With Allen Greene departing the Auburn University Athletic Director post just eight days ahead of the 2022 Auburn football season opener, the Tigers are facing scrutiny from all corners of the national media.
We’ve seen Duke’s AD Kevin White call Greene’s ouster “terribly disturbing” and “utterly shameful” and Tennessee’s AD Danny White congratulate Greene for ‘getting the heck out of a crazy situation for greener pastures’ while admiring how he ‘managed that chaos with class & integrity.’
And that’s just Greene’s peers’ opinions. ESPN’s Pete Thamel openly criticized Auburn, saying ‘Why would anyone ever want to be the AD at Auburn?’ Thamel couldn’t hide his disdain for the Plains if he tried.
Thamel’s co-worker at the World Wide Leader, Adam Rittenberg, went a step further, saying that there isn’t a less powerful AD position in the Power Five than as the head of the Auburn University athletics:
Greene came up in athletics administration at Notre Dame -- where he played baseball -- under White, who blasts Auburn here.
— Adam Rittenberg (@ESPNRittenberg) August 26, 2022
Not sure there's a less powerful Power AD position in college sports than the one at Auburn. https://t.co/2c84xv9V7u
Auburn football must use Allen Greene’s ouster as motivation
No one believes in Auburn football in 2022. Bryan Harsin and the rest of the Tigers that stuck around after last year’s late-season five-game slide are being counted out and projected to bottom-feed.
With Allen Greene now searching for ‘greener pastures’ as Tennessee’s fourth AD since 2016 sees it, the Tigers now have a reason to show out this fall — finding a big-name AD with a proven track record could get the Auburn athletics department on the right track across the board.
Auburn football is where it always tends to be: between a rock and a hard place. It can survive this media circus if and only if the players come together on the field and shift the focus to the results between the lines.