(This is labeled "football" and it's not entirely football, but we don't have an "athletic administration" tag.)
Allen Greene is the opposite of Jay Jacobs.
That's my biggest takeaway after talking with and listening to Auburn's "new" athletic director today. Where Jacobs was curiously focused on small details while somehow ignoring massive shifts in the Auburn sphere, Greene is much more concerned about the big picture and cares far less, if at all, about the minutiae that consumed Jacobs' mind. Keep in mind that Jacobs once spent 30 minutes in a staff meeting arguing about the relative merits of offering a $2 bottle of water versus a $5 bottle of water at Jordan-Hare Stadium. Greene won't be fighting that battle — ever. He's operating on a different plane.
A lot of what was discussed is off the record. And I'll keep it that way. As a result, I'm not going to offer a ton of specifics, but believe me when I say Greene represents a massive shift in operational approach. He values positivity. He values independent problem-solving. He values people who fix things without being told how to fix them, remedies problems that haven't yet become apparent.
He senses, correctly in my opinion, that Auburn has been too reactionary for too long. He wants Auburn to be much more forward-thinking, to actually innovate, to actually solve its problems. It's an ambitious agenda, such as it is, but it's one that may help Auburn ascend from its perch as a good program.
It's clear that Greene wants a new football operations facility. From talking with people around the department, I sense that their funding goal is $60-65 million. For comparison's sake, Clemson's new facility, completed last summer, cost $55 million. I also sense that Greene perhaps wants that facility to be less about lazy rivers and barbecue pits and more about some new concept of how best to serve the football players who improve themselves in that building. He's still formulating that concept. Based on the way it's being discussed, I have to believe he's spoken with Tim Cook or other entrepreneurial leaders about what needs to happen.
The BOT can help fund that project, but can't do it all. The department has to raise approximately half of that from private donors, I'd estimate, and I don't think those conversations have been particularly positive. Auburn people have given the department a lot of money during the past decade or so. I sense some fatigue out there. I also sense some heavy skepticism of Malzhan — for reasons we've discussed here many, many times. It's fair to say that a large swath of Auburn people see the $49-million contract, the lasting bind it creates between Malzahn and this program, as a serious problem. Greene's opinion on that contract doesn't matter. At least half of that money is guaranteed, which means Malzahn will be here a little while regardless of performance.
Greene wants to mitigate the performance dips in football. His goal is to get Auburn to a point where it's a Top 10 team every single year. He believes an innovative football ops facility is one tangible step in the right direction toward that goal; many prospects and their families really care about the program's ability to prove "total education." Greene sees this football ops facility as the blueprint for how Auburn can brand itself in that space.
Jordan-Hare? I don't sense that Greene has spent much time with that grand project just yet. I believe he sees value in making improvements there. He's pushing for a master plan, but hasn't yet received one and, frankly, isn't yet sure himself about which improvements make most sense there. He's trying to fight a few battles at a time, so to speak, and he's biding his time (for now) when it comes to the stadium.
You all know about the high-profile changes he's made recently within the organization — firing several executive-level ADs like Meredith Jenkins, David Mines, Bernard Hill, Mike McBride. He recently hired Brant Ust from Notre Dame for a reimagined, executive-level role, but I expect more changes to be made. Greene is really pushing this idea of "the old way didn't work" and that means any Jacobs-era stalwarts must quickly (and assuredly) demonstrate their value in this new era or prepare for the inevitable.
I wouldn't say Greene is impersonal, but he has a ruthless side.
Also, no word yet on his affinity for funnel cakes.
