The job of the modern AD is part businessman, part politician, part media executive, part general manager. You're not in the limelight often, but when you are, you're expected to give a canned quote, look good in your blazer, then get out of the way. Your coaches and your players are the ones in the thick of the competition, you're supposed to stay above the fray. You put the "college" in "collegial." In the phrase "cooler heads prevail," you're the cooler head.
That's why it's so shocking when an AD, unprompted, jumps into the fray to bash a prominent institution.
No one knows that quite like the White family. Father Kevin White was in the AD business for 40 years, first at Division III Loras College, then at Maine, Tulane, Arizona State, Notre Dame and Duke. Before his 2021 retirement, White was the AD's AD.
In fact, White was so into the business that he raised his own AD. His son, Danny White, played basketball at Notre Dame, then joined the business at Ohio. He landed his first AD job at Buffalo in 2012, then moved on to UCF and, now, Tennessee.
And neither of the Whites are happy about how Auburn treated Allen Green.
In case you missed it, Auburn essentially fired Greene on Friday.
Greene's original five year contract expires in January and, in conversations about an extension, Auburn made it clear Greene wasn't getting one. And so Greene is walking now, rather than play out the string.
On Friday afternoon, Kevin White released this statement.
Hours later, Danny tweeted this.
Congratulations @AGreeneIV for getting the heck out of a crazy situation for greener pastures! I admire how you managed that chaos with class & integrity. Look forward to seeing your next chapter!
— Danny White (@AD_DannyWhite) August 26, 2022
Greene played baseball at Notre Dame (before the Whites arrived), then spent six years working under Danny White. From 2009-12, when White was a senior associate AD at Ole Miss, Greene was an assistant AD. When White got the Buffalo job in 2012, Greene came along as deputy AD. When White left Buffalo for UCF, Greene took over as AD.
Greene actually beat White to the SEC, taking over at Auburn in 2018, but the two undoubtedly planned on years of working parallel in the same conference, which now will not happen.
And he and his father want us -- primarily the entire AD community -- to know how they feel about it.