One of the great things about covering Auburn — not sure this applies to being an Auburn grad or ardent supporter — is the bizarre, non-linear way things happen behind the scenes.
The weird thing is that the athletic department seems normal from outward appearance. The people are nice. The offices look like offices everywhere else. Stuff gets done. It all looks and sounds normal. Yet the strangest things happen. And this deal with Allen Green and Gen. Ron Burgess in the same building doing basically the same job is one of the strangest things I've ever seen ... at least on a pound-per-pound basis.
A refresher:
• Allen Greene is the athletic director and his boss is president Jay Gogue
• Gogue moved his top administrative lieutenant, Gen. Ron Burgess, to the athletic complex in July
• Some coaches now report to Burgess while others report to Greene
• Greene, to my knowledge, hasn't received any meaningful explanation about what's going on here
Considering this snafu, it's no surprise that Greene interviewed for the open AD job at Michigan State last month. He finished second.
I said on the Brain Drain in July (it was bantered on the Bunker as well) that Greene is "toast" and that he won't make it to Christmas as AD. I still believe that. He's scrambling to find another job, which is prudent considering the situation, but I don't think he has an unlimited amount of time to find it.
I don't sense that Gogue has a replacement in mind. He's set to retire for good in relatively short order and it's wise to let the next president select the next AD. You want synergy between those two positions. You need synergy between those two positions. The best programs have it.
How did we get here? That's such a perplexing answer. Greene cut budgets by (approximately) 10 percent during the spring/summer of 2019 — before COVID-19 was a thing. This was a very unpopular decision fueled by Greene's intense desire to keep the department in spotless financial condition. Greene is fastidious when it comes to financials. While being a responsible steward of the department's riches is an important part of the job, many observers believe Greene went too far with it. He was too fastidious. When these cuts were being made, many observers felt that Greene didn't explain them well and didn't show much sympathy about how these cuts would affect coaches and players.
I never have understood these cuts. Doing this always was going to make Greene unpopular, so surely he was doing this at the urging or behest of his boss, right? We've never found any evidence of that. In fact, the word we've gotten out of Samford Hall is that Greene was doing this on his own out of some iron-clad personal view about what constitutes "solid financial standing."
OK.
Once COVID-19 hit, Greene began working from home and that continued long after folks expected him back in the office. In the eyes of many subordinates (ie coaches), he became the bad guy who cut funding, doesn't care about them on a personal level and isn't available to them.
Look, coaches can be egotistical. They can be humorously myopic. Their needs are bigger than anyone else's needs. I'm careful to avoid getting too swept away when it comes to coaches being angry about budgets and whatnot. We've heard this all before.
Yet this is an unmanageable situation. It's terminal. Auburn has two athletic directors right now when the maximum allowable number is one.
I don't know how this story will end, but know this: Auburn athletics cannot and will not thrive until Greene is gone. And (IMO) it's not because Greene is a bad guy or even a bad athletic director. It's because he doesn't know how to play politics.
Auburn is all about politics — for better or worse.
