"Coach Putyrae has increasingly gotten more desperate in his coaching routines as performance at regattas has declined. The more the team loses, the worse his behavior gets. He stretches the weekly time limits set by the NCAA by making rowers start earlier in the morning but keeping them longer than allowed. He recently started saying that the time getting boats on and off the water also doesn't count, thus adding even more cumulative hours a week to practices. They also have "Noptional" practices on flex days, where rowers are forced to practice without the benefit of safety launches and athletic trainers, leaving girls vulnerable if a medical emergency happened. There is no real warming up or stretching before practice, and A LOT of rowers are getting hurt - with many needing surgery that ultimately ends their rowing careers. There are injuries like fractured vertebrae, bulging discs, torn hip and shoulder labrums, tendinitis, and rib pain and fractures. Coxes, who do not need to lose weight, are being told to lose 20 pounds by an assistant coach. Once injured, he and his staff treat the injured rowers poorly, creating a very toxic culture between the active rowers and the injured rowers. He made one injured rower who refused to leave the team to workout in a room by herself. He uses head games to get injured girls to quietly leave the team, and doesn't allow them to say goodbye in the group chat. His whole staff tries coerce the injured rowers with scholarships to leave the team and give up their scholarships. This is so he can use that money on the recruitment of new, strong, uninjured rowers. Coach Putyrae has used the rowing coach who was fired from the Ohio team for abuse to help coach the Alabama team via video meetings with the staff and team captains. He's not an effective coach, and the team's performance has really suffered when one of the assistant coaches transfered to Miami for a head coach position. It's best to look elsewhere if you are looking for a supportive rowing coach who looks out for the health and well-being of the rowers. "

"Coach Putyrae has increasingly gotten more desperate in his coaching routines as performance at regattas has declined. The more we lose, the worse his behavior gets. He stretches the weekly time limits set by the NCAA by making rowers start earlier in the morning but keeping them longer than allowed. He recently started saying that the time getting boats on and off the water also doesn't count, thus adding even more cumulative hours a week to practices. They also have "Noptional" practices on flex days, where rowers are forced to practice without the benefit of safety launches and athletic trainers, leaving girls vulnerable if a medical emergency happened. There is no real warming up or stretching before practice, and A LOT of rowers are getting hurt - with many needing surgery that ultimately ends their rowing careers. There are injuries like fractured vertebrae, bulging discs, torn hip and shoulder labrums, tendinitis, and rib pain and fractures. Coxes, who do not need to lose weight, are being told to lose 20 pounds by a small assistant coach. Once injured, he and his staff treat the injured rowers poorly, creating a very toxic culture between the active rowers and the injured rowers. He made one injured rower who refused to leave the team to workout in a room by herself. He uses head games to get injured girls to quietly leave the team, and doesn't allow them to say goodbye in the group chat. His whole staff tries coerce the injured rowers with scholarships to leave the team and give up their scholarships. This is so he can use that money on the recruitment of new, strong, uninjured rowers. Coach Putyrae has used the rowing coach who was fired from the Ohio team for abuse to help coach the Alabama team via video meetings with the staff and team captains. He's not an effective coach, and the team's performance has really suffered when one of the assistant coaches transfered to Miami for a head coach position. It's best to look elsewhere if you are looking for a supportive rowing coach who looks out for the health and well-being of the rowers. "

"During the recruiting process, Glenn initially stood out to me for several reasons. He made big promises—and to his credit, many of them were fulfilled. However, the support and attention I received seemed to have an expiration date. My freshman year, he was invested in my development and genuinely seemed to care. But once I became a sophomore, that dynamic changed drastically. I went from feeling valued to feeling overlooked, as if I were no longer useful. It became clear to me that he heavily favors his freshmen (he will not pay attention to you if you are not in the 1v8...which is mostly Freshmen). The environment became toxic, and instead of feeling supported, I felt like I was constantly under scrutiny. One particularly troubling incident was when he called me just to yell and curse at me. I no longer felt safe being alone with him. By my second year, I felt disillusioned and emotionally drained. I had the unsettling realization that the person I thought I could trust as a coach had manipulated me. His coaching style often involved pinning athletes against each other, fostering a cutthroat atmosphere rather than one of team unity. He once told us, “If you’re not getting injured, you’re not pushing yourself hard enough.” That mindset led to multiple career-ending injuries within our team. By my senior year, I hated the sport. This sport was my life for 10+ years and I hated it, all because of him. Burnout became common, and many recruited athletes didn’t stay long. I lost all respect for him during that time. While I did grow stronger in some ways because of the challenges, I needed a coach who had my back—not one who broke me down. I'm relieved to hear he is stepping down as the Alabama Head Coach, just for this girls' sanity. One other note, if you are a coxswain and not 100lbs or less, good luck. "

"Your freshman year Coach Putyrae helps develop you a lot, believes in the potential you have, and is always available for a meeting. However, not much can be said positively for the years after. I watched him change his training plan every year since I've been here, and now his mentality just seems to be that whatever team can squeeze the most meters into one practice will win NCAAs. Little seat racing done, and girls passing out at practice seems to be a weekly occurrence. While I am able to push myself further than I thought I could, doing 24K on the erg every steady state practice makes the team culture one of exhausted and burnt out athletes. I felt anytime an athlete brought any of this up to Coach Putyrae, he never felt he could make any change to make the athletes happy, and in turn didn't listen to them."

"Great coach. Believe in the training and you will have a rewarding experience."

"he doesnt make an effort to connect with you unless you're his fastest, but he does get the job done and will make a crew faster"

""

""

"Knows how to make a crew faster. Very straight forward and honest. Can be blunt. Intense but rewarding. "

""