seen him at other events. He was at our HOF induction (obviously) but I also saw him at the baseball game afterwards. I can only compare that to my time as a student-athlete when our ADs were Chet Gladchuck and Kevin White, both of whom went on to better jobs ("moved up"), and I never saw either of them nearly as much. They came through our locker room after big wins once or twice to say hello and I'd sometimes see them in the Wilson Building. Maybe I have a skewed perspective, maybe Gladchuck and White weren't around the teams because they were off meeting the fanbase and doing the things you ask above... but I doubt it. And while I know it's easier to communicate with fans in the digital era, I don't believe my parents (nor I) ever received an "update" or "State of Tulane" letter from either of those ADs.

Agree completely...it's human nature to blame the AD because hiring a new AD is an easy fix (just like blaming a coach/coordinator for a team's bad season...it's much easier to get a new coach than it is to get 85 new players).

[Baywave1]

Again no transparency. No accountability. No specific action announced or time plan or even general details. This “disclosure” to fix the pool is a vision not a plan.

Napoleon had it right: If you plan to take Vienna then take Vienna. If you can’t or won’t, don’t talk about it.

Boards announce visions. Managers achieve them.

That was my point.

[TU77CAL82]

https://news.tulane.edu/news/reily-nata ... renovation

[Baywave1]

Thanks. He needs to talk to his communications specialist who could have linked to this and say it will be completed no later than 2023 to comply with necessary NCAA refs. No confusion in that.

As I said, the letter as sent to us sounded like a promise not a plan. When someone includes no date (even uncertain) for doing something, it’s too often bureaucratize for “Not on my watch.”

Glad that’s not the case here. Tulane has potential to win a conference championship in women's swimming if it completes this.

[PeteRasche]

Agree completely...it's human nature to blame the AD because hiring a new AD is an easy fix

Or an utter catastrophe, depending who you hire when Sandy Barbour leaves...

[waverider]

Thanks. He needs to talk to his communications specialist who could have linked to this and say it will be completed no later than 2023 to comply with necessary NCAA refs. No confusion in that.

As I said, the letter as sent to us sounded like a promise not a plan. When someone includes no date (even uncertain) for doing something, it’s too often bureaucratize for “Not on my watch.”

Glad that’s not the case here. Tulane has potential to win a conference championship in women's swimming if it completes this.

Why didn’t he mention the new dorms going up? That’s another non-athletics project he has nothing to do with other than it being something that some people in his department may use.

[ml wave]

Agree completely...it's human nature to blame the AD because hiring a new AD is an easy fix

Or an utter catastrophe, depending who you hire when Sandy Barbour leaves...

I was as critical as anyone but we all loved Dickson at first, until teams started losing. To your point.

[PeteRasche]

Agree completely...it's human nature to blame the AD because hiring a new AD is an easy fix

Or an utter catastrophe, depending who you hire when Sandy Barbour leaves...

I was as critical as anyone but we all loved Dickson at first, until teams started losing. To your point.

Did people? I wasn't on this board until the losing had begun.

[ml wave]

Agree completely...it's human nature to blame the AD because hiring a new AD is an easy fix

Or an utter catastrophe, depending who you hire when Sandy Barbour leaves...

I was as critical as anyone but we all loved Dickson at first, until teams started losing. To your point.

Did people? I wasn't on this board until the losing had begun.

We hired him from Washington St and the scuttlebutt was that he was bad on coaching hires but, yeah, it was basically good until the review.

[wavedom]

There was no love fest when we got RD. People knew he was on his way out there due to poor performance and took the Tulane job to stay employed.

[tjtlja]

I don’t understand why Tulane itself will not provide there own money to finance the football ops building. No capital projects for our football program is scary. After re-reading that letter, it seems we are de-emphasizing sports all over. Does anything in that letter makes you want to jump up, be fired up, or inspire you to want to donate to Tulane athletics, donate to NIL? This current administration from Fitts to Dannen has me very concerned about our future as an athletic program. When tennis courts and a sports medicine facility trump football, all you can say is REALLY, Only one way to describe this situation - it sucks. Look no further than football recruiting right now. We are competing for recruits with programs like Incarnate Word, ULM, USA, Alcorn, Nicholls, Northwestern State, Columbia, Georgetown, Lamar, Northern Arizona, Pennsylvania, Arkansas State, La Tech, Fordham, New Mexico State, Sam Houston State, and Texas A&M-Commerce. In two instances, we have players that have not even received another offers than us. One three star player, two 2 star recruits, and 8 recruits with no offers. We are currently ranked by one of the recruiting services at 112. On paper, this is one of worst classes we have ever had at the halfway point (12 commits to date). We aren’t attracting AAC caliber recruits at all. What the hell is going on?

[wavedom]

As to recruiting one thing that is going on is we no longer have a solid conference to recruit to.

[tulaneoutlaw]

Conference is one thing hurting us. Also 2-10 last year is a problem. Most of the time season results don't impact the class in progress, but rather the following class. So we signed an ok group last year on the back of average performances but this round of recruits just saw how ugly things could get here.

[waverider]

We need to win 7-8 games this year like we are capable of doing and get recruits interested again.

The tennis facility is mostly funded and something that’s been in the works since they tore down the old one to build Yulman.

[wavedom]

We need to win more than 7-8 to get recruits interested again with the step down we will take conference wise next season.

[purplehaz3]

I don’t understand why Tulane itself will not provide there own money to finance the football ops building. No capital projects for our football program is scary. After re-reading that letter, it seems we are de-emphasizing sports all over. Does anything in that letter makes you want to jump up, be fired up, or inspire you to want to donate to Tulane athletics, donate to NIL? This current administration from Fitts to Dannen has me very concerned about our future as an athletic program. When tennis courts and a sports medicine facility trump football, all you can say is REALLY, Only one way to describe this situation - it sucks. Look no further than football recruiting right now. We are competing for recruits with programs like Incarnate Word, ULM, USA, Alcorn, Nicholls, Northwestern State, Columbia, Georgetown, Lamar, Northern Arizona, Pennsylvania, Arkansas State, La Tech, Fordham, New Mexico State, Sam Houston State, and Texas A&M-Commerce. In two instances, we have players that have not even received another offers than us. One three star player, two 3 star recruits, and 8 recruits with no offers. We are currently ranked by one of the recruiting services at 112. On paper, this is one of worst classes we have ever had at the halfway point (12 commits to date). We aren’t attracting AAC caliber recruits at all. What the hell is going on?

Those unrated players will be rated. I can’t even remember the last time we recruited a 2 star player so I expect all to be 3 stars. Take a look at Justin Smolik (QB). We recruited him from the beginning and he had no offers. Now he’s getting multiple P5 offers including from Penn State. Don’t underestimate the recruiting power of an academic school like Tulane. The conference payouts will stay as is, the AAC still has SMU, Memphis, and USF which are “brand name” programs. If Tulane wins the conference, it will still be huge for the program. The school won’t fund athletics and prioritize investments in athletics until football or basketball wins a title. It’s pretty simple and Dannen knows the equation. If you win, the money will follow. Let’s win first and complain about facilities later. Our stadium is great by the way. Recruits love it

[ml wave]

The tennis facility is mostly funded and something that’s been in the works since they tore down the old one to build Yulman.

In case anyone needs to be reminded of how long things take to get done around here. And that's with a billionaire donor who prioritizes tennis.

[waverider]

We need to win more than 7-8 to get recruits interested again with the step down we will take conference wise next season.

I agree, but 8 wins will help make last year’s 2 wins seem more like an anomaly than a sign of where we are stuck.

[Charlie Dunn]

Where will the tennis complex be? I thought we were building a near campus athletic center for tennis, volleyball, track and other sports but haven’t heard about that in years. I also think the football stadium is great and much better for us than the super dome. We just need to win some games, pack the stands and it will be a rocking place.

[WaveProf]

, it seems we are de-emphasizing sports all over.

when was the moment you felt we emphasized them?

[PeteRasche]

Where will the tennis complex be? I thought we were building a near campus athletic center for tennis, volleyball, track and other sports but haven’t heard about that in years.

Yeah, it was originally supposed to be on a piece of land given to Tulane somewhere on either South Claiborne or Jefferson Highway (not sure which side of the line it was on, but I think it was JH). I remember thinking it was definitely a car/shuttle ride away, not walkable for sure.

[gerryb323]

Where will the tennis complex be? I thought we were building a near campus athletic center for tennis, volleyball, track and other sports but haven’t heard about that in years.

Yeah, it was originally supposed to be on a piece of land given to Tulane somewhere on either South Claiborne or Jefferson Highway (not sure which side of the line it was on, but I think it was JH). I remember thinking it was definitely a car/shuttle ride away, not walkable for sure.

Right...near the newish Jesuit Baseball stadium and Lowes I believe...technically JP side of the line...or was that the athletes' village that never came to fruition?

[wavedom]

I don’t understand why Tulane itself will not provide there own money to finance the football ops building. No capital projects for our football program is scary. After re-reading that letter, it seems we are de-emphasizing sports all over. Does anything in that letter makes you want to jump up, be fired up, or inspire you to want to donate to Tulane athletics, donate to NIL? This current administration from Fitts to Dannen has me very concerned about our future as an athletic program. When tennis courts and a sports medicine facility trump football, all you can say is REALLY, Only one way to describe this situation - it sucks. Look no further than football recruiting right now. We are competing for recruits with programs like Incarnate Word, ULM, USA, Alcorn, Nicholls, Northwestern State, Columbia, Georgetown, Lamar, Northern Arizona, Pennsylvania, Arkansas State, La Tech, Fordham, New Mexico State, Sam Houston State, and Texas A&M-Commerce. In two instances, we have players that have not even received another offers than us. One three star player, two 3 star recruits, and 8 recruits with no offers. We are currently ranked by one of the recruiting services at 112. On paper, this is one of worst classes we have ever had at the halfway point (12 commits to date). We aren’t attracting AAC caliber recruits at all. What the hell is going on?

Those unrated players will be rated. I can’t even remember the last time we recruited a 2 star player so I expect all to be 3 stars. Take a look at Justin Smolik (QB). We recruited him from the beginning and he had no offers. Now he’s getting multiple P5 offers including from Penn State. Don’t underestimate the recruiting power of an academic school like Tulane. The conference payouts will stay as is, the AAC still has SMU, Memphis, and USF which are “brand name” programs. If Tulane wins the conference, it will still be huge for the program. The school won’t fund athletics and prioritize investments in athletics until football or basketball wins a title. It’s pretty simple and Dannen knows the equation. If you win, the money will follow. Let’s win first and complain about facilities later. Our stadium is great by the way. Recruits love it

The stadium is not great and the recruits don't love it. It loses money for the athletic department . It lost money in year one when we sold the tickets out. Imagine what it loses now that we are back to having the same 2-3,000 that went to the Dome. Our recruiting speaks for itself. It's not good. We had 2 things to recruit to- the conference and the city. We are losing one of those. Not good. We had 6 2 stars last year. Right now 3 out of our 4 recruits that even have a ranking are two stars.

[waverider]

Where will the tennis complex be? I thought we were building a near campus athletic center for tennis, volleyball, track and other sports but haven’t heard about that in years. I also think the football stadium is great and much better for us than the super dome. We just need to win some games, pack the stands and it will be a rocking place.

Last I heard we were renovating the tennis complex at Audubon Park, but that was a couple years ago so I’m not sure if that’s still the location.

[tjtlja]

I don’t understand why Tulane itself will not provide there own money to finance the football ops building. No capital projects for our football program is scary. After re-reading that letter, it seems we are de-emphasizing sports all over. Does anything in that letter makes you want to jump up, be fired up, or inspire you to want to donate to Tulane athletics, donate to NIL? This current administration from Fitts to Dannen has me very concerned about our future as an athletic program. When tennis courts and a sports medicine facility trump football, all you can say is REALLY, Only one way to describe this situation - it sucks. Look no further than football recruiting right now. We are competing for recruits with programs like Incarnate Word, ULM, USA, Alcorn, Nicholls, Northwestern State, Columbia, Georgetown, Lamar, Northern Arizona, Pennsylvania, Arkansas State, La Tech, Fordham, New Mexico State, Sam Houston State, and Texas A&M-Commerce. In two instances, we have players that have not even received another offers than us. One three star player, two 3 star recruits, and 8 recruits with no offers. We are currently ranked by one of the recruiting services at 112. On paper, this is one of worst classes we have ever had at the halfway point (12 commits to date). We aren’t attracting AAC caliber recruits at all. What the hell is going on?

Those unrated players will be rated. I can’t even remember the last time we recruited a 2 star player so I expect all to be 3 stars. Take a look at Justin Smolik (QB). We recruited him from the beginning and he had no offers. Now he’s getting multiple P5 offers including from Penn State. Don’t underestimate the recruiting power of an academic school like Tulane. The conference payouts will stay as is, the AAC still has SMU, Memphis, and USF which are “brand name” programs. If Tulane wins the conference, it will still be huge for the program. The school won’t fund athletics and prioritize investments in athletics until football or basketball wins a title. It’s pretty simple and Dannen knows the equation. If you win, the money will follow. Let’s win first and complain about facilities later. Our stadium is great by the way. Recruits love it

The stadium is not great and the recruits don't love it. It loses money for the athletic department . It lost money in year one when we sold the tickets out. Imagine what it loses now that we are back to having the same 2-3,000 that went to the Dome. Our recruiting speaks for itself. It's not good. We had 2 things to recruit to- the conference and the city. We are losing one of those. Not good. We had 6 2 stars last year. Right now 3 out of our 4 recruits that even have a ranking are two stars.

Yet Memphis and SMU continue to recruit at a good level. Both play in a crappy stadiums, in crappy leagues. We never are able to rise above.