Tennessee

Tennessee hires former Auburn athletics director Allen Greene as senior athletics executive

Published

1 year ago

November 30, 2023

Tennessee hires former Auburn athletics director Allen Greene as senior athletics executive

Tennessee has hired former Auburn athletics director Allen Greene, whom UT AD Danny White invited to seek “greener pastures” than The Plains in a social media post that raised eyebrows around the SEC.

A year later, those greener pastures led Greene to the Big Orange.

“I had an opportunity, and he was going to be my first call until he told me no. And he didn’t tell me no,” White told Knox News on Thursday. “So I couldn’t be more excited that he’s coming. It’ll be great for Tennessee and great for Allen and his family, too.”

Greene, 46, will serve as senior deputy athletics director. He replaces Monica Lebron, whose departure was announced by White in an internal email to UT head coaches and his executive team and obtained by Knox News on Monday.

White and Greene have a long professional history. White previously hired Greene in stints together at Ole Miss (2009-12) and Buffalo (2012-15). That relationship was the backdrop of White’s eye-opening social media post about Greene’s exit from Auburn.

What Danny White tweeted when Greene left Auburn

When Greene stepped down as Auburn AD in August 2022, White showed his support with a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“Congratulations @AGreeneIV for getting the heck out of a crazy situation for greener pastures!” White posted. “I admire how you managed that chaos with class & integrity. Look forward to seeing your next chapter!”

That next chapter was Ole Miss, where Greene spent the past year as senior deputy AD of external relations and business development and chief operating officer.

White said he didn’t know Greene ultimately would come to Tennessee when he tweeted his support.

“It just sort of happened,” White said.

Greene helped build White’s philosophy

In 2009, White hired Greene at Ole Miss.

White was a senior associate AD and executive director of the Ole Miss athletics foundation. Greene was an assistant AD for development in the foundation.

In 2012, White was named Buffalo’s AD, and he brought Greene with him as a senior associate AD and deputy athletics director.

When White left to become UCF’s AD in 2015, Greene succeeded him as Buffalo AD. That fast-tracked Greene to the SEC, where he served as Auburn AD from 2018-22. When Greene stepped down at Auburn, White forecasted better things ahead for him.

“With Allen’s experience – being a two-stop AD and helping form my philosophy on how to build a championship culture – his leadership is really going to elevate us to being the best athletics department in the country,” White said.

“Starting at Ole Miss, we built an innovative revenue model, which is used at several places, including Tennessee. And when I was learning how to be an AD on the fly at Buffalo, Allen was right by my side.”

Greene could be coveted for AD jobs, and White likes that

Greene has been an AD at two different schools, and he has strong ties in the SEC. That could make him a candidate for other AD jobs when they come open.

White knows that’s a possibility, and he’s OK with it.

“I want a team full of people that, if they want to be ADs, I want to nurture that career growth,” White told Knox News. “I want Tennessee to be the type of place where people feel like they can achieve their career goals from here.

“That can be assistant coaches leaving here to become head coaches, and we’ve seen a healthy amount of that here over the last couple of years. And I fully expect members of our executive team, and not just Allen, to be candidates for AD positions. They should be.”

Greene has paycheck from George Steinbrenner

Before Greene was a college administrator, he was an elite college baseball player and ninth-round draft pick of the New York Yankees.

Greene was a star switch-hitting outfielder at Notre Dame. In 1998, he had a .317 batting average, seven home runs, 44 RBI, 53 runs scored and 12 stolen bases as a leadoff hitter. He was the 277th overall pick in the MLB Draft by the Yankees.

“He still has his first paycheck, signed by Steinbrenner,” White said. “I’ve seen it in his office.”

Greene earned his Notre Dame degree in finance. He received his master’s degree from Indiana University’s South Bend campus. He and his wife, Christy, have three children, daughters Rian and Seneca, and a son Samuel.

Adam Sparks is the Tennessee football beat reporter. Email adam.sparks@knoxnews.com. X, formerly known as Twitter@AdamSparks. Support strong local journalism by subscribing at knoxnews.com/subscribe.

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Tennessee

Titans vs Colts key moments: How Tennessee Titans lost to Indianapolis Colts

Published

3 hours ago

December 22, 2024

Press Room

Titans vs Colts key moments: How Tennessee Titans lost to Indianapolis Colts

The Tennessee Titans continue their December woes with a 38-30 loss to the Indianapolis Colts that was considerably worse than the final score line despite a fourth-quarter comeback attempt.

Indianapolis led 38-7 at one point in the third quarter after the Colts scored 38 straight, but 23 unanswered points by the Titans forced Indianapolis to run a four-minute offense to close the game out.

Tennessee (3-12) was done in by the Colts’ 24-point second quarter. Jonathan Taylor finished with 218 rushing yards and three touchdowns as Tennessee’s defense allowed 335 rushing yards overall.

Here are three key moments from the Titans’ Week 16 game:

Tennessee Titans vs. Indianapolis Colts key moments

Scenario: Titans give Colts good field position after missed 53-yard field goal

Brayden Narveson’s first field goal attempt for the Titans, stepping in for the injured Nick Folk, was from 53 yards in the first quarter with the Titans leading 7-0 with 14:16 left in the second quarter.

Tennessee could have taken a 10-point lead. But Narveson’s kick was short and wide right, giving the Colts the ball near midfield.

The Colts drove down the field after the missed field goal, tying the game on an Anthony Richardson 5-yard touchdown run.

Scenario: Jonathan Taylor’s first touchdown run of the game gives Colts the lead

In a 7-7 game, Colts running back Jonathan Taylor took off for the first of several big runs on Sunday.

Taylor sprinted on zone left run, then cut back and sprinted for a 65-yard touchdown run with 7:25 left in the second quarter. Indianapolis took the lead and never looked back.

Scenario: Kenny Moore’s interception leads to a Josh Downs TD catch, Colts’ 24-7 halftime lead

Mason Rudolph’s telegraphed pass was picked off by Kenny Moore with 1:25 left in the first half, and the Colts quickly took advantage.

Josh Downs took a quick pass on a bubble route and raced past two Titans defenders for a 27-yard touchdown catch just before halftime. Indianapolis led 24-7 at the break, and the Titans’ woes continued.

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What Nico Iamaleava said after Tennessee football's loss at Ohio State

Published

10 hours ago

December 22, 2024

Press Room

What Nico Iamaleava said after Tennessee football’s loss at Ohio State

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Tennessee’s path to the College Football Playoff had been paved with cold-from-behind wins.

On Saturday night at Ohio Stadium, the Vols didn’t have another comeback effort in them.

TALK ABOUT IT IN THE ROCKY TOP FORUM

Hindered by an uncharacteristic performance from its typically reliable defense and injuries, No. 9 Tennessee fell behind three scores in the first half against No. 8 Ohio State and didn’t have the offense to make up for it, leading to a 42-17 defeat that ended its season.

The Vols (10-3) had been plagued by slow starts through the first half of the season, more often than not able to find enough life to win.

They did it against Florida, Alabama and Vanderbilt in the triumph that clinched their first-ever playoff berth.

But that kind of start proved costly vs. the Buckeyes (11-2), who posted more than 430 yards of total offense and never came close to giving up their lead.

If there was any positive that could have been gleaned from Tennessee’s performance, it was quarterback Nico Iamaleava.

Iamaleava, at times during those stagnant starts looked very much like a freshman quarterback trying to find his footing as a now full-time starter.

In the second half of the season, though Iamaleava was more poised and the Vols’ began flourish on that side of the ball.

Tennessee didn’t flourish in many areas on Saturday. What small doses of momentum they found almost always involved Iamaleava.

He ran the ball 20 times for 47 yards, extending drive and rushing for both of the Vols’ only touchdowns.

Here is everything Iamaleava said about the performance.

On if he expected to run the ball 20 times

“I mean, 20 (carries). No, I did not expect to run that many times. Some shots that were there, and overall as a team we didn’t just execute the whole game plan, so got to be better.”

On what disappointed him most about the performance

“Just started off slow. We were supposed to come in, had a great game plan to come in and fire first, and they hit us in the mouth first. We were just trying to recover that whole game. First half I thought we did a great job of that, and second half coming in I thought we could have played at a way higher level than we did.”

On what team can take away from loss

“I think just use it as motivation. We’ve been putting in work since January to get to this point, and it sucks to go out that way because that’s not who we are. love this team. I love the team we have. Just the way tonight went was not the way we wanted it to go, and we’ll use that as fuel and motivation during this off-season to really hit it.”

On what Tennessee needs to do to beat better teams on the road

“I think that all just comes to executing on the road. Like I said, our coaches gave us a great game plan, and us as players, as the team, we’re the ones out there on the field playing, and we’ve just got to hold ourselves to a higher standard and execute at a higher level.”

On Dylan Sampson and Dont’e Thornton Jr. dealing with injuries, how it effected the game

“Shoot, at the end of the day, man, whoever is out there, whether it’s a freshman or not, we’ve got to be able to execute the same way with those guys or not, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight.“

On the difference between running an offense at home and on the road

“I would just say there’s a crowd noise that plays a factor in how we play. We can’t play as fast as we want to without tempo, and that’s really the biggest factor was crowd noise.”

On what personnel Tennessee can add to open up the offense

“Obviously in the off-season, me, Coach Joey, and Coach Heup are always have conversations about how we can excel this offense, and it’ll be that in the off-season, too.”

On large contingent of Tennessee fans that were at Ohio Stadium

“I love it. Man, I was so happy to see all the orange in the stands. It sucks the performance we gave out for them, but I hope they get home safe, man. I really appreciate their support.”

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Tennessee

Ohio State Shows Major Resolve in CFP Win Over Tennessee

Published

18 hours ago

December 22, 2024

Press Room

Ohio State Shows Major Resolve in CFP Win Over Tennessee

The Ohio State Buckeyes’ loss to the Michigan Wolverines now feels like ages ago.

Ohio State went into its first-round College Football Playoff matchup against the Tennessee Volunteers with major question marks.

Will Howard was under fire. The play calling was in the crosshairs. Ryan Day’s job security had become a regular topic of discussion.

But then, the Buckeyes hammered Tennessee by a score of 42-17 to advance to the Rose Bowl for a chance for revenge against the Oregon Ducks.

Ohio State put together arguably its best performance of the season against a very tough Tennessee opponent. The Buckeyes scored 21 points in the first quarter, immediately sending a message to the Volunteers—and the country—that they meant business.

Howard, who looked like a deer in headlights in the regular-season finale against Michigan, stepped up with a significant performance. Yes, there was the red zone interception, but in the end, it was no harm, no foul (he probably shouldn’t do that against Oregon, though).

Jeremiah Smith looked every bit of the phenom we all thought he was heading into 2024. The defense was tremendous. Day? He coached a terrific game.

But the most impressive part of this showing by Ohio State was the resolve that it demonstrated, picking itself up off the mat after a soul-crushing defeat to the Wolverines earlier in the month.

I have to admit: I wasn’t sure if the Buckeyes had this in them. Not after they mustered just 10 points against a far inferior Michigan opponent, a game in which they were physically beaten up.

And considering that Tennessee’s defense was even stingier than Michigan’s this year, I certainly didn’t anticipate that Ohio State would drop 42 points.

Nevertheless, here we are.

A couple of weeks ago, it was beginning to look like the Buckeyes wouldn’t even have a chance against Oregon. Heck, there were some who felt that the Volunteers would beat them.

It wasn’t due to a lack of talent, either. It was more due to the thought that Ohio State lacked an identity and didn’t seem to have the mental fortitude required to win a national championship.

Remember: the Buckeyes also lost to the Ducks earlier in the season as a result of some mental erros and not being able to seal the deal.

So the concerns surrounding Ohio State heading into the College Football Playoff were legitimate.

But the Buckeyes appear to have flipped a switch, and it appears that their tenacity has finally matched their excessive talent.

Now, we’ll see if Ohio State can exact revenge on Oregon in the Rose Bowl.

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