In a shocking development, the school decides to promote from within to select Greg McGarity’s replacement.
UGA moved swiftly to make Josh Brooks its new athletic director.
Just five weeks and two days after the school announced that Greg McGarity was retiring from the position after more than 10 years, Brooks is getting the job full-time.
His hire came Wednesday afternoon during a special meeting of the Executive Committee of the UGA Athletic Association Board.
The 40-year old had not served even a week as interim AD, a position he began Jan. 1.
Brooks was viewed as a leading candidate to replace McGarity when there was speculation in the last year on when McGarity may finally step away from the job.
“I’ve had a wide range of experience and especially my time at Georgia the last few years,” Brooks said in December after being named interim AD. “Greg’s really nurtured me and given me some peeks behind the rope to see really what it’s like in his shoes. I feel ready and I feel confident for this responsibility.”
No knock on Brooks, who is well liked, but picking him less than a week after McGarity retired tells you the fix was in. Maybe he’s the best choice out there for what many consider to be one of the top AD jobs in the country, but, given the time frame, it’s hard to believe that was a choice made after the school did its due diligence.
Then, again, when you know going in what the main priority is for a Georgia athletic director, maybe due diligence is overrated. Good luck with the new gig, Josh.
Get The Picture 
Joel Eaves was our last AD who had no prior UGA connection.
That was 1963.
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Yes, and he was the best of the group we have had since November 22, 1963.
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The decision was made as Jere drove home from work yesterday
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It was going to be Brooks all the way. Good luck to him. As long as Kirby is happy with the support he’s getting and Jere doesn’t have to put up with some foolishness in the other programs, Josh can probably stay in that job until he retires.
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I got to chat with him once and he sounded like someone with more ambitions for the department than ol’ McGoofy. Seth Emerson wrote a strong article in support of Brooks so hopefully we’ll be a bit more proactive under his watch.
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I think he could do really well, though, I am surprised a 40 year old got the job. I could see it at a less prestigious and demanding university.
I read “someone is going to get a good one” type comments a week or so before McGarity announced he was retiring so it does somewhat seem like he was always the guy. I never heard of anyone else being interviewed but that doesn’t mean much.
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Come on guys… Georgia gonna be Georgia. You have to be part of the existing welcome tribe to get a position at that level. If they bring you from the outside, it usually means you either played/graduated from UGA or you spent significant time there in different roles in the past. It’s a club and you have to be invited.
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Brooks was picked a while ago but covid kept Greg on after his 6/30/20 original retirement date.
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If Crean goes .100 in SEC play this year, we’ll find out if anything has changed in non-football sports.
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Wonder what they paid the “search” firm.
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That’s another job I wish I had: “search” firm member.
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Well, hopefully he provides more support for the non-football teams, and he generates a master plan for facilities. Just do those two things and McGoofity will be a distant memory.
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This is literally the only place I’ve read anything negative about the hired. Everyone else seems to act like this is a slam dunk/ home run/ beat possible scenario.
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As was the case with Smart’s hire, it’s not about who got the job, it’s about the way UGA goes about its business.
But, hey, it’s only a $200 million a year operation. Taking less than a week to pull the trigger is how everybody does it, amirite?
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Exactly. I suppose they aren’t held to the formal “due diligence”, but they kind of should act like they are. I also wonder if they paid for a search firm to “legitimize” it like they did with CKS.
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Not to be argumentative but how do we know these talks weren’t had way before Greg said he was gone? Succession planning is a real thing. Unless we are saying we suck at that or whatever.
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Also this
Morehead formed an 11-person advisory committee to assist in the search. The school also employed Todd Turner and his firm Collegiate Sports Associates in the search.
Is that legit? I just dont understand the beef. Sorry in advance.
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“Succession planning is a real thing.”
Agreed. So are facility master plans, but we’ve never seen one of those, so who knows what thought went into this?
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Yeah, I’m probably not as invested in this as some of the other people. I just don’t want the next guy to be as weak as McGarity.
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Amen, brother! I definitely want someone to stand up for the Dawgs, not the Conference.
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You think this decision was made in less than a week?
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Its nice to know that there isn’t one person in the entire USA that is even worth interviewing for the job, For Gods sake don’t come in here with any new fangled ideas and upset the applecart. This reminds me of Richt when he never went to anyone elses or invited anyone else to see his spring practice. When asked his answer was, why? In retrospect tho he had Willie and his crew so why would he need any ideas. Urban as much as I dislike him always went and invited the pro coaches to his practices. Must have worked when you look at his record. By the way, where is Willie these day’s?
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UCF Assistant Head Coach
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You just know they paid some friends $50k to do a “search” to find the candidate who was pre-ordained.
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Create a Facilities Master Plan so Georgia can stop playing catch-up with the Bamas, Clemsons, and tOSU’s of the world. Do something about Foley Field, even if that means blowing it up to create a parking deck for B-M and building a new baseball stadium at the South Milledge site. How about some nice cosmetic changes to Sanford Stadium? Put brick around those outer upper-deck concrete pylons.
Repair the relationship with Bulldog fans and season ticket buyers who aren’t super-donors. Make it seem like you actually give a damn about us, even if you really don’t. Start by improving the experience at Sanford Stadium. Here’s an idea: Blow-up the current ring of concessions and bathrooms around the 100 level and build new concessions and bathrooms around the aforementioned outer upper-deck concrete pylons, thus more than doubling the size of the entire interior 100-level walkway and improving the bathrooms (two doors!) in one move.
Fast track the Tennis Center improvements and even before starting them, make sure they’re enough to get the NCAA Tennis Tournament back to the Athens. Work with the NCAA to make sure you’re back into the rotation as soon as the improvements are finished.
Build a new parking deck over the current parking lot in front of Gate 1 at Sanford Stadium. Seamlessly connect it to the current deck and create an entire park or plaza or piazza on the top level that connects to the area outside of the MLC and the Tate Center, where that top level is all grass and nice walkways with an elevated stage for College Gameday and there are plaques for the all the All-Americans, plaques for our SEC Champion teams, statues of our two Heisman winners, and statues of our two national title-winning Head Coaches. I’m sick and tired of EVERY OTHER major program honoring their glory on the gridiron while we never do.
Rectify all of the terrible hiring decisions McGarity made and get us back into the top-10 of Director’s Cup standings. That includes getting a new baseball coach, as Stricklin had two extremely talented teams the last two completed seasons and couldn’t even get them out of HOME FIELD REGIONALS! His underachievement should not go unpunished, and when you add to that the fact that he was a miserable failure the four years before that, why is he still coaching at UGA?
Here’s the thing New AD Josh Brooks: We expect you to be a feckless, milquetoast, out-of-touch politician who cares more about the bottom line than he cares about the program or the fans. That’s who the last guy was. So you just have to be a little better than him, that’s all. Don’t be like McGarity or God-forbid be worse than McGarity, and you’ll be okay. The bar is super low. Here’s hoping you can clear it!
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Was I’m Athens recently. Can’t believe they spent $10mm on Foley. Looks like shit cheap makeover. Need a new one. Buy that damn elementary school and tear it down that solves a lot problems down the road.
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Not for the kids at the Elementary School.
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The more kids we can get out of public school the better
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I believe I read a while ago that the ACC school board offered to sell the property to UGA and was told no thanks. That was before the new school there was built, so I doubt that property will be available anytime soon.
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I would not think that the 5 points parents that have kids in that school would go for that. But That’s just my opinion. I haven’t read it anywhere.
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That’s a nice master plan. How many years of construction would you find acceptable to achieve these $300 million worth of renovations? Let’s not forget that these building’s sit on an academic campus and therefore do not have carte blanche to do what they want.
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Yeah Scott, every other big time athletics program BUT Georgia can do it, but The Georgia Way of always playing catch-up and actually spending more money because we do it piecemeal because of a lack of foresight and leadership must always be our way.
What a loser’s mentality.
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Corch, I’m asking a legitimate question. How many years would you find acceptable??
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Scott, as long as it takes. Bama unveiled a 6-year, $400M FMP. How about you start there?
I’m tired of being behind every other big time program in everything. Maybe if we start behaving like winners, we’ll actually win some shit that matters?
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I agree with most things you’re saying. But there’s some chicken and egg here too and there’s where it gets hard to answer. Bama is spending $400M after becoming the most dominant program ever. They were not doing that 15 years ago. I agree that if you spend money to win, you will make more money in the long run.
And BTW, as far as putting a new parking deck in the gate 1 lot, did you know the campus (not athletics) master plan includes a new building on top of the existing Tate parking deck? That’s why it’s built as structurally beefy as it is right now.
As far as fast tracking tennis.
See here:
https://thegeorgiabulldogclub.com/capital-projects/magill-tennis-complex/
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Sorry, I can’t edit the post above or delete it. I forgot WordPress deletes numbers in a numbered list when you put a period after the number. Reposting below so it’s easier to read.
1) Create a Facilities Master Plan so Georgia can stop playing catch-up with the Bamas, Clemsons, and tOSU’s of the world. Do something about Foley Field, even if that means blowing it up to create a parking deck for B-M and building a new baseball stadium at the South Milledge site. How about some nice cosmetic changes to Sanford Stadium? Put brick around those outer upper-deck concrete pylons.
2) Repair the relationship with Bulldog fans and season ticket buyers who aren’t super-donors. Make it seem like you actually give a damn about us, even if you really don’t. Start by improving the experience at Sanford Stadium. Here’s an idea: Blow-up the current ring of concessions and bathrooms around the 100 level and build new concessions and bathrooms around the aforementioned outer upper-deck concrete pylons, thus more than doubling the size of the entire interior 100-level walkway and improving the bathrooms (two doors!) in one move.
3) Fast track the Tennis Center improvements and even before starting them, make sure they’re enough to get the NCAA Tennis Tournament back to the Athens. Work with the NCAA to make sure you’re back into the rotation as soon as the improvements are finished.
4) Build a new parking deck over the current parking lot in front of Gate 1 at Sanford Stadium. Seamlessly connect it to the current deck and create an entire park or plaza or piazza on the top level that connects to the area outside of the MLC and the Tate Center, where that top level is all grass and nice walkways with an elevated stage for College Gameday and there are plaques for the all the All-Americans, plaques for our SEC Champion teams, statues of our two Heisman winners, and statues of our two national title-winning Head Coaches. I’m sick and tired of EVERY OTHER major program honoring their glory on the gridiron while we never do.
5) Rectify all of the terrible hiring decisions McGarity made and get us back into the top-10 of Director’s Cup standings. That includes getting a new baseball coach, as Stricklin had two extremely talented teams the last two completed seasons and couldn’t even get them out of HOME FIELD REGIONALS! His underachievement should not go unpunished, and when you add to that the fact that he was a miserable failure the four years before that, why is he still coaching at UGA?
Here’s the thing New AD Josh Brooks: We expect you to be a feckless, milquetoast, out-of-touch politician who cares more about the bottom line than he cares about the program or the fans. That’s who the last guy was. So you just have to be a little better than him, that’s all. Don’t be like McGarity or God-forbid be worse than McGarity, and you’ll be okay. The bar is super low. Here’s hoping you can clear it!
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I am reminded of an email I got from Brooks a few years ago.
I emailed to complain about lack of cold drinks and ice in my section during one of the hellish Clemson or Ga Southern games.
He let me know that they didnt run out of ice that day, they had plenty in a truck under the stadium.
The Georgia Way.
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Fuck.
That does not portend of good things to come for Georgia fans.
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Could you produce that email? Did you keep it?
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CMR would have been a classy pick.
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Richt would have no idea about the business side of managing a Power 5 athletic program. Brooks is probably going to have to learn how to manage coaches.
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The best person should always be hired for the job. Is Brooks? Time will tell.
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‘Don’t turn this into some disco or some party; this is the sacred Sanford Stadium,’ “ Brooks said.
I see that AD Brooks is a Talking Heads fan too!
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