Top-down alignment critical as Auburn athletics, football undergo important changes
AUBURN — Over the last two days, a common question from Auburn supporters surrounding the all-but-official hiring of John Cohen as the new Athletics Director has been, “what do Bruce Pearl and Butch Thompson think about it?”
That’s a fair and reasonable question.
Pearl’s resume and his accomplishments while on the Plains speak for themselves. Three SEC championships in the last five seasons, a Final Four appearance, multiple first-round NBA draft picks, the list goes on. He’s the most beloved figure on Auburn’s campus. When the time comes for Pearl to retire from coaching basketball, you can bet there will be people begging for Pearl to take over as AD.
Thompson has taken the baseball team to the College World Series twice in the last three seasons. He’s won three regionals, two Super Regionals, produced a No. 1 pick in the MLB Draft, and is easily one of the most respected individuals on Auburn’s campus. Good luck finding someone with a negative thing to say about Thompson and how he carries himself.
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Auburn is incredibly fortunate to have Pearl and Thompson leading two of the three revenue-producing sports programs on campus. Incredibly fortunate. Now, it’s Cohen and Roberts’ job to find the right head football coach to join Pearl and Thompson on that pedestal.
Bryan Harsin was fired by Auburn on Monday after a 3-5 start to the season. He finished his career 9-12 overall. Auburn owes Harsin $15.5 million, on top of the nearly $22 million they are already paying Gus Malzahn due to the buyout in his contract.
When people immediately ask what Pearl and Thompson’s thoughts are, it makes sense. Supporters of Auburn understand how important alignment is right now, and they’re trying to align.
For instance, when you hear pushback from fans around booster “meddling” around the football program, it’s less about the boosters and more about lack of cohesion. Nobody is asking boosters not to be involved. You better hope they’re involved. What the Auburn Family wants is alignment between the boosters and administration. It’s not about meddling, it’s about mission.
Fans didn’t like it when Tommy Tuberville was nearly ousted in 2003 after a hush-hush plane ride to see Bobby Petrino was revealed. The fans weren’t thrilled with a 7-5 season, but they were less thrilled with the clandestine actions from Board of Trustees members.
Nobody was happy about Harsin’s first season that resulted in a 6-7 record and five straight losses to end the season. However, when Harsin’s name and family were drug through the mud in February, there was real support for Harsin among most fans. The rumors and way Harsin was being treated, in the estimation of many supporters, was wrong.
Again, supporters want to win, but they desperately want alignment.
Was there healthy pushback from power brokers and some coaches on campus when news leaked of Cohen as the potential hire? Yes. President Roberts fielded many phone calls voicing concern over the potential hire of Cohen. What were the concerns? The specifics are unclear, but there was certainly a collective pushback that Roberts wasn’t expecting.
I say healthy because from what I understand, there weren’t demands being made towards Roberts. No ultimatums. Simply conversations and concerns, and a president listening and hearing people out. Should Roberts have notified certain people of his decision before he moved towards finalizing the deal? That’s a debate.
I know that despite the news leaking on Saturday during Auburn’s football game, Roberts told people that evening nothing was final. Did the news leak before Roberts was ready? Possible. It certainly threw a wrench in the process.
However, in the end, Roberts held firm in his position in support of Cohen as Auburn’s next AD.
One source with influence that had initial concerns over Cohen told Auburn Live, “we must support this.”
Another, a current head coach on campus, told Auburn Live, “I’m getting behind who they hire. That’s what Auburn should do.”
Now, Roberts and Cohen will lead the search to hire the next football coach. And if that process is going to work, the power brokers and administration will have to put the concerns of the last 48 hours aside and come together to agree on a plan forward, qualities desired in a head coach, and an agreed upon process for making the hire.
There were some messes made with the hiring of Steven Leath, Allen Green and Bryan Harsin. It’s taking time to clean up those messes. That’s what we’re witnessing now.
The football coach hire will be Roberts and Cohen’s decision, but the power brokers are going to want a say. You can bank on that. There’s a way to do that so everyone is on the same page, and that’s the goal over the next few weeks. Top-down alignment.
