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Steven Leath Out As AU President.


jared52

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27 minutes ago, Auburn2Eugene said:

I am in no way defending Leath, and im certainly not a Gus lover BUT as far as that contract goes... We had no choice. If we let Gus walk to Arkansas we would not have been happy with the coach we would of wound up with. The coaching carousel had all but run its course by that point. We really had no choice but to give him what he wanted. While Eddie O has done well at LSU, they didnt think he would be the head coach when he got the interm job. Look the joke of a search done by Tennessee. Gus and Sexton had us between a rock and a hard place. 

Also didnt Leath hire ADAG? 

Again im not in the least bit defending him, im just able to see both sides in most cases. The renovation of the presidents mansion itself would of been enough to can Leath in my eyes. And anyone who was even the least bit familiar with his stint at ISU knew this was a bad hire from the start. 

 

This makes the most sense and the most truth of anything posted on the board.

Thanks for posting!

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16 minutes ago, bigbird said:

It's nice to have a unifying topic on the board.

Yes but if Gus was winning championships Leath would probably still have a job. To Gus goes the blame or the credit. Boy that is confusing.   😁 

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40 minutes ago, auburnphan said:

To even think that he is gone just because of athletics is beyond stupid.

Yup & most sensible people aren't even implying that was the sole reason.

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Was never a fan of Leath but I wasn’t going to say anything bad about him until his departure.  It was very strange from the beginning.

Harbert is a fantastic donor though so don’t think he isn’t.  When he gave $80 million to the business school he did it in a smart way.  He did it in installments for performance based results.  He wanted Auburn’s business school to be ranked higher so they teachers essentially had to essentially be better or no money donated.  I was very impressed with him from the beginning.  

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6 minutes ago, augolf1716 said:

Stay the hell out of Iowa..............please

Sounds good. If you ever gut stuck there, you're screwed.

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2 minutes ago, ellitor said:

Respectfully disagree. Keeping enrollment the same for the past nearly 25 years has ballooned our tuition costs more than most universities. Tuition at AU is at or near the highest in the Southeast. I'd rather increase enrollment some to spread out the costs to families more.

Part of it is Auburn doesn’t want to be a huge school where you have to drive to class like UGA.  The way Auburn is laid out we do not have any more land for the campus to build, only to replace old buildings and go up.  We can build on other lots not connected to the central campus like the veterinary school but I am not sure many would like that.  One of Auburn’s great selling points is you can walk to one end of campus to the other for back to back classes and make it in time. 

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1 hour ago, McLoofus said:

What would the new president's gender have to do with his or her level of interest in any given sport? Odd comment.

 

Maybe you need to get out more.....or pay more attention to what's going on at other schools in recent years. ..

But then again, if a president does not have much interest in sports it might give the sports PTB free reign to do what they want to do.  :dunno:

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Phillip's unhinged thoughts: Return of Gogue, search and more

ByPHILLIP MARSHALL 25 minutes ago 

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Barring an unforeseen change of course, former Auburn president Jay Gogue is expected to be named interim president to replace Steven Leath, who was forced out Friday after almost two years as Auburn president.

Gogue served as Auburn’s president from 2007 until 2017. He is a 1969 Auburn graduate. He will not be a candidate for the permanent job.

SEARCH TO START IMMEDIATELY

The search for a permanent president will start immediately. Typically, presidential sources last a year or so, and this one will likely be no different. Provost Bill Hardgrave will likely be a candidate, but he is a long way from a sure thing. He has some support, but whether he has enough support from the right people remains to be seen.

LOSS OF TRUST COST LEATH HIS JOB

Leach’s standing with the Board of Trustees had been shaky for a long time. Some of the reasons for that were related to athletics, but in the end, what happened can best be described as a loss of trust.

WHO IS THE BIGGEST LOSER?

The big loser in this, other than Leath? It has to be trustee Raymond Harbert, who was the driving force behind the hiring of Leath and is No. 1 supporter on the Board of Trustees. In the end, Harbert went along with the decision to make a change, but  it is beyond dispute that his power and influence have taken a major hit.

MALZAHN’S SITUATION LARGELY UNCHANGED

What does it mean to Auburn football coach Gus Malzahn? That’s a question that’s impossible to fully answer. There is no question that Harbert has been Malzahn’s biggest supporter on the Board of Trustees and that he wielded great influence over Leath. The bottom line, however, remains the same: Malzahn needs to win.

WHAT IMPACT WILL GOGUE HAVE ON ATHLETICS?

It is unlikely Gogue will have a lot of impact on athletics in general. He will be a caretaker, not someone charged with making major changes or establishing initiatives.

WHAT DOES CHANGE MEAN TO ALLEN GREENE?

Athletics director Allen Greene, no doubt, didn’t expect  to be in this position when he took the job in 2018. What does it mean? That’s difficult to say. It is no secret that Leath insisted on controlling the athletics department and making the big decisions. Will Greene now be free to run the show as an athletics director should? My guess is that he will. I don’t see Gogue wanting to be a part of running the athletics department. He told me in my first interview with him long ago “I don’t hire and fire coaches. I hire and fire athletics directors.”

FOOTBALL COIMPLEX PLANS WILL MOVE FORWARD

What about the often-discussed football complex? I don’t see this change being a major factor. It was obvious at the last meeting that the Board of Trustees had taken ownership  of that process. Days after Leath said it would not come up, it came up and he was instructed by the trustees to move forward.

EIGHT AUBURN PRESIDENTS

In my years of covering Auburn, the university has had eight presidents – Harry Philpott, Hanly Funderburk, Wilford Bailey, Jim Martin, Bill Muse, William Walker, Ed Richardson, Gogue and Leath. Some were more effective than others. Leath and Walker were the least effective of all when it came to pulling people together and moving the university as a whole forward in a positive way.

ATHLETICS, ACADEMICS CAN SUCCEED TOGETHER

Like it or not, athletics must be an important component in hiring a new president. There is no reason those two missions of the university can’t thrive together. In fact, success in one area can contribute greatly to success in another. It takes vision. Can Auburn find the man or woman with that vision? We will see.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

3COMMENTS

“Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world.”--Joel A. Barker

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21 minutes ago, ellitor said:

Respectfully disagree. Keeping enrollment the same for the past nearly 25 years has ballooned our tuition costs more than most universities. Tuition at AU is at or near the highest in the Southeast. I'd rather increase enrollment some to spread out the costs to families more.

https://www.collegetuitioncompare.com/best-schools/Southeastern-Conference/

Check again.....state basically sets the tuition...bama is larger and has higher tuition...as does UT.....size and tuition are not much related... 

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I especially like the idea of ADGreene possibly having more control over athletics department!

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9 minutes ago, toddc said:

WHAT DOES CHANGE MEAN TO ALLEN GREENE?

Athletics director Allen Greene, no doubt, didn’t expect  to be in this position when he took the job in 2018. What does it mean? That’s difficult to say. It is no secret that Leath insisted on controlling the athletics department and making the big decisions. Will Greene now be free to run the show as an athletics director should? My guess is that he will. I don’t see Gogue wanting to be a part of running the athletics department. He told me in my first interview with him long ago “I don’t hire and fire coaches. I hire and fire athletics directors.”

This is key right here for me. 

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45 minutes ago, gr82be said:

Yes but if Gus was winning championships Leath would probably still have a job. To Gus goes the blame or the credit. Boy that is confusing.   😁 

He wouldn't. Leath had been marked a while ago. A few of us on here had mentioned he would be gone by late spring or early Summer.

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4 minutes ago, bigbird said:

He wouldn't. Leath had been marked a while ago. A few of us on here had mentioned he would be gone by late spring or early Summer.

This guy just seems like a very unlikeable character.

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19 minutes ago, toddc said:

...the Board of Trustees had taken ownership  of that process. Days after Leath said it would not come up, it came up and he was instructed by the trustees to move forward.

 

tenor.gif

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4 minutes ago, DAG said:

This guy just seems like a very unlikeable character.

We was disliked from academia to athletics.

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20 minutes ago, ellitor said:

I get all that. I'm not asking for AU to be a huge school but hearing more & more of these stories about some families getting more AID from IVY schools making it more affordable there than if their kids went to AU is crazy....Alabama really needs a lottery.

Is the flip side to this that they will be paying an increased amount of student loans to go to an Ivy League school over Auburn? The average cost of tuition in the Ivy League is about $25k more than out of state tuition at Auburn.

50 minutes ago, ellitor said:

I'd rather increase enrollment some to spread out the costs to families more.

What do you mean by this?

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1 hour ago, AUTigersfan89 said:

I completely agree. I want a president who is heavily academic focused. I don't want a president who sees it as a priority to grow the university in terms of enrollment. I actually think we could shrink in size.

I agree that we should have a president that puts a lot of emphasis on academics, but I disagree about shrinking the enrollment - I think that would be a bad move. I actually don’t mind the campus being built up & enrollment at AU being over 30,000 students at all.

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raises hand...............i got a question. is auburn having to pay this man to leave? serious question.

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54 minutes ago, bigbird said:
59 minutes ago, DAG said:

This guy just seems like a very unlikeable character.

We was disliked from academia to athletics.

...from the state of Iowa to the state of Alabama...

Maybe thUga will hire him...

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1 hour ago, bigbird said:

He wouldn't. Leath had been marked a while ago. A few of us on here had mentioned he would be gone by late spring or early Summer.

I was really just making a poorly phrased joke playing off of your statement about it being a unifying topic for this board. 

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23 minutes ago, aubiefifty said:

raises hand...............i got a question. is auburn having to pay this man to leave? serious question.

Leath’s contract with Auburn sets a five-year term as president with a deferred retirement bonus at the end of the five years of $1.25 million. The deferred payment will be placed in funds made up of two parts consisting of an initial amount of $500,000 then $250,000 put in for the first three years of Leath’s contract.

The move to Auburn is a pay raise for Leath, whose base salary at Iowa State was $525,000 a year.

President Jay Gogue made $647,711.96 in the 2016-2017 fiscal year, according to Auburn University

Also included in the contract is a $31,250 car allowance. The university will also reimburse Leath for moving expenses.

Here is a little information 

 

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