AU President

[JBiGGiE 2,488]

I don't fault the administration for re-signing Malzahn. If Auburn would have let Malzahn go to Arkansas after that whirlwind of a November it would've been a bad look for the university. Looking at what Arkansas has right now, Malzahn could shoulder a 2-3 rebuild. If we are 4-3 with a different coach, the national media would be lambasting Auburn for letting a 10-win coach walk.

Lose-lose situation. And as far as the outrageous buyout? You can thank Jerry Jones and the Walton family for that one.

[aujeff11 6,243]

Just now, ChltteTiger said:

What does hiring Greene have to do with the utter ineptitude of approving that criminal contract?

I don’t understand the nature of only keeping  score of the questionable decisions that people made. 

Leath did hire an exceptional AD in Greene to make the quality athletic decisions that you feel Leath cannot make. 

[thrustmaxwell 413]

55 minutes ago, aujeff11 said:

Out of curiosity, when Gus beat two number one ranked teams and Arkansas was literally on the plane to offer bim, were you a poster saying let him walk? If Leath let him walk and hired a no name coach with no success to show for it, and Gus was doing well in Arkansas, would you be writing a similar post? Fact of the matter is we have a quality AD now, and we won’t have to worry about such complex circumstances happening again. 

Absolutely.  It was a best case scenario.  When I woke up to find out Auburn didn't let Arkansas pay us handsomely to take Gus off our hands this was my reaction:

 

[thrustmaxwell 413]

12 minutes ago, aujeff11 said:

I don’t understand the nature of only keeping  score of the questionable decisions that people made. 

Leath did hire an exceptional AD in Greene to make the quality athletic decisions that you feel Leath cannot make. 

There's that for sure, but he battled the same AD to fire the only good thing the Auburn Athletic Department has going for it that matters.  I'm not certain he's awful, but he's to be watched with both eyes open.  The same folks who let this  comedy of errors unfold put the man in charge.

[bigsixfive 328]

2 hours ago, Brad_ATX said:

Oh the hiring of Leath absolutely stunk from a transparency standpoint.  But I'm the one who earlier said that I still want my degree to mean something.  When you start firing a school President over football performance, especially when there isn't an academic scandal at play, then there's a HUGE problem.  I said it earlier that many here may not remember the early 2000s.  I was at AU then and we nearly lost our accreditation from SACS because football and boosters were running the school.  If we lose that accreditation, then my degrees (multiple) become worthless.

Leath's metric isn't whether or not Gus wins football games. His metric is the impact of his decisions on the university. The present situation looks like he made a very poor, hasty decision that will ultimately result in large reductions in revenue to AU for half a decade or more. Remember, the academic side benefits when athletics (i.e. the football team) does well, so it's not just about football.

Were your degrees not accredited by some organization/institution directly related to your major field of study? Those accreditations are what matter, not SACS.

[Brad_ATX 13,654]

10 minutes ago, bigsixfive said:

Leath's metric isn't whether or not Gus wins football games. His metric is the impact of his decisions on the university. The present situation looks like he made a very poor, hasty decision that will ultimately result in large reductions in revenue to AU for half a decade or more. Remember, the academic side benefits when athletics (i.e. the football team) does well, so it's not just about football.

Were your degrees not accredited by some organization/institution directly related to your major field of study? Those accreditations are what matter, not SACS.

Honestly unsure.  But if the university loses its primary accreditation in a public manner like we almost did in 2002/2003, then that's a black eye on every program at AU.

Look, I recognize that the contract was hastily negotiated and is gonna cost AU a lot of cash.  But the President needs to be judged primarily on academic performance, research, and fund raising.  Firing or even talking about firing a President because of a bad football season is just a terrible way to run a school.

[selias 2,398]

I'm not a Leath fan by any means. His history at ISU seems dubious at best but, firing a University President because of football is not smart. Doing something like that puts the cart before the horse. Though, if Leath does something like he did at ISU with misusing university assets, toss him out on his ear.

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,819]

IDK about anything else in reference to Leath, but I doubt he really had an option on whether to fire Gus or not with how bad Auburn looked with the softball nonsense and prior to the UGA game. The sports department looked like an embarassment in 2 of its major 3 programs unfortunately, and I assumed the Board didnt want turnover unless they had a great reason.

 

Now FORTY NINE million (AND SEVEN YEARS????) is inexcusable. I wouldve took paying him such an obscene amount annually if it was like 3 years, if hes truly worth s***, you'd keep extending him bi annually like Saban anyway. 

[AUFriction 1,179]

I can’t speak for Leath because quite honestly I haven’t paid much attention to what he’s done since being hired. I know he’s done a lot for research funding which improves the school’s prestige and productivity. I can also say with confidence that a trained dog would be an upgrade to Gouge. I was there during his years at Auburn. Everything that man did benefited the executive administration while s***ing on students and faculty. The faculty hated him because he did not invest well in research or educational improvements and only seemed concerned in making physical improvements to campus with the goal of making campus more visually appealing. The students also hated him because he sent student relations in full reverse. He restructured university administration to reduce student voice in university matters, and put a puppet in the only real channel for students to give input. He reduced healthy dining on campus and replaced it with expensive and unhealthy alternatives. He also reduced parking options around campus, particularly for students. My (now) wife and I were actually lied to by Gouge on this very issue. As the number of student parking lots fell, we both expressed this concern to Gouge. We both were told that new lots were in the works close to campus. Those lots were never opened. He agreed to update the horrible student gym, but only agreed to do so if students agreed to front the bill. When the new gym construction started, it was placed in yet another student parking lot. Gouge was terrible. I can’t believe Leath is any worse.

[AUFriction 1,179]

As a side note, Leath probably had little to do with the contract. The president’s role in athletics are primarily to make sure we have a good athletic director and to use athletics to promote the university. He booted Jacobs and ensured that a good replacement was picked for him. If he had any role at all in Gus’s contract, he probably trusted someone in athletics (other than Jacobs) to give him a recommendation on the contract. Of course, that person probably worked under Jacobs in the athletic department , so...

Having previously worked in a faculty role at a university, I’ve met the full range of academics. Some love sports, but most are oblivious. While I love all of Auburn including auburn athletics, I doubt the president is as focused on athletics as some of you seem to think he is.

[im4aual 488]

I'm curious as to why people here think that Allen Greene is an "exceptional" athletic director.  This is the guy who extended Coach Flo's contract and wouldn't interview David Marsh.  Not impressed by anything he's done.  Not being JJ doesn't make him exceptional.  

[auburnphan 6,050]

11 hours ago, aujeff11 said:

You apparently know about Leath a lot more than I do. I can’t answer to any of the stuff that you’re saying. Firing a University President over a disappointing football season seems a little too pitchforks and torches for me though.

agreed

[aubaseball 2,673]

15 hours ago, aujeff11 said:

This article suggests otherwise.

https://www.fayettevilleflyer.com/2017/12/01/ruminations-while-hogs-are-stuck-waiting-on-gus/

This is the problem with everyone that was on the Gus side.   Who cared if he left!!!  I didn’t.   As a matter of fact, I wanted them to take him.    There are hundred of coaches that are better than Gus.   Focus on the product that is put out on the field on a consistent basis.   Not two games.   

[Guest lurtz]

13 hours ago, aujeff11 said:

You apparently know about Leath a lot more than I do. I can’t answer to any of the stuff that you’re saying. Firing a University President over a disappointing football season seems a little too pitchforks and torches for me though.

We aren't talking about firing Malzahn over one season, but his career at Auburn.  And we aren't talking about firing Leath over a bad season. We're talking about firing him over the contract, which Malzahn's performance here didn't justify. If it was Leath's call to approve the contract it was a bad one, and yeah I think it was bad enough to justify firing him.  

For the posters saying firing Leath would send a bad message, I disagree. It says the university is not about football first, so you can't expect to continually throw $ away on bad coaches and not be held accountable. You have to be as frugal with AD $ as with any other university funds. More so in fact, because we aren't just a football mill, we're one of the best public universities in the country. You don't get a pass for making a terrible choice just because it was the expedient one and "omg it's the football program, what else could I do?".  What you could do is tell Sexton that Malzahn's tenure doesn't justify that kind of guaranteed money. We've been loyal to your client through 5 years of inconsistency, how about he show's a little loyalty to the university that gave him a shot at coaching SEC football? Otherwise, yeah good luck to him with rebuilding the program at Arkansas. From his track record here, I'm not sure he's up to it. Auburn was in a stronger position in that negotiation than some people seem to recognize.

Every president should be judged on every aspect of his/her job. We should want accountability in the athletic department and the administration. 

[thrustmaxwell 413]

The natives appear to be getting restless re: President Leath and this massive contract he and the BOT are responsible for. It sounds like if Gus doesn't win out, or at least field a squad that doesn't look like a complete embarrassment week in and week out, he's going to be feeling a lot of heat. His handling of the BRUCE situation was inexcusable and this might be the last straw to a short career at AU.

All of this has me believing there is a changing of the guard in the power structure.  Hopefully we'll see changes on the BOT in the coming years.  It should be eye-opening that Tim Cook will be on Duke's BOT and yet there's never really even been public discussion of him joining AU's.

[aujeff11 6,243]

Don’t know as much about Leath as y’all do. I’ve made my ignorant thoughts clear throughout this thread if y’all need to revisit them. 

[thrustmaxwell 413]

1 hour ago, lurtz said:

We aren't talking about firing Malzahn over one season, but his career at Auburn.  And we aren't talking about firing Leath over a bad season. We're talking about firing him over the contract, which Malzahn's performance here didn't justify. If it was Leath's call to approve the contract it was a bad one, and yeah I think it was bad enough to justify firing him.  

For the posters saying firing Leath would send a bad message, I disagree. It says the university is not about football first, so you can't expect to continually throw $ away on bad coaches and not be held accountable. You have to be as frugal with AD $ as with any other university funds. More so in fact, because we aren't just a football mill, we're one of the best public universities in the country. You don't get a pass for making a terrible choice just because it was the expedient one and "omg it's the football program, what else could I do?".  What you could do is tell Sexton that Malzahn's tenure doesn't justify that kind of guaranteed money. We've been loyal to your client through 5 years of inconsistency, how about he show's a little loyalty to the university that gave him a shot at coaching SEC football? Otherwise, yeah good luck to him with rebuilding the program at Arkansas. From his track record here, I'm not sure he's up to it. Auburn was in a stronger position in that negotiation than some people seem to recognize.

Every president should be judged on every aspect of his/her job. We should want accountability in the athletic department and the administration. 

[AUwent 3,778]

5 hours ago, lurtz said:

We aren't talking about firing Malzahn over one season, but his career at Auburn.  And we aren't talking about firing Leath over a bad season. We're talking about firing him over the contract, which Malzahn's performance here didn't justify. If it was Leath's call to approve the contract it was a bad one, and yeah I think it was bad enough to justify firing him.  

For the posters saying firing Leath would send a bad message, I disagree. It says the university is not about football first, so you can't expect to continually throw $ away on bad coaches and not be held accountable. You have to be as frugal with AD $ as with any other university funds. More so in fact, because we aren't just a football mill, we're one of the best public universities in the country. You don't get a pass for making a terrible choice just because it was the expedient one and "omg it's the football program, what else could I do?".  What you could do is tell Sexton that Malzahn's tenure doesn't justify that kind of guaranteed money. We've been loyal to your client through 5 years of inconsistency, how about he show's a little loyalty to the university that gave him a shot at coaching SEC football? Otherwise, yeah good luck to him with rebuilding the program at Arkansas. From his track record here, I'm not sure he's up to it. Auburn was in a stronger position in that negotiation than some people seem to recognize.

Every president should be judged on every aspect of his/her job. We should want accountability in the athletic department and the administration. 

[aujeff11 6,243]

6 hours ago, lurtz said:

It says the university is not about football first,

The irony is you’re saying Leath should be fired over a football related contract which would’ve been perfectly fine if we were undefeated right now. I don’t understand how you expect the BOT to fire someone when they also signed off on the same contract that is egregious enough for dismissals. Doesn’t make sense to me unless I’m missing something. 

[tomcat 571]

22 hours ago, gr82be said:

Greene wasn't at Auburn when the contract was agreed upon. How is he involved?

Greene is not on the hook for Gus’ contract. However, do you really want him hiring the next football coach. His first hire was a swim coach. Far better options available.

22 hours ago, thrustmaxwell said:

What's Greene have to do with it?  All that man's done is support BRUCE, which is the most important thing for a basketball school.

 

[auburn4ever 1,266]

I blame any moron for agreeing to sign Malzahn to 7 more years that's worth 49 million plus an unheard of buyout.

[Guest lurtz]

11 minutes ago, aujeff11 said:

The irony is you’re saying Leath should be fired over a football related contract which would’ve been perfectly fine if we were undefeated right now. I don’t understand how you expect the BOT to fire someone when they also signed off on the same contract that is egregious enough for dismissals. Doesn’t make sense to me unless I’m missing something. 

Now I'm missing something.  Where did I say I expected anything to happen? What I said was:

If it was Leath's call to approve the contract it was a bad one, and yeah I think it was bad enough to justify firing him. 

and

We should want accountability in the athletic department and the administration. 

I don't think you can get accountability from an organization unless there are repercussions for the people within it who make bad decisions. I think it's "ironic" to expect otherwise.

And for the record I wouldn't have been fine with the extension even if we were undefeated now.  But in truth I probably wouldn't be as vocal about it.

 

[aujeff11 6,243]

1 minute ago, lurtz said:

If it was Leath's call to approve the contract it was a bad one, and yeah I think it was bad enough to justify firing him. 

Well the same ones possibly firing him are the same ones who handed him the contract to sign. Yikes 

3 minutes ago, lurtz said:

We should want accountability in the athletic department and the administration. 

 

We can demand accountability. We could start with Gus and keep our eyes open on Leath. Or we could just prevent it from happening again. 

2 minutes ago, lurtz said:

And for the record I wouldn't have been fine with the extension even if we were undefeated now.  But in truth I probably wouldn't be as vocal about it.

 

Every extension is a risk. TAM pretty much guaranteed every bit of 10 years and 100 million on a coach that just left FSU in shambles

[Guest lurtz]

4 minutes ago, aujeff11 said:

Well the same ones possibly firing him are the same ones who handed him the contract to sign. Yikes 

We can demand accountability. We could start with Gus and keep our eyes open on Leath. Or we could just prevent it from happening again. 

Every extension is a risk. TAM pretty much guaranteed every bit of 10 years and 100 million on a coach that just left FSU in shambles

Maybe saying Leath should pay a price for the extension is even less realistic than saying Gus should be gone now, regardless of the buyout.  But somehow AU has to break this cycle of throwing millions away on poor coaching hires.  I don't know how you do that without having consequences for the people doing the hiring. The OP is right: Leath has a fiduciary responsibility to AU and if he approved Gus' extension, he failed it. 

Agree about the risk inherent in big hires and extensions. But there was enough info on the books about Gus to pass on this one.  

[CameronCrazy 1,105]

Ever since I have been alive, the problem has been with the administration. They do NOT know how to negotiate a contract. EVERY time we give a coach a raise or an extension, that coach falls flat on his face the next year. How about we wait until our coach proves that he can sustain success before we give him a raise or an extension?! How about that coach win 10 games two years in a row before we make a deal. Last year’s contract extension was the worst in Auburn history. Malzahn and his agent bluffed us into signing that deal and made us look like fools.

The ONLY reason we didn’t call his bluff is because we had no Plan B. Again, that is on the administration. Our only hope is that Allan Greene will have the vision and authority to negotiate this buyout in Auburn’s favor and bring in a proven head coach that can sustain success. Dr. Leash has already proven that he’s not the man to do that.