Complete transcript of Observer's interview with Danny Morrison, #Panthers' next president

FORT WORTH, Texas – After attending tonight's Carolina Panthers-Dallas Cowboys game in Cowboys Stadium, Danny Morrison will leave his post as athletics director at nearby Texas Christian to become Panthers president.

Morrison, 55, takes over the day-to-day business operations of the Panthers on Tuesday. A surprise hire by owner Jerry Richardson on Sept. 2, Morrison replaces both Mark Richardson (who resigned as the team's president) and brother Jon (who left his position as president of Bank of America Stadium).

Morrison, a lifelong Carolinian until he went to TCU in 2005, is a native of Burlington who attended Wofford (also Jerry Richardson's alma mater). After attending Wofford, he had been Terriers athletics director and senior vice president for 16 years before becoming commissioner of the Southern Conference in 2001. After four years there, he left for TCU.

He spent Sunday packing items into cardboard boxes in his office at TCU and attending a Horned Frogs women's soccer game. He sat down with The Observer's David Scott to talk about his new job.

Q. How did Jerry Richardson approach you about the job?

"It did come out of left field. Mr. Richardson doesn't mince a whole lot of words. In that call, he said, 'Danny, there's an extraordinary opportunity that I think you would really love. But I'm not able to elaborate on it now.'  We talked maybe a couple of minutes.

"I didn't know what it might be. I didn't think that much about it. I didn't say anything to (wife) Peggy about the call; it was just one of those calls that was interesting and I kept it as business as usual. We talked again (a day later) about some of his plans with the Panthers organization in regards to the presidency. But it didn't come to fruition until (Sept. 1, the day before it was announced)."

Q. There's been criticism that the Panthers have hired someone who to run the franchise who has no NFL experience. How do you answer that?

"They're right. I can't sugarcoat that. But if you look at my track record, they took a chance at me at (Burlington) Williams High (as basketball coach) when I was 22, Wofford took a chance on me at 31 to be athletics director. They took chance on me in general administration at Wofford. The Southern Conference took a chance on me; I'd never been in a conference office before. That was an unusual hire. I'd been working in the Carolinas for 50 years when TCU took a chance on me, when I'd never worked west of the Mississippi. So they're right, they are taking a chance on me.

"I know I have a lot to learn. I have to expedite the learning curve and work with others in organization who are already doing a great job."

Q. How much have you been able to learn about the Panthers over the past month and are you concerned about the 0-2 start?

"Actually, I've been trying to finish up here the right way first. I would have liked more time on Carolina Panthers work, but I've really tried to leave the right way here. Mr. Richardson was very supportive of that. He said I need to leave the right way and he wouldn't have expected it any other way.

"I'll get to work Thursday and roll up my sleeves. I have a different perspective on the Panthers than I had three or four weeks ago, but I've been concentrating on TCU before the Panthers."

Q. What's the first thing you'll do?

"I'll talk to the directors of the organization, especially (chief financial officer) Dave Olsen very early. It's very important to understand the finances of an organization. I'll listen and learn the first few weeks about what's the Panthers way.

"I hope collectively we'll keep working to improve, maybe tweaking things here and there. When I came here, I didn't make any wholesale changes. We just kept working."

Q. Do you expect it to be awkward, at least at first, replacing Mark and Jon Richardson, given the surprising nature of their departures?

"I have great respect for Jon and Mark. They were great to me. I've known then since they were in high school. We worked pretty closely with both of them when we were pulling that training camp together. They've been great throughout all my dealings with them and I think they did great with the Carolina Panthers. I have great respect for both of them."

Q. Did Richardson tell you what his expectations are?

"He doesn't have to. I know his expectations, I've known them for a long time. They're extremely high. It's that way for every part of the organization, me included.

"High expectations means doing this well, doing things with class and running a winning organization."

Q. Describe your philosophy of how you think the Panthers should be run.

"The fundamentals are the same as what we talk about (at TCU). I really try to take a long-term view of all our programs. You don't panic after one game or one play. You actually win a lot more that way. If you talk to our coaches here, one thing we've really emphasized is the long-term approach, not the quick fix."

Q. Will that work in the what-have-you-done-for-me-lately NFL?

"It's a philosophy. Sometimes you end up hurting yourself by taking a quick fix approach."

Q. Will you take risks?

"I've never felt uncomfortable taking risks. Risk and progress a lot of times are complimentary variables. I've always been encouraged not to play scared. It's like taking the last shot in basketball. You have to be willing to take the last shot, the key is not to run away from it. If you're willing to take that last shot – and you wouldn't want me taking it, because I wasn't a very good shooter – that's what you want.

"You can't play scared, and your work environment doesn't work when you're scared."

Q. Do you know how the organizational chart will be drawn – will general manager Marty Hurney and coach John Fox report to you?

"We have an excellent general manager in Marty Hurney and a terrific coach in John Fox. I hate to keep drawing parallels with the two organizations as far as fundamentals are concerned. If you ask about the football program here at TCU, (coach) Gary Patterson will tell you he handles the football part of it, and I think he does it really well.

"We'll have those discussions when I get there."

Q. Have you given any thought to the immediate future of the Panthers, who don't have a first-round draft choice next year, aren't sure if they can re-sign Julius Peppers and don't seem to have a successor for quarterback Jake Delhomme in place yet?

"We'll be talking about all those issues, with Marty and coach Fox. We haven't really had discussions about those yet."

Q. How can your college experience help you in the NFL?

"Conferences are wonderful, but they're flawed in their inherent structure. In the Southern Conference, you have 12 schools competing like crazy, then you're asking them to cooperate. Then you're trying to operate efficiently and trying to build community. You have all this tension that's just inherent in the organization and it's all held together by trust. So you have to have trust.

"I suspect in some ways, in the NFL you have 32 teams competing like crazy and you're also trying to cooperate, build community and efficiencies. The element, again, is trust."

Q. Who's your favorite Panthers' player?

"I like them all."

Q. Will you miss your time at TCU?

"I thought I'd be the coach at Williams High – the one who coaches the father, son and grandson – for 40 years. I started there so young, at 22. I loved it there, I loved it at Elon, at Wofford, my time at the Southern Conference. Any time you've been in a place you're going to miss the place and the people. But I'll especially miss the student-athletes.

"So, yeah, I'm going to miss it. This is my fifth year here. I've developed great relationships with all our coaches. We've got great harmony, great collegiality. It's been a great progress.

"I had the luxury of coming into a situation that was already good. I didn't have to come in and make wholesale changes. You want to come in and get a little bit better each year.

"I've never considered anything I've had a job. I've been one of those fortunate ones whose work has never been a job. It's been fun and challenging. This opportunity will be a terrific challenge and I'm looking forward to it."

Q. Do you have a message to Panthers fans?

"My first message to fans is thank you. Their support of Carolina Panthers over last 15 years has been phenomenal. The next is that we'll do everything we can to have a terrific team.

"It's going to be great to work with organization like the Panthers and will be a very interesting challenge. It keeps you stimulated. The fundamentals stay the same. It's the same fundamentals that Mr. Richardson harps on all the time: Harmony, listening, teamwork, hard work all come into play in any organization."

Q. Do you know what your involvement with the NFL will be for the Panthers?

"I don't. I do plan to get up to the NFL offices and spend a few days.

I actually did that when I went to the Southern Conference as commissioner, never been that before.

"One of the first things that I did was to go to NFL offices. That's the No. 1 brand in the world. I wanted to see how the very best operated.

I was very impressed with people that were there, the professionalism and the quality of their work.

"It was very unique after I stepped back and reflected on it. The scheduling room had all these computers, you can imagine all the variables that come into play to do the NFL schedule. Still, they had these  hang-tags of all schedules on the wall – you know, the things with the little hook. That reminds you of the human element. At the end of the day, you can't take human element out of it.

Q. Who have been your mentors?

"When I think back on my Wofford days when I was 31, one of the first things I did was to call (former Clemson athletics director) Bobby Robinson and he was great. I used to spend time there three or four times a year – I'd spend half a day or more – and he'd show me everything of what they were doing at Clemson. Now there's a huge difference in Clemson situation and the Wofford situation. It was an opportunity to see what they were doing, but we could extrapolate it to into what we could do at Wofford, as something to differentiate ourselves.

"The other thing was really helpful was I'm not shy to ask for advice, when first went to Southern Conference, I remember my very first CCA meeting, there were 31 commissioners. I remember sitting by Tom Hansen of the Pac-10. , we struck up a good friendship and he was very helpful.

"(ACC commissioner) John Swofford has been unbelieveable over the years. I've been close to him."

Q. One of your major accomplishments at Wofford was moving the school from the NAIA to NCAA Division II to Division I. How did that go?

"It wasn't me, it was collective 'we' that made that decision. It was a bold move. But the bold move was moving from NAIA to NCAA when at the time there weren't any other NCAA schools that were Division II in the Carolinas, except for the CIAA.

"We stepped out on the limb. It turned out to be good. First thing we went Division II, then we stepped out and went to Division I. It goes back to, you can't be afraid to fail.  There were no guarantees that was all going to work. So if the limb breaks, are people going to still be there. And they would have been there if the limb had snapped. We would have figured something else out and gone in a different direction. And we hadn't played scared."