Allen Greene talks winning culture, facilities

[aubiefifty 16,777]

Sports

Auburn AD Allen Greene talks winning culture, facilities

Updated Jun 14, 9:48 AM; Posted Jun 14, 9:45 AM

dboyette@al.com

Auburn athletic director Allen Greene was on hand for the "Ambush" tour stop Tuesday night at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville. Greene, who was hired in January, touched on multiple topics.

On the excitement built by success of the football, men's basketball and baseball teams:
"Winning breeds more winning. When our coaches see other coaches being successful, it gives them another shot in the arm. We're looking forward to rolling into the fall and getting football, cross country, volleyball and soccer started. They're going to carry the tone throughout the rest of the year."

On how much fun it was to arrive during the midst of all that winning:
"I love winning. Yeah, it's great, but honestly, part of our responsibility is to navigate and be even keel through it all because we know every season is not going to be a season of success. But we really need to enjoy the times when we're successful. The times we're humbled by not being so successful, it's going to help keep us hungry."

Greene discusses administrative shakeup, coach contracts

Greene shared with AL.com what went into thought process in shaking up Auburn's athletic department.

On discussions regarding a football-only complex:
"Coach (Gus Malzahn) and I, it's no different than any other of our 15 head coaches, we talk about the future their program. We want to make sure that we're well positioned so that we can be successful. With regards to that facility, we continue to have talks about what makes the most sense and trying to figure out not only a plan but putting something forth that we feel like is palatable for our fans. I certainly understand we need to get people excited about it so we can raise enough money to actually build something. But there's no question that in order for us to continue the momentum that we have, and we've got a lot of great assets at our university with our athletics department ... but we need to make sure that we keep on checking the pulse of the industry and, as the landscapes shift, we want to be prepared to move in the directions that we feel like we need to."

On Auburn's facilities master plan:
"We have to make sure that we're looking 5-10 years out all the time. Then, every other year we're calibrating based on whatever happened previously. Facilities are incredibly important, more so for the benefit of our student-athletes. Part of it is recruiting, but part of it is making sure that our young people are in the best possible position. There's no secret that, in this league, everybody wants to win, everybody wants to be successful and everybody wants to develop their young people, so we have to make sure that we don't fall behind. We want to do the opposite; we want to get ahead of the curve. We're going to look to do those things and get the Auburn fanbase excited."

On the importance of improving football facilities:

"I think there's two pieces to that. No. 1, we want every single one of our student-athletes to have the same experience, and that is an Auburn experience, an outstanding experience. That's an enterprise decision and focus. Then we go to the business side and we need to understand, and we do understand, that the success of football is going to drive the ability for us to do things for our other sports. So, yes, there will be a focus on football. There has to be a focus on football if we want to serve our other sports and do it to the best of our ability."

On negotiating a new contract for baseball coach Butch Thompson, a topic that also came up during an interview last week:
"I think if I'm sitting down talking to him about that right now (shortly after the Super Regional loss at Florida on Monday), that would be a bad move on my part. Coach and I have talked about him being around here for a long time and we want him here for a long time. I feel very confident with where our discussions have gone so far. He loves this place. After the tough loss, he talked about how much he loved his players. There's not much more that you can ask for out of a coach. He gets all he can out of them. That's the type of leader that we want for our program."

On if he plans to launch any new initiatives:
"We're always talking about the future and part of it is I'm working to get an understanding where we are now. I need to take a look back in the rear view mirror a little bit to see kind of how we got to where we are, and slowly but surely, you start to figure out, 'OK, here are the things we need to move forward.' We're starting to put those pieces of the puzzle together. We're starting to put the pieces of a facilities master plan together, of a strategic plan together. Certainly, from a staffing perspective, how to best serve our student-athletes. We're seeing those things start to happen. A lot of it is going to be behind the scenes, but we're working hard to make sure that when we put something in front of you, that it's exciting and something that our fans can get behind."

On what he's learned on the job so far:
"I learn every day. I learn about the Auburn family. I learn about the pride and the passion that our fans have. I learn about the pride and the passion that our staff has. Our jobs are lifestyle jobs and we don't see our families at home very much. We spend lots of time with our people in the office and supporting our student-athletes. One of the things I really respect about the Auburn family is they understand and they want to win; they're passionate about that. But they also understand that we need to develop Auburn men and Auburn women and make sure we're preparing people for the real world. I'm excited. I think it's a really great fit for someone of my profile to be down here at Auburn. I'm looking forward to serving this department and this university, and hopefully be having great things to come in the future."

 

Daniel Boyette covers Huntsville sports for AL.com.

[madkat7 233]

AD Greene talks the talk, and just may be walking the walk as well. He's off to a strong and authoritative start. WDE!

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,665]

I wish Auburn was a bigger city and campus. Because the personnel always has such Grand ideas but constraints usually end up coming back to size I feel (there CERTAINLY aren’t financial issues) 

[auburn4ever 1,266]

Gus knows he and his staff will have coach a lot hard with Allen Greene as our AD. Allen doesn't look like the type would happy with his football coach going 8-5 or 7-6 and not say anything. On the other hand, Gus had 2 8-5 seasons plus a 7-6 record and Jay Jacobs gave Gus 2 year more years on his contract plus more money the year we had to beat Memphis in the Bham bowl just so we'd end up at 7-6 in 2015. However, we had a conference record of 2-6. And yet, JJ treated Gus like he just won the SEC and the national championship.