During the NCAA Women’s National Championship teleconference last week, Auburn head coach Jeff Graba was asked if he had reached out to anybody for advice on how to prep for his first Nationals meet.

He didn’t think that was necessary.

“I was lucky enough to work under Greg and Megan Marsden for five years, and Megan can probably tell you what my routine is,” Graba said. “I’m basically stealing from them and a lot of what we’ve done here I’ve taken from the Utah playbook, along with just adding my own flavor. So for the most part, no, I’m preparing just like I did as an assistant at Utah.”

With the unprecedented run of success the Utah gymnastics program has had, that’s not too bad of an idea.

“Basically every aspect of our program, anything we would do collegiately has some type of Utah flavor,” Graba said in an interview with The Daily Utah Chronicle.

And for good reason.

From 2006-2010, Graba worked under the Marsdens as the Red Rocks’ bars coach and recruiting coordinator. During his time at the U, the gymnastics team had one of its most successful runs since the championship winning days of the ‘90s. Utah finished as a national runner-up in three consecutive seasons, and also took home a third-place finish. Graba was a big part of that success.

In 2006, he coached Kristina Baskett to an uneven bar national title, and under his tutelage Utah frequently had the top bar score in the national semifinals, with the Utes finishing with the top bar score in the 2006 Super Six.

But as he was coaching kids up, he was also being mentored himself.

“One of the best things Greg and Megan did for me was allow me to dabble in everything,” Graba said. “From marketing to recruiting to regular game plans and working out practice schedules — they gave me a lot of leeway and a lot of authority and I learned quite a bit from them.”

Part of what has made the Utah program so successful is Greg Marsden’s marketing ability. The sold out crowds, and the fan base in general, are there because of what Marsden has been able to do. Graba learned from that.

“At that time, Greg was trying to do some in-house short videos and get some stuff on social media,” Megan Marsden said, “and Jeff had a real knack for computer and video. Greg and Jeff were really excited about it and Jeff would spend some time creating some great highlight videos from our season, that we would show at our banquet and put on social media.”

Graba had the coaching ability and was learning how to market from one of the best there is, and when he won the 2009 Regional Assistant Coach of the Year, he had a pretty nice looking résumé — so nice, that Auburn came calling.

“We have only coached a handful of assistants over the years,” Megan Marsden said. “But Jeff actually left us sooner than we would have liked. When he got offered the job, both Greg and I, there was no question that we wanted him to take that. Those jobs don’t come along that often, something that prestigious and they were after him, and we thought it was huge that they wanted him. We didn’t want him to feel any loyalty to us at that point, and Greg told him right away that there would be no hard feelings, that we would just be proud to have one of our assistants getting the chance to do that.”

“It was great and I wasn’t surprised,” Greg Marsden said. “I knew when he was here, he had the ambition of being a head coach, and I told him that if that opportunity came I would be totally supportive because I think he would make a great head coach.”

Graba may have left for the South, but he took a part of Utah with him, and that’s something the Tigers wanted to see.

“I loved being down in front of 15,000 people and hearing the roar of the crowd,” Graba said referring to his days at Utah. “When I got to Auburn that’s one of the things that they wanted me to bring — get people in the seats.”

To do that, Graba has taken what he learned in his time at Utah, and implemented a very Ute-like marketing plan. He even copied some of the Red Rocks’ more popular promotions, including Short Person Appreciation Night — but Graba threw in his own twist.

During its Short Person Appreciation Night, Utah has cardboard cutouts of the gymnasts, and if you are shorter than the cutout then you get in the meet for free. At Auburn, the Tigers use a cardboard cutout of their head coach.

“The first year we used an athlete, similar to what we did at Utah,” Graba said. “But the next year, we were going back and forth on how to make it unique and I ended up saying, ‘hey, why don’t we just use me,’ and it was a huge hit.”

There has been some downside to using Graba, who Megan Marsden said was around 5’5 or 5’6.

“In some ways it’s a failure,” Graba said jokingly. “I should have picked a taller person, if we are trying to get people into the meet.”

Now in his fifth year at Auburn, Graba has seen the program start to shine. The Tigers had their first sellout this season, and are headed to their first National Championship meet under Graba.

“We have a smaller community and smaller university and a smaller venue, but we are able to create a pretty exciting environment — in that respect we are duplicating and capable of duplicating the success Utah has had,” Graba said.

Through the years, the Tigers coach has given an Auburn feel to the ideas he took from Utah, but as this is his first time leading a team into Nationals, he is sticking almost solely to the Utah handbook.

“I took a lot of what we did at Utah during regular season, but over the years we have been able to evolve it into an Auburn flavor, and into what our staff feels is better for the situation,” Graba said. “The difference is having not gone to Nationals, we are going back and doing quite a lot of what we did at Utah.”

Those ideas include how his team tapered, how they trained, how many sets were done, how mock meets were set up and how rotations and byes were managed.

To face off against each other, Graba’s Tigers and the Marsdens’ Utes both must advance to Saturday’s Super Six. But expect a coaching family reunion to occur in Fort Worth, even if that is not the case.

“Greg and Megan are my mentors, so anytime I get in the same area I want to make sure I meet up with them,” Graba said. “Greg and I go back and forth on the phone and not necessarily talk strategy or anything, but we talk philosophy, I run into an issue about marketing or something, I typically ask Greg — so I am definitely going to use my time wisely when he is in the same hotel as me.”

The Red Rocks will begin their quest towards a national title Friday at noon MT.

Semifinal 1:

Utah, Florida, UCLA, Georgia, Michigan and Stanford

Semifinal 2:

Oregon State, Auburn, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Alabama and LSU

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