AUBURN, Ala. – Auburn letterman Kevin Greene, who went from playing intramural football to leading the SEC in sacks to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, died Monday at the age of 58.
A fifth-year senior in 1984, Greene was the SEC's defensive player of the year, despite not cracking Auburn's starting lineup until the final four games of the season,
He walked on and played special teams on Auburn's 1983 SEC championship team after spending his first three falls on the Plains playing for Auburn's Army ROTC intramural team.
"Unbeknownst to me, I ended up leading the SEC in sacks with 11," Greene said in 2016 after being elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Greene received the Zeke Smith Award as Auburn's defensive player of the year in '84. Then came a season-ending exit interview with Coach Pat Dye.After three seasons of intramurals, Kevin Greene walked in '83 and led the SEC in sacks in '84."I asked him, 'Do you think I have a chance to play in the NFL?'" Greene said. "And he said, 'Yes, absolutely. There's a place out there somewhere for you.' That was really cool for him to say that. And that's really all the encouragement I needed.
"Next thing I knew I got drafted in the fifth round by the Los Angeles Rams. It was golden because I got my foot in the door. Now it was on me in training camp whether I was going to succeed or fail, and I wasn't going to fail. That wasn't even an option."Kevin Greene paid tribute to former Auburn coach Pat Dye in his HOF enshrinement speech"He had an unbelievable work ethic," former Auburn coach Pat Dye said in 2016. "Didn't make any difference whether he was running sprints, or any competitive drill that we ran, it was important to him that he win. And he displayed that on the field.
"Nobody in the country played the game with more rage, effort. I don't know that I've ever coached anybody who had more desire to be good than Kevin."
Former Auburn assistant coach Joe Whitt was Greene's position coach in 1983-84.
"One of the hardest-working guys I've ever been around," Whitt said. "Just relentless and very confident and was willing to do whatever it took to be successful.
"He had his mind made up that he wanted to play football at the highest level and really worked at the game."
Former Auburn fullback Tommie Agee was Greene's Auburn teammate in 1983-84 and competed against him in the NFL.
"He became a superstar," Agee said. "I saw a guy who was determined to make it. He got to the point where he was one of the best linebackers and defensive ends out there.
"I'll remember him as someone who never gave up. He gave you all he had from the first whistle until the last whistle blew. He was dedicated to making sure he helped his teammates win, an unselfish guy. He always put the team first. He went out there every day to get better and to make his teammates better.
"The competition and camaraderie we had were second to none. He was a great teammate, a brother. Someone who would go to battle with you and you wouldn't have to worry about your back."Kevin Greene, on the eve of his 2016 Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinementGreene's two seasons at Auburn served him well in the pros.
"Everything I learned the last two years under Pat Dye down there on the Plains," he said. "That work ethic that I learned on the practice field lasted me a lifetime in the NFL. I was moving head and shoulders, so much quicker, passing everybody in practice that training camp of 1985.
I was just practicing at a whole another level than those vets. That ended up being why I made the active roster my rookie year."
The former walk-on who started four games at Auburn played 15 seasons in the NFL, recording 160 sacks, third most in history behind only Bruce Smith and Reggie White.
Enshrined in 2016 in his fifth year as a finalist, Greene joined Frank Gatski as Auburn's Hall of Famers.In his Hall of Fame speech, Kevin Geene recalled practicing against Bo Jackson In his enshrinement speech in Canton, Ohio, in 2016, Greene paid tribute to Auburn.
"The good Lord has smiled upon me my entire life," Greene told the crowd. "A recurring theme is that He surrounded me with people of high character and great integrity, and they have all left an indelible mark on the very fabric of my life.
"I go on to Auburn, and I get a chance to practice against a fellow by the name of Steve Wallace. Steve Wallace was a beast at offensive tackle. He would go on to play 12 years in the National Football League, three-time All-Pro. He won three Super Bowls with the San Francisco 49ers protecting Joe Montana and Steve Young.
"And this man in practice, he beat me down. No doubt he did, and I felt the wrath of my position coach, Joe Whitt. That's okay, I learned.
"And I practiced against another fellow at Auburn everybody would know. Nis name is Vincent "Bo" Jackson. Everybody knows Bo. I'm going to be honest. Bo, he ran my (tail) over. But I've got a peace about it, honestly, because he ran a lot of (tails) over. Again I felt the wrath of my position coach, but I learned.
"Surrounded by great teammates, John Dailey, Gerald Robinson, Lionel "Little Train" James and David King. And they all made me better. They helped me find my way as a walk-on there with the Auburn Tigers.
"It was a blessing. It was a blessing playing for Pat Dye and his staff down at Auburn. And what I learned during those days, those hot, tough days down on the Plains would literally last me an eternity in the NFL.
"I love Auburn. I am Auburn, and War Damn Eagle to all my brothers and sisters out there. I love you all."
Greene won a Super Bowl ring in 2010 coaching linebackers for Green Bay. After five seasons with the Packers, he stepped away from coaching in 2014 to spend time with his children before they went to college.
"I found success in coaching just by breaking it down to the Nth degree and removing as much gray area as I possibly could," Greene said. "I provided as much clarity about the position that I could possibly provide. For me, that was a no-brainer because I developed such a good intuition about playing outside linebacker for 15 years. I could easily communicate and teach that, whether they're going to give me first-round draft choices, or free agents out of nowhere. I could communicate to them, and consequently, they were going to be better players."
During Greene's NFL playing days, he frequently returned to Auburn for sessions that would prepare him to excel in coaching.
"I made a point to come back to Auburn and visit with the linebackers and defensive ends," he said. "Coach Joe Whitt, my position coach at Auburn, asked me to come back as often as I could to talk to those young men about what it was like playing in the NFL. What it took, the work ethic, and being a student.
"I'd show them film in the meeting rooms of different techniques that worked for me in the NFL. So I'd been coming back and doing these small little seminars for coach Whitt's linebackers, how to rush the passer, and give them little tricks of the trade. The right way to do things at that next level. Pad level, hand placement, strike point, all of the little fundamentals of the position. I've always enjoyed continuing my relationship of giving back to those fine young men playing for Auburn.
There's no secret why Greene was able to play so well for so long, he said in 2016.
"I think it just starts with the Good Lord blessing me," Greene said. "But I will also say this. A big reason why I was able to achieve the success that I did, of course I had to stay healthy, and I give that credit to the Good Lord, but my habits were right. All of my habits were spot on."
In five key areas – workouts, practice, eating, sleeping and studying – Greene was uncompromising.
"When I went in the weight room, I didn't joke around," he said. "I hit it hard. I did what the coaches wanted me to do and then some."
That continued on the practice field.
"I just wasn't good enough just to take off in practice during the week and then show up on game day and have a spectacular game," Greene said. "It just didn't work that way for me so I really had to practice at game-day tempo.
"My eating habits were good. I had to maintain weight around 243 or 245. I figured that was my optimum playing weight. So I couldn't get any bigger or I couldn't get any smaller.
"My sleep habits were spot-on. I didn't burn the candle at both ends, so to speak. My sleep habits were really, really good. I was getting eight, 10, 12 hours of sleep a night to recover from those practices and those games.
"And finally, I think my study habits were outstanding. I put in my time to study opponents. Offensive sets and formations, and what they liked to do, and what their tendencies were, and what they liked to run out of certain personnel groupings. Then I would have formation recognition, pre-snap, that I could pretty much almost anticipate the play based on who was in the game, and how they lined up. I had formation recognition, and that's all based off what I watched on film that previous week on my opponent.
"I also studied my individual opponent. That offensive tackle. How he's going to block me. How deep the quarterback was in the pocket. I studied the game. And I think there are a lot of people out there playing professional football, but I think there are few professionals playing football."
Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: @jeff_shearer