AD Candidate List

slugboy

Moderator
Staff member
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11,491
Some say the boosters went over Greene’s head in order to get Gus out and Harsin in. Well, if that’s true it looks terrible on him because he isn’t able to stand up to the big money guys and do his job as the athletic director and hire the best coach available.

Some say the boosters didn’t want Harsin and he went and got him anyway. Well, if that’s true it looks terrible on him because Harsin has been a nightmare at Auburn and was never, ever going to be a cultural fit.

Either way, he was responsible for the hire, the same way Stansbury was responsible for the Collins hire.

What reasons are there that Greene is the superior AD than Stansbury? ADTS raised more money for the GTAA and contributed to more renovation projects than any AD Tech has seen since Homer Rice. Stansbury led a pretty miserable Georgia Tech athletics program when he took over to it’s performances in the Director’s Cup since the turn of century. He brought our average finish in the Cup up 30 places from when he took over.

When Greene took over as Auburn’s AD in 2018, they were 13th in the Director’s Cup. By 2021 they were 86th in Director’s Cup standings, and 12th in the SEC. That’s literally worse than where Tech was at that point in time.

By every measurable, Stansbury is a better AD than Greene, or at the very least he was just as good when you consider how many more resources Auburn had than GT.

Unless you can pull some data and not just anecdotal evidence that you love to use so much, I just don’t see Greene being a step up from ADTS at all, in fact he might be a step back.

Look, I'm not an Auburn expert. I know a bit about the campus and the environment. You've got a professor at Auburn who is there every day telling you how the Harsin hire happened. It's a big university with a lot of students, but it's also kind of a small town. If someone who is in the thick of Auburn day-in and day-out says that a hire was directed by a university search committee appointed by the university president, I'm going to take his word for it.

That's not the same as Stansbury's hiring of Collins. Stansbury kept that hiring process close to the vest, and that's an observation we made here at the time (and the local paper did, too).
 

GTLorenzo

Helluva Engineer
Messages
1,553
Nina King is the new AD at Duke. Surprised a female candidate hasn't been brought up so far. Don't we have an alum in WNBA management?

I'm fine with hiring whoever. But, this is a football centric hire. I would assume that would require someone who has worked closely with a successful football program and/or made a football hire. If that's a female, fine.
 

CEB

Helluva Engineer
Messages
2,610
I'm fine with hiring whoever. But, this is a football centric hire. I would assume that would require someone who has worked closely with a successful football program and/or made a football hire. If that's a female, fine.
You know... I agree with you. It is football driven and one would expect that a football centric hire would result in a male candidate from a “football” school... BUT we sit here and say we have to do things differently on the field. We have to scheme differently, innovate differently, game plan differently, etc. Maybe what we need as AD is similar.... maybe is someone who can look objectively without “football” blinders. Someone smart, savvy and unencumbered with conventional football knowledge? Go ask the hard, unconventional, even silly “non-football” questions, right?
We all kind of agree that we won’t be successful following the models that make the factories successful...
I also might be into the bourbon :unsure:
 

jgtengineer

Helluva Engineer
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2,969

gtmike

Georgia Tech Fan
Messages
40
Was just talking to some longtime Auburn season ticket holders saying they would laugh if we hired Greene. Feels weird when you hire someone that another place is glad is gone, like Pastner for example. That said, I know nothing about ADs or Greene so hope GT knows what they are doing.
 

Vespidae

Helluva Engineer
Messages
5,326
Location
Auburn, AL
Was just talking to some longtime Auburn season ticket holders saying they would laugh if we hired Greene. Feels weird when you hire someone that another place is glad is gone, like Pastner for example. That said, I know nothing about ADs or Greene so hope GT knows what they are doing.
Sorry, but there is no one who is glad Greene is gone except those with no clue.
 

RamblinRed

Helluva Engineer
Featured Member
Messages
5,862
Ken has a new article on the AD search.
In it he says Greene (Auburn) is not a candidate and that Cobb (Ga St) is not believed to be a leading candidate.
He also says the search could be completed in the next couple of weeks.

 

Techster

Helluva Engineer
Messages
18,235
Ken has a new article on the AD search.
In it he says Greene (Auburn) is not a candidate and that Cobb (Ga St) is not believed to be a leading candidate.
He also says the search could be completed in the next couple of weeks.


Sounds like Neville and Cabrera are truly keeping this thing close to the vest. Glad to see that the candidates previously mentioned were just one of many...and possible bait to see who's leaking info? :unsure: Greene was thrown out as "the guy", and the fact that he's not even a candidate is pretty telling.

The first time I want to hear about a candidate is when we hire that person.
 

WreckinGT

Helluva Engineer
Messages
3,159
Ken has a new article on the AD search.
In it he says Greene (Auburn) is not a candidate and that Cobb (Ga St) is not believed to be a leading candidate.
He also says the search could be completed in the next couple of weeks.

Kinda happy it won't be Greene. Just had a bad feeling about him after the Auburn debacle. Not that I blame him for it in any way.
 

Techster

Helluva Engineer
Messages
18,235
Kinda happy it won't be Greene. Just had a bad feeling about him after the Auburn debacle. Not that I blame him for it in any way.

I'm sure Greene is a good guy, and he has the backing of some well respected ADs around the country. The thing is, he misread the room when it came to Brian Harsin, and the culture fit between Harsin and Auburn.

I don't think ADs should be persuaded by donors to the extent they get rid of a candidate, but if you're in a room full of big donors that are adamant that Harsin is not the guy, you have to understand that Harsin is climbing up a mountain from Day 1. Now Harsin is fighting his own people (big donors) along with the rest of the SEC. Greene better be dang sure Harsin wins big immediately...and Harsin did not causing all of the drama forcing him to leave early.

Harsin also has always been a West Coast guy...he never coached East of the Mississippi River until Auburn. The closest he came was Arkansas State for 1 year, and Texas OC for 2 years. The culture fit, or ill fit, was pretty evident early from all reports.

If you're an SEC AD, football hires will be what you make your name on. The fact that Greene was willing to overlook some major concerns in his biggest hire is a reflection on his judgement. That's pretty important for an AD. Regardless of the kind of person he is, and by all accounts Greene is one of the good guys in the business, he failed pretty badly in his judgement for Harsin at Auburn. IMO, GT can't afford to overlook that kind of mistake for its AD.
 
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