Pitt HC Praises New Athletic Director

Pitt Panthers head coach Jeff Capel praised new athletic director Allen Greene.

Oct 10, 2024; Charlotte, NC, USA; Pittsburgh head coach Jeff Capel answers questions from the media at The Hilton Charlotte Uptown. Mandatory Credit: Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images / Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images

PITTSBURGH -- Pitt Panthers men's basketball head coach Jeff Capel has seen the landscape of college sports change rapidly in his seven seasons at the helm and he sees new athletic director Allen Greene as the one to led the university through it.

University of Pittsburgh Chancellor Joan Gabel announced the hiring of Greene last week. Greene takes over for previous athletic director Heather Lyke, who spent more than seven years in the position before Gabel relieved her of her duties back in September.

Capel served on the search committee for the new athletic director, along with Pat Bostick, Aaron Donald, Dwayne Pinkney, Donna Sanft, Peter Varischetti and Sheila Vélez Martínez

One of the things that stood out to Capel was that Greene wanted to not only deal with the rapid changes occuring in college athletics, but get ahead of others and find new ways to succeed.

"Well I loved the fact that he talked about being innovative," Capel said. "Obviously, we’re in a very new climate and landscape in college athletics and I think it’s important to be innovative, not to be reactive, but to have ideas and be willing to take risks, the right way, while maintaining integrity and following the rules and that fact that he’s had a lot of success in fundraising. Certainly in college athletics now, that’s a big thing and going forward, we anticipate it being a big thing."

The relationship with an athletic director and the men's basketball head coach is incredibly important, as it is the second biggest revenue sport, behind football.

Capel had a great bond with Lyke and wants to have the same with Greene, as they learn to improve the program going forward.

"It’s a partnership," Capel said. "I think all of us need to help each other be successful and one of the things I anticipate is having a great relationship, but having ideas, bouncing ideas, learning. I think that’s something that we do here, as head coaches at the university. There’s great respect and admiration that we have for each other. We felt that, obviously from Heather and I think Allen will do a great job with that as well."

While Capel will need many things from Greene at Pitt, the most important things is that assurance that he will have the resources to not just acquire great talent, but also keep them for the long term.

“NIL," Capel said. "Need money. NIL. Need Money.”

Greene had previous success at other institutions, spending time as athletic director at Buffalo and Auburn and sports administrative roles at Ole Miss and Tennessee.

He also excelled with fundraising for those schools and getting them to adjust to the changing landscape of college sports in a way few others, one of the many aspects that impressed Capel.

"All of it did," Capel said on Greene's resume. "The totality of everything, it wasn’t just one thing. Allen is a very talented guy and he’s done a really good job wherever he’s been and he’s been unbelievably respected by colleagues, people that he’s worked with, people in the profession, anyone that I asked about Allen raved about him as a man, not just his professional experience."

Greene also played baseball at Notre Dame from 1996-98 and has the student-athlete experience that is needed to understand how they see NIL, revenue sharing and more. He also has the experience as athletic director and other roles in sports administration that sees what coaches need and how they need to adjust, ensuring success for their respective programs.

"I think that helps because they understand what these young people go through, but I think they also understand what we go through as coaches," Capel said. "So I think it assists with the partnership because they have shared experience for what college athletics really is, but it’s different now and so I think being innovative, the way you think has to be different and it’s a jolt.

"I mean, it is. For people that have been in it for a while, you’re used to things being a certain way. You have to be able to adapt and it’s changing as we speak. I could leave here and go up to my office and there could be something new that just came down. It wouldn’t surprise me and so you have to be able to adapt really quickly."

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