Sunday Kevin Scarbinsky of the BIRMINGHAM NEWS profiled Tim Jackson, “the No. 2 man in the Auburn athletics department behind AD Jay Jacobs.”
Scarbinsky noted Jackson’s considerable influence on the football program:
Jackson said director of football relations Wayne Bolt jokingly called him “Steinbrenner,” a reference to the late owner of the New York Yankees, who was hands-on with his team to the point of suffocation at times.
Jackson is there at every Auburn football practice and every team meeting, often in a suit because he also attends senior staff meetings, but he’s more like Auburn’s general manager. That’s become his nickname among players and coaches alike: GM.
If you aren’t sure what “GM” stands for, Jackson explained the nickname to Scarbinsky:
In a rare interview in his office Thursday, Jackson said the leadership of Auburn football breaks down like that of an NFL franchise. “Jay Jacobs is the owner. Gene’s the head coach. I’m the general manager.”
Chizik said their management structure “is probably unique in college football. This may not work for everybody else. It works for us. Everybody is on the same page.”
It works because Chizik and Jackson have a unique bond and level of trust for a coach and administrator, especially at Auburn, where the last two head coaches, Terry Bowden and Tommy Tuberville, seemed at constant odds with “the suits.”
In the NFL, a team’s general manager is usually responsible for overseeing the football operation, which includes deciding the level of compensation afforded to players and coaches.
In his profile of Jackson, Scarbinsky reported, “Jacobs gave Jackson administrative oversight of the football program. Chizik didn’t just accept Jackson’s role. He embraced it and expanded it.
More:
“Jackson’s anonymity started to melt when he became Newton’s handler after the quarterback’s breakout performances against South Carolina and Kentucky. Jackson walked him to and from class, shielding him from autograph hunters, and made sure he adhered to his football and non-football schedules.
“I probably did become a bodyguard,” Jackson said. “Cam needed somebody to be the bad guy, somebody to say no. That’s not his personality.”
While Scarbinsky focused his piece on Jackson’s role as “general manager” of the Auburn football team, Jackson’s primary job goes almost completely unmentioned in the profile.
(Current Auburn AD Jacobs ran Tigers Unlimited before taking over athletic dept.)
Jackson is the executive director of the private fundraising arm for Auburn Athletics. Called “Tigers Unlimited,” Jackson controls the purse strings of the multi-million organization, which funds much of the operation of the Auburn Athletic Department - football included.
Before Jackson took over, current AD Jacobs was entrusted with the same role.
When taking that into account, is it unreasonable to think that comparing Jackson’s role with the Auburn football program to that of a NFL “general manager” - and Jacobs as an NFL “owner” - is wildly inappropriate?
Especially considering the events of the past four months?
Those events, as it pertains to Auburn’s Tigers Unlimited, also include the indictment of lobbyist Robert Geddie for political corruption last October. Geddie, who along with 10 others was arrested on Oct. 4, 2010, and charged with multiple, serious crimes after a lengthy FBI investigation which included wiretaps, was paid directly by Tigers Unlimited for political lobbying on Auburn’s behalf.
Geddie was reportedly paid up to $1 million by Tigers Unlimited over the years, something that, perhaps not surprisingly, isn’t listed in the “what are you doing with the money?” area of the Tigers Unlimited official website.
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4:43 pm on January 31st, 2011
So, the current athletic director of a major college program has a documented business relationship with a man who stands indicted for conspiracy, fraud and bribery of public officials.
The same man who worked as a lobbyist for Auburn booster Milton McGregor in the Alabama legislature.
The same man who is himself an Auburn graduate.
The same man who is now represented by Sam Franklin in his criminal case. Franklin? Oh, that’s just the guy that represents AU in all NCAA compliance affairs and just so happens to also represent Auburn trustee/puppetmaster Bobby Lowder in a civil class action lawsuit.
What do you call it when a criminal enterprise runs a major college athletics program?
La Fambilia. And they’re all in.
5:03 pm on January 31st, 2011
“This is one of the dumbest things I’ve read on the internets.”
I guess if you read barner websites on a daily basis then you accustomed to spotting it very easily.
5:06 pm on January 31st, 2011
So, today for lunch I had fiesta nachos from the local Mexican restaurant. It was very good…
5:23 pm on January 31st, 2011
My house is like an NFL franchise. I’m like the owner, supplying financial support to the family and my wife is like the general manager, overseeing the daily operations of the household.
That was a comparison, so please don’t make a bonehead assumption that my wife is paying my children.
5:59 pm on January 31st, 2011
Sounds like Auburn fans may want to become familiar with federal RICO statutes
6:01 pm on January 31st, 2011
I really hope this is a joke. Auburn is a joke. No one truly takes them seriously. Their title is tainted. It’s going to be fun watching them get slapped back down to reality next season when they go back to playing in bowls where they barely beat the Bowling Greens of the world. Anyway, since NFL franchises pay players, maybe that is a good comparison.
The fact that Tuberville and the coach prior didn’t play well with the suits says really alot about Chizik - he is nothing more than a puppet.
6:04 pm on January 31st, 2011
Corrupt general manager is corrupt.
6:09 pm on January 31st, 2011
Only a bama sidewalk walker (read into that what you must) would make such huge leaps of logic to get where brooks took this little feature story.
He knows it and I know the bammers are salivating at all this. Maybe next time it would be great if you had more than disconnected events (For Example: Some lawyers represent more than one client from time to teime) but it’s still a good thing Auburn DID NOT have Sam Franklin represent them in the compliance case. That little gem is just a big old lie.
Ooooops. There goes one little domino in the tin-foil-hat theory espoused by so many who still feel the pain 28 or 27 times a day.
6:32 pm on January 31st, 2011
This is hilarious, Brooks. I love the satires you put out.
7:05 pm on January 31st, 2011
Libel suit? Like the ones that we were promised by Auburn fans that Cecil Newton was supposed to be about to unleash on Joe Schad, Thayer Evans, ESPN, The NYTimes, etc, etc???
Hint: It ain’t libel if it’s true.
The threat of lawsuits from you Auburn folks is quite laughable in this instance. No one believes you want the concept of “discovery” in a court of law brought into this.
7:06 pm on January 31st, 2011
Please just come out and accuse Jackson of paying players.
The libel suit will be fun to follow.
7:17 pm on January 31st, 2011
@Dave…
Your wife isn’t paying your children.
She’s only paying less than 1% of your children. The rest of the children never see her or benefit from her guidance. Meanwhile, the money you give her is having an enormous chunk of its “bills” budget instead spent on drinks for herself at the local Chippendale’s club.
Maybe it’s not fair to (most of) the rest of the fambly, but boy does SHE enjoy it!
7:42 pm on January 31st, 2011
enough please,, you win,, we all know what kind of moral toilet AU is. Real news would be any shred of positive social or academic actions by that organization,, the AU alum are already shamed enough,, leave them be.
9:10 pm on January 31st, 2011
Phil Knight with a coaching headset listening to in-game play calling?! Using Oregon to market the Nike empire and enlarge the profile in order to blunt competing helmet and other smaller, multi-sport companies? This staggering amount of advertising and “donations” makes many increasingly wonder how bought and paid for Duck fans sleep or quack at night. Corrupt? Greedy? It sounds like a labor union.
12:12 am on February 1st, 2011
This really looks bad.
12:41 pm on February 1st, 2011
It is really great to see that AU is the only sports team on the Planet, Brooks. You’re absolute hatred of AU shows up in not only what stories you put up, but how you write them. I really wish I could come on this website and not see a story about AU for one whole day.
12:47 pm on February 1st, 2011
This does like bad, Brooks…why have you published so many Auburn articles? Save face and write about *real* stories please.
8:25 am on February 4th, 2011
President Gogue, speaking about the AU football coach search, said that his instructions to Jay Jacobs were:
1. To seek permission from athletic directors before interviewing applicants
2. No agents were to be involved.
3. When Jacobs found the coach he wanted to hire, Gogue wanted to meet with the applicant before the hire was made to give final approval.
Seems like reasonable instructions for a coaching search..I can’t imagine that university presidents fly all over the country to interview every single applicant for coach. Yet you suggest in your post that it is part of some deep, dark, conspiracy.
8:31 am on February 4th, 2011
oops..the previous comment was regarding another anti-Auburn post..you have so many I’m getting mixed-up.