Washington's first Sugar Bowl came at an ideal time for former Tulane AD Troy Dannen

NEW ORLEANS — A trip of about 2,500 miles to New Orleans was not ideal for the Washington Huskies as they prepared to play Texas in a College Football Playoff semifinal at the Sugar Bowl.

Just don’t expect Washington Athletic Director Troy Dannen to complain. He got to stay in his own house with his wife and children for a couple nights.

Dannen began this football season — and the previous seven — in New Orleans as Tulane’s athletic director. He and his wife, Amy, decided it would be best for their children not to move until the end of the current school year.

Dannen said he loved Tulane and New Orleans, and was looking forward to being back.

“You don’t hope to have success in order to go someplace else,” Dannen said. “But you understand that, if there is success, there are different opportunities for your family, different places to live.”

For now, Dannen is trying to get his house in the New Orleans suburb of Old Metairie ready for sale this spring. In Seattle, he’s living in a UW donor’s guest house, and hoping to buy a place before his family moves to the area.

Dannen oversaw a renaissance of the Green Wave’s long-struggling football program, which arguably had its best season in history in 2022, going 12-2 with an American Athletic Conference championship and victory over USC in the Cotton Bowl. The Green Wave were still ranked in the Top 25 when he left for Washington in October.

Now Dannen, who was among the officials who helped host past Sugar Bowl participants, gets to see it from the other side.

“I joked with a lot of the Sugar Bowl board members," Dannen said. "I said, ’I was really eager to be a part of being on the receiving end of this because I’ve seen what New Orleans does.'”

Dannen said he understood why top-seed Michigan, which had the first choice of venue in the semifinals, would want to play fourth-seed Alabama in the Rose Bowl.

“It’s unique, though, because there’s never been a Pac-12 team in the Sugar Bowl,” Dannen noted. "It’s a bucket-list trip to experience New Orleans, let alone on a New Year’s Eve.

“Personally, I could care if the game was on the moon,” he continued. “I’m just happy to be in it.”

Dannen said two airlines added direct flights to New Orleans, but also noted that “we don’t have anybody driving here,” which would take about 40 hours.

“I don’t think anybody expects the crowd to be equally distributed,” he said. “But I also don’t think that’s an environment that’s going to cause any consternation.”

The focus of Washington’s veteran and unbeaten football team, he said, “is such that the size of the crowd, the noise in the crowd, is going to have little to any impact on the game.”

DELAYED TRANSFER

The backup quarterbacks for Washington and Texas both entered the transfer portal in the lead-up to the College Football Playoff.

Maalik Murphy has left Texas, with the blessing of his coaches, for a new opportunity at Duke, leaving freshman Arch Manning as the backup to Quinn Ewers in Sugar Bowl on Monday night.

Dylan Morris remains QB2 for the Huskies.

“I was very hesitant with doing this,” Morris said. “The last thing I want to do is be a distraction.”

That hasn't been the case.

Morris said Washington coach Kalen DeBoer and offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb supported his decision to stay through the CFP.

“It was very mutual,” Morris said.

Grubb even excused Morris from some early December practices to visit another school.

"It’s a definitely unique experience," he said.

Morris is a fifth-year player who still has another year of eligibility, thanks to the NCAA providing a bonus year to those who were in school during the 2020 pandemic season.

He was a highly touted in-state recruit for the Huskies in 2019 and became the starter in 2021, when Washington went 4-8. He passed for 2,458 yards with 14 touchdowns and 12 interceptions.

When DeBoer took over in 2022, he brought in former Indiana quarterback Michael Penix Jr. as a transfer. Morris has been relegated to backup since.

“I talked to the team a little bit when this kind of was going down and every single guy on the team was nodding their head when I was sharing how we were going to approach this deal — and it’s because we all love him. We know he loves us,” DeBoer said of Morris. “He’s still one of the first guys in the building each and every day, even right now, just like it’s always been.”

DOUBLE-DUTY

Texas linebackers coach Jeff Choate is pulling double-duty these days.

Choate, 53, was named head coach at Nevada on Dec. 4, but he's staying with the Longhorns until their playoff run ends.

"Well, we’re such control people. I’ve got to trust people there to do the things I’m asking them to do. And it’s hard sometimes," he said.

Choate said the key is putting his phone away when he is doing his current job of trying to prepare the Longhorns to play Washington in the College Football Playoff semifinal at the Sugar Bowl on Monday night.

“And then I pick that dadgum phone up and I get to get to work" for Nevada, he said.

Choate was a longtime assistant, including stints at Boise State, Florida and Washington, before getting his first head coaching job at FCS Montana State.

He spent four seasons in Bozeman, building the Bobcats into an FCS playoff team before becoming an assistant again at Texas.

Choate said he made a calculated move back to get FBS, even if it meant a step back.

"Athletic directors and administrators were having a hard time making that stretch from an FCS to an FBS guy." Choate said. “So, you know at some point you got to start playing chess, not checkers.”

Nevada is coming off consecutive 2-10 seasons, which led to second-year coach Ken Wilson's firing.

RIVAL EMPATHY

Michigan defensive lineman Kris Jenkins allowed himself to show a trace of empathy for hated rival Ohio State during Rose Bowl media day on Saturday while discussing the Buckeyes' Cotton Bowl loss to Missouri on Friday night.

“I’m a hater, but that ain’t the team we played against on the 25th of November,” Jenkins said. “It wasn’t sad. But dang.

“As a hater," Jenkins added, "you want to see your rivals lose, but you also don’t, if that makes sense.”

Jenkins pointed out that Buckeyes wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. did not play. Harrison was a Heisman Trophy finalist, a two-time unanimous All-American and won the Biletnikoff Award as the top receiver in college football this season

“We rivals and all that, but that man’s a beast,” Jenkins said. “That man can play ball.”

Jenkins said he learned to be a hater from a professional — his uncle, former NFL defensive end Cullen Jenkins.

“I’m a tier-one professional, grade-A level instigator, professional hater,” Jenkins said. “Best in the business.”

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Dan Greenspan in Pasadena, California, contributed to this report.

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