Speaker 1: What's your favorite Office episode?
Speaker 2: Oh man, that sounds like picking your favorite kid. That's
Speaker 2: I am Josh Brooks, the Jay Reed Parker, director Athletics
Speaker 2: at the University of Georgia and Office super fan.
Speaker 1: Hi there, everybody, We're back. You're back. We're all here.
Speaker 3: This is Off the Beat, and I am your host,
Speaker 3: Brian Baumgartner. I'm so stoked for our guest today. He's
Speaker 3: a pretty big deal to me, and he should be
Speaker 3: to anyone who loves college sports. Josh Brooks happens to
Speaker 3: be the athletic director of my childhood love, the University
Speaker 3: of Georgia Bulldogs, and over the last three years, he
Speaker 3: has helped lead their athletic program to unprecedented heights in softball, volleyball, soccer,
Speaker 3: track and field, and of course their football team back
Speaker 3: to back national championships the last two years and one
Speaker 3: more if I have my way this year, go Dogs.
Speaker 3: In this conversation, you're going to hear how I met Josh.
Speaker 3: Let's just say it was a viral moment. To be sure,
Speaker 3: Josh is a fan of the Office, So yes, we're
Speaker 3: going to talk a little Office today. But now the
Speaker 3: truth is, I'm about as big a fan of his
Speaker 3: work as he is of mine. He's just about the
Speaker 3: best in the business in college athletics.
Speaker 1: He's up for awards.
Speaker 3: But here's the thing, he's even nicer than he is accomplished.
Speaker 3: So I can't wait for you to get to know him.
Speaker 3: Today he talks frankly about a multitude of topics, ripping
Speaker 3: through the headlines of college sports, controversy at Michigan, pressures
Speaker 3: of nil, and of course the transfer portal. You're not
Speaker 3: gonna want to miss this. And Josh, guess what, I'm
Speaker 3: going to release this to the public, just like you
Speaker 3: sent us viral a few years ago. Yeah, this thing
Speaker 3: right here, this is going to be on the intranet.
Speaker 3: Here he is my buddy, Josh Brooks.
Speaker 1: Bubble and squeak. I love it, bubble and squeak on
Speaker 1: bubble and squeak, I could.
Speaker 2: Get every mole lift over from the nine.
Speaker 4: Before Go Dogs, Go Dogs.
Speaker 5: Got the hat on, love.
Speaker 3: It Go Dogs. Of course I have the hat on.
Speaker 3: I'm excited. I'm ready to go. How you doing, I'm great.
Speaker 2: We're what forty nine hours await and kick off.
Speaker 3: Forty nine hours as we're recording this podcast from the
Speaker 3: SEC championship game. I'm so excited about this game. I
Speaker 3: think it's going to be the proverbial game of the
Speaker 3: century that happens every year.
Speaker 1: How are you feeling about it?
Speaker 2: You know, I'm always I'm nervous, but I'm I'm nervous
Speaker 2: for every game, whether it's a we have a women's
Speaker 2: basketball game tonight or men's basketball game last night. I'm
Speaker 2: I live in a state of nervousness for every game.
Speaker 2: But thankfully I don't have to do anything but just
Speaker 2: show up.
Speaker 1: So how many games do you go to over the
Speaker 1: course of a week. Are you going to awake game?
Speaker 2: I never miss a football away game. I tried to
Speaker 2: make a few away games of other sports if I can,
Speaker 2: when the travel works out. If it's instabl a tournament,
Speaker 2: I try to go so but there's a conflict, Like
Speaker 2: our volleyball team is playing in Provo, Utah tomorrow night,
Speaker 2: but that game is six thirty Eastern time in Utah
Speaker 2: and there's no way I can make it back.
Speaker 5: So I won't make that.
Speaker 2: But last year we were playing in Austin, Texas volleyball
Speaker 2: and I went to blab blah match front in Texas,
Speaker 2: flew back, got into Atlanta, you know, two o'clock in
Speaker 2: the morning and made it back to the city champion game.
Speaker 2: So I'll try to get you know, it's a lot
Speaker 2: of travel, you know, just this week alone. Men were
Speaker 2: on the road. Last night in Florida State women played
Speaker 2: Duke tonight at home. Men basketball have Mercier Friday night,
Speaker 2: women blulleyball first round Ares of State at Utah, and
Speaker 2: then football Saturday. So it's twenty one sports. It's NonStop.
Speaker 2: But it's fun, you know.
Speaker 3: I mean it sounds very fun. It sounds like a
Speaker 3: good job to me. But yes, being on the road
Speaker 3: that much is a lot. I learned a lot about you,
Speaker 3: and I mean I knew about you, but I've learned
Speaker 3: a lot about you in preparing to talk to you.
Speaker 3: It's fascinating stuff. First off, I want to I want
Speaker 3: to mention how we got connected, you and you and
Speaker 3: I take us through the because we haven't fully talked
Speaker 3: about it. I don't know exactly how it happened.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but it was when you got the position as
Speaker 1: the athletic director of Georgia. Tell me what happened.
Speaker 5: So it all starts.
Speaker 2: I've got a good group of buddies Clark, Will Brad
Speaker 2: and Tanner. We have a group text, and it's one
Speaker 2: of those group texts that's been going on for ten
Speaker 2: plus years, and it's always full of you know, office
Speaker 2: memes or this and that, where you know, it's NonStop
Speaker 2: this and that, and Clark is Clark and I debate
Speaker 2: over who's the bigger Office fan. We even had a
Speaker 2: bet at the end of the series that he thought
Speaker 2: Jim and Pam were going to break up and he
Speaker 2: had to buy me dinner when they did not, because
Speaker 2: I'm more of an optimist and Clark's more of a realistic.
Speaker 2: Clark's like, they're going to break He was so set
Speaker 2: that they were going to break up that he saw
Speaker 2: it coming. So we've been Office diehearts a long as time.
Speaker 2: We knew you had a connection to Georgia, and so
Speaker 2: Clark being the diehard fan he was. The day that
Speaker 2: I got the eight job, he did the cameo with
Speaker 2: you Yeah, and he shows up at my house. He's
Speaker 2: and he's just like, hey, I need to show you something. Now.
Speaker 5: I'm thinking, oh god, three days in the job, there's
Speaker 5: a problem. What's wrong.
Speaker 2: He's like, I got to show you this, and he
Speaker 2: goes he connects my TV with his phone and he
Speaker 2: streams it and you pop up and I was like,
Speaker 2: oh my god, this is the creazy And then and
Speaker 2: then you went above and beyond, which was great because
Speaker 2: it wasn't just a normal like you just you. You
Speaker 2: made it so much better and it was And then
Speaker 2: I think I posted it or shared it. Yes, and
Speaker 2: then it went viral, and I wonder if he's even
Speaker 2: gonna see this?
Speaker 3: It went, it went viral, So from my perspective, you know,
Speaker 3: I get requests to send people messages and I saw
Speaker 3: this request and I'm like, well, this is fun.
Speaker 1: Here's the new guy.
Speaker 3: And I think I went crazy and said a bunch
Speaker 3: of go dogs type things. Of course, the wolf wolf.
Speaker 3: I don't think much about it. And then suddenly Yahoo
Speaker 3: Sports ESPs like suddenly this thing is like living on
Speaker 3: and on.
Speaker 1: It was really fun. It was.
Speaker 2: And that's funny because sometimes in our world we think
Speaker 2: so small, we're like, does he is he even gonna
Speaker 2: see this? He even gonna realize that this thing's going viral?
Speaker 3: You made sure, No, you made sure that I was
Speaker 3: gonna see it. I mean, it went it went everywhere,
Speaker 3: which was very very fun.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they got me some cool points. But people were like,
Speaker 2: how did you pull that off? Like, well, Clark, it
Speaker 2: was a great president from Clark.
Speaker 3: Oh boy, Well we'll talk a little bit more about
Speaker 3: the office in a bit. You grew up in Louisiana, Hammond, Louisiana.
Speaker 3: I understand you played high school football. What position did
Speaker 3: you play?
Speaker 5: Linebacker?
Speaker 1: You were a linebacker?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 1: Were you tough or no?
Speaker 5: Toughnes?
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's probably the only attribute you could give me
Speaker 2: credit for is being at least being tough.
Speaker 5: I could. I will claim that, not fast, not.
Speaker 1: Slow and tough.
Speaker 2: Yeah, slow and sough. I would I would make the tackle.
Speaker 2: It wasn't pretty right. My coach would often yell at
Speaker 2: me about the way I would tackle. But I was
Speaker 2: results oriented is how I would tackle. That's the best
Speaker 2: way to describe myself.
Speaker 5: But very average.
Speaker 3: Okay, And now I don't know if these things normally
Speaker 3: go together. They seemed not to me, But what do
Speaker 3: I know? So you played a high school football and
Speaker 3: then you also threw the javelin.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's a random one.
Speaker 2: That was one that my older brother's friend threw it
Speaker 2: in high school and he got a scholarship LSU and
Speaker 2: his dad sort of helped me out, and it was
Speaker 2: a basically like a moneyball way for me to find
Speaker 2: an event that no one else was doing. And with
Speaker 2: a bad arm but good technique, you could make up
Speaker 2: for a lot of you know, you could make up
Speaker 2: a lot of ground. So just because I had a
Speaker 2: really good technique, I could beat a lot of people.
Speaker 2: But what happened was in high school, the coach knew
Speaker 2: I was so good at the technique and he had
Speaker 2: no idea how to throw it. That he'd often bring
Speaker 2: like the kid with the strongest arm out to practice.
Speaker 2: Say hey, Josh, teach this kid how to throw, And
Speaker 2: a week later he's still kicking my button. I'm like,
Speaker 2: why did I even show this guy?
Speaker 5: Killing me?
Speaker 2: So I inevitably trained everybody to be better than me
Speaker 2: and javelin. I guess that's what I thought. I'd be
Speaker 2: a good coach at that point, because when you can't
Speaker 2: do something, you coach it as best you can.
Speaker 3: When was the last time you threw a javelin? Do
Speaker 3: you go show your students?
Speaker 1: Now?
Speaker 2: Well, my son he wants to be at the athlete.
Speaker 2: He's training for to be a Catholic. Right now, javelin's
Speaker 2: one of his events. So I've been working with him
Speaker 2: on that and I've taught him how to throw, but
Speaker 2: my track team did not know. Most of the majority
Speaker 2: of my track team had no idea. I threw the
Speaker 2: javelin in high school and we had a staff to
Speaker 2: kathlon a year ago or so, and I missed the
Speaker 2: first part of it. And I walked out to the
Speaker 2: kathalan late where the staff was all competing and ninety
Speaker 2: percent of staff could barely throw javelin.
Speaker 5: And I showed up in a tie, slacks and dress shoes.
Speaker 2: I took my dress shoes off, with the tie still on,
Speaker 2: slack still on, grabbed the javelin and beat everybody on
Speaker 2: the staff.
Speaker 5: And to throw it.
Speaker 2: It was that became that video off the texta to you.
Speaker 2: It became a little viral because it just looks so funny.
Speaker 2: Some guy barefooted in a tie slinging a javelin.
Speaker 3: Well, you know what, that reminds me of another guy
Speaker 3: in a sport coat and a tie and dress shoes
Speaker 3: shooting hoops.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, yeah. That No one saw.
Speaker 1: Come that's with that, and no one saw.
Speaker 2: I watched that episode, uh just the two days ago.
Speaker 2: Thanks a matter of fact, if.
Speaker 3: You need somebody to come and teach your guys and
Speaker 3: gals there how to shoot.
Speaker 5: Shoot for throws if nothing else.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you got it's by the way, that's fifteen that's
Speaker 3: free throw line extended. That's an that's a fifteen foot
Speaker 3: arc around that I was hitting. And that was one take.
Speaker 3: Josh really and no edits on the DVD. There's thirteen
Speaker 3: in a row. They are you serious? Greg Daniels called
Speaker 3: me and said, I'm really sorry. We couldn't use six
Speaker 3: minutes of the episode. You just shoot in free throws.
Speaker 3: We had We had to out edit it down a
Speaker 3: little bit. Uh you went to LSU, did you always?
Speaker 3: Being from Louisiana? Was that where you always wanted to go?
Speaker 2: Yeah, when you grow up in South Louisiana, that becomes
Speaker 2: the home based school you root for and the place
Speaker 2: you care about. And uh so that was my childhood
Speaker 2: dream to to go to LSU. And and you know,
Speaker 2: my dream in high school was to be the head
Speaker 2: wall coach there one day and and win national championships.
Speaker 2: That was always that in my mind in high school,
Speaker 2: That's what I was going to do.
Speaker 5: And people thought it.
Speaker 2: And look, people thought I was crazy, but they I
Speaker 2: knew that dream at an early age, and people made
Speaker 2: fun of me about it at early age, which is
Speaker 2: funny now because now my mom will run into somebody
Speaker 2: from my hometown and like, they always knew you were
Speaker 2: going to do big things. I'm like, no, they didn't.
Speaker 2: Don't make fun of me all the time.
Speaker 5: You know, I don't hear that.
Speaker 1: So, so you initially you wanted to be a coach.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: But when I left LSU after being a student assistant
Speaker 2: and I worked for jimbo Fisher, he was the office
Speaker 2: coordinat quarterbacks coach LSU Samean was a head coach. I
Speaker 2: left to go to Louisianman Road to be a GA
Speaker 2: and I coached there for two years, and then after
Speaker 2: two years of being a GA there, my head coach
Speaker 2: offered me a job as football ops. He's like, look,
Speaker 2: I don't I don't really hire people that didn't play colshawal,
Speaker 2: but you're really good at computers, you're organized.
Speaker 5: I think you have a career path in this and
Speaker 5: I didn't see it.
Speaker 2: I didn't understand it, but I'm so glad he did
Speaker 2: that for me because I've enjoyed this pathway although there's
Speaker 2: always that little pool in your heartstrings of like, man,
Speaker 2: what if I was, you know, still coaching into it,
Speaker 2: you know, but obviously I can't complain.
Speaker 1: So that's how that's that's what put you on the path.
Speaker 2: Yeah, is that that change where I literally got out
Speaker 2: of coaching and went into administration. That but I was,
Speaker 2: you know, twenty three, twenty four years old, off for
Speaker 2: my first full time job, making twenty thousand dollars a year.
Speaker 2: I thought I was rich and made it and I
Speaker 2: was ready to start my career.
Speaker 3: Well, by the way you just rolled through some names,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna I'm gonna roll through a few more. You're
Speaker 3: at LSU. Saban is the coach. Jimbo Fisher is there
Speaker 3: as the OC if I'm if I'm not mistaken, Freddy
Speaker 3: Kitchens is there, Adam Gate, Adam Gase is there, Will
Speaker 3: must Him mus Him is there.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is Sarah Dooley.
Speaker 2: Stan Hickson is there. At the same time, Derek Dooley
Speaker 2: was coaching tight ends recruiting coordinator. Stan Hickson a longtime
Speaker 2: great coach, worked with Michael Haywood who was eventually you know,
Speaker 2: coached the places.
Speaker 1: Say it was a this is the tree. I mean
Speaker 1: this is literally the tree.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was insanity to think to be in just
Speaker 2: to be as a student assistant charting and being on
Speaker 2: the headset listening to Coach Fisher and and all those
Speaker 2: guys talk and be witness to that was just unbelievable.
Speaker 2: What a great experience at twenty one years old to
Speaker 2: see and hear those things.
Speaker 3: As you mentioned, you end up going to Louisiana Monroe.
Speaker 3: But I got to ask you a question. If LSU
Speaker 3: called and said, come be the athletic director here, do
Speaker 3: you go?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 5: I mean honestly, people ask me that question all the time.
Speaker 1: So it was a bad question. No, No, what I want.
Speaker 1: I want the answer.
Speaker 2: I like to be a public about it because it's
Speaker 2: no disrespect to LSU. It's a great place, great people. Obviously,
Speaker 2: I've got a ton of family back there. But when
Speaker 2: you go from LSU and you work at Louisiana in
Speaker 2: row so many years, you lose the tie to the
Speaker 2: to your institution, and it because more about people you
Speaker 2: work with. So I don't even root for LSU. I
Speaker 2: just root for people I've worked with more than anything else.
Speaker 2: And then I've been at Georgia now fourteen years my
Speaker 2: children were born here. You know, this is my home,
Speaker 2: this is my place, this is this is where I
Speaker 2: want to spend the rest of my life.
Speaker 5: And it's no, and I don't mean.
Speaker 3: That that's where you want to spend the rest of your life. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean you're on the record right now.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: My dream is to work here until I can retire,
Speaker 2: and then I'd love to live here after that. I mean,
Speaker 2: if you look at the track record of people, whether
Speaker 2: it's football coaches or other coaches that or administrators that
Speaker 2: have worked here and then retire stay here, it's just
Speaker 2: a great mean. I'm not trying to be, you know,
Speaker 2: over the top about my love of Athens, but it's
Speaker 2: just it's just a really great place to live. And
Speaker 2: if they'll have me, I'll stay as long as as
Speaker 2: long as I can.
Speaker 3: I do have to ask you about your time. I
Speaker 3: love this. At Louisiana Monroe. You're a graduate assistant and
Speaker 3: I read the story that the budget was very low
Speaker 3: to the athletic department there. That is a fair assessment,
Speaker 3: and the school could not afford snacks for the football
Speaker 3: players for the football players after summer workouts, So you
Speaker 3: went to a local store and you struck a deal
Speaker 3: to get peanut butter and jelly and a local bakery
Speaker 3: to give bread, and you and other graduate assistants would
Speaker 3: make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the football players.
Speaker 2: True or false, That is true. That's that's some good
Speaker 2: research right there. That's a impressive.
Speaker 3: We've got a cracked team here. Gosh, we didn't have.
Speaker 3: I found out a lot I won't talk about.
Speaker 1: No, that's this.
Speaker 2: This was before the days of the resources that you
Speaker 2: can now provide without any cost, you know, to student athletes.
Speaker 2: And we didn't have a lot of money back then
Speaker 2: at Monroe. So we're very resourceful. And I went to
Speaker 2: the local grocery shore they would give us gift cards
Speaker 2: a week exchange for peb and j and then the
Speaker 2: local bakery would give me like two day old bread.
Speaker 2: So me and the student systems would make sandwiches NonStop,
Speaker 2: put them, wrap them up, put them in the refrigerator,
Speaker 2: and the kids would come by all summer. And that's
Speaker 2: how we kept our team. You know, they had meal
Speaker 2: plans and stuff, but this was their way to get
Speaker 2: all the extra stuff instead of the shakes and smoothies
Speaker 2: and things like that, this was hard. Something's a little
Speaker 2: that's a low fridge and it helped feed me a
Speaker 2: couple of days a week.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 3: Maybe it's just like yesterday for you, but but it's
Speaker 3: been so long. Two thousand and seven. You're there, you're
Speaker 3: the director of football operations at Louisiana Monroe and you
Speaker 3: play a game in Tuscaloosa. And now this is Saban's
Speaker 3: first year with the Tide. He's gone to Alabama and
Speaker 3: Louisiana Monroe wins in Tuscaloosa twenty one to fourteen?
Speaker 1: Were you there?
Speaker 2: I was for bops there. Yeah, I was there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but you were in the stadium.
Speaker 5: I was on the sideline.
Speaker 1: You were on the sidelines. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Is that where your hatred for Alabama started? Not hatred
Speaker 3: your rivalry?
Speaker 1: Is that?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 3: And Saban is there and you had worked under him
Speaker 3: at LSU, Like, how special was that game for you personally?
Speaker 2: That was special for me honestly, because you know, I
Speaker 2: felt there was an tunity that I had to that
Speaker 2: I was interviewed for a job. The one thing I
Speaker 2: to tell about when I was at Monroe. After my
Speaker 2: first year at Monroe, coach Fisher called me back up
Speaker 2: and said there was a job opportunity for it to
Speaker 2: be a g A at l s U. Yeah, and
Speaker 2: I interviewed and didn't get it. That's a whole nother story.
Speaker 2: But so there was a little bit of a resentment
Speaker 2: towards Jelish. That's where a little bit of my resentment
Speaker 2: started towards Jellis shoes that I didn't get that job.
Speaker 2: They won a national championship the next year while I
Speaker 2: was still at Monroe, So there was a little bit
Speaker 2: of a you know, not a rabbit free but you know,
Speaker 2: me wanting to beat him.
Speaker 5: But at the same time, you know it's you. You
Speaker 5: have to I have to be.
Speaker 2: Thankful for coach Saban and everything else, for I wouldn't
Speaker 2: be where I am today without all those coaches in
Speaker 2: the experience. So it's a mixed emotion of yeah, I
Speaker 2: wanted to beat him, you want to beat everybody. But
Speaker 2: that's where it started a little bit for me. And
Speaker 2: I always loved to give Kirby a hard time about
Speaker 2: that because he was at A at Bama that year too,
Speaker 2: So whenever he makes a jab at me, I always
Speaker 2: remind him that he was on the side the other
Speaker 2: sidelines of that game when I let we took them down.
Speaker 2: But the funny thing about that story, and this is
Speaker 2: not me, this was one of the coaches in our staff.
Speaker 2: So when you're a school like Louisiana Monroe and you
Speaker 2: play Alabama normally, when you lose that game and you're
Speaker 2: shaking hands with the other coaches, one of the common
Speaker 2: comments that the big school tells a small school. And
Speaker 2: I've been on the other end of this a million times, Hey,
Speaker 2: good luck and conference. It's kind of a way of
Speaker 2: saying like, yeah, we beat you, but we're gonna hope
Speaker 2: you'll do all in your conference. One of our coaches
Speaker 2: went right up to one of the BAMA coaches and
Speaker 2: the strip said, good luck a conference.
Speaker 3: Oh that's so good.
Speaker 2: I don't I don't take one thing I've learned in
Speaker 2: this like I don't take victory laps. I don't do.
Speaker 2: You know, I've always tried to and all victories stay
Speaker 2: humble because you know, when you come up through Monroe
Speaker 2: and when you come up that end, you've been on it.
Speaker 2: I've been on both sides of it. So I've learned
Speaker 2: in this profession you better stay humble or you will
Speaker 2: quickly be humbled. So I don't take victory laps. I'm
Speaker 2: when we beat someone, I go to my counterpart and
Speaker 2: I'm like, I was like just hugging them and giving
Speaker 2: him a nice handshake and just saying could get you know,
Speaker 2: I've never before I celebrate. I try to at least be.
Speaker 1: Yeah, glad, you're a nice guy.
Speaker 2: I am a nice I've tried to be at least.
Speaker 1: Briefly.
Speaker 3: You go to Georgia twenty eight to fourteen for the
Speaker 3: first time, your football ops. There, you are getting your
Speaker 3: masters at the same time, right that you become an
Speaker 3: associate athletic director. There are you just working your ass off?
Speaker 2: And I think so that was in like twelve through fourteen,
Speaker 2: so I had I had twin three year old and
Speaker 2: a one year old at the time, so my wife
Speaker 2: appreciated the uh, maybe I can't help with the kids.
Speaker 5: I got to study for this mid.
Speaker 3: Yeah, where she's going to heaven for sure she's the
Speaker 3: saying yeah.
Speaker 5: So I knew.
Speaker 2: It's not the case in every situation, but in a
Speaker 2: lot of situations, when they post an a d job,
Speaker 2: they say there's a requirement of a master's degree, or
Speaker 2: at least say master's degree. For so I was like,
Speaker 2: I need to check this box just to not if
Speaker 2: any reason that someone couldn't interview me God or any reason.
Speaker 2: But you know, so I went into it with the
Speaker 2: mindset of I need to check this box. But actually
Speaker 2: I went to grad school Georgia and it was great
Speaker 2: for two things. One it made me think in different
Speaker 2: ways that I hadn't before from a textbook standpoint in
Speaker 2: sports management. And two, it brought me a deeper connection
Speaker 2: with Georgia because now it's prideful to say, like I'm
Speaker 2: a Georgia grad, I'm not a lum, and that that
Speaker 2: means something to me. That the fact that I want
Speaker 2: to be in the rest of my life that I
Speaker 2: can say I'm not just a you know, person worked
Speaker 2: to have a person who actually graduate career. So that's
Speaker 2: helped deepen my connection and makes it makes it a
Speaker 2: little more special for me.
Speaker 3: Of course, you get that degree and immediately get an
Speaker 3: athletic director job Millsaps College there in Jackson, Mississippi. This
Speaker 3: was my fun fact about this time. You were one
Speaker 3: of the first athletic directors and a young athletic director,
Speaker 3: a newly minted athletic director, in college sports to introduce
Speaker 3: on site beer gardens at the game, and you had
Speaker 3: a little pushback.
Speaker 1: On this is that right?
Speaker 3: Talk to me about the decision that, like, why did
Speaker 3: you make the decision? Why did you feel like it
Speaker 3: was a good thing.
Speaker 2: So I felt at a place like Millsaps, you can
Speaker 2: take chances, I thought, And it's a place where I
Speaker 2: could take a chance to do something different. And I
Speaker 2: knew that organically you weren't going to have a lot
Speaker 2: of people just show up at millsapsotball games in Jacksonsissippi,
Speaker 2: So we had to do something different to excite the
Speaker 2: local families and people to come out to games. So
Speaker 2: when I went on the interview at Millsaps, I said,
Speaker 2: I'm going to be myself to the full play it
Speaker 2: all out there. I've had a few ideas, one of
Speaker 2: them will being the beer guarden. But there was a
Speaker 2: handful of ideas I pitched, and I said, they're there
Speaker 2: gonna like me, or they're gonna hire me, or they're
Speaker 2: not gonna like me, and they're not gonna hire me,
Speaker 2: and it wouldn't be meant to be. So I pitched
Speaker 2: all my ideas like that and a few other ones.
Speaker 2: Similar to that, and they loved them. And I get
Speaker 2: there and I get hired in July, and the football
Speaker 2: season obviously starts to September, and I thought, okay, I'm
Speaker 2: gonna wait till a year in and start the beer guarden.
Speaker 2: You don't come in and throw all your crazy ideas
Speaker 2: out there. And then a couple of weeks in people
Speaker 2: were like, hey, man, what's up this beer guarden?
Speaker 5: You told us about an interview.
Speaker 2: I was like, okay, I guess we're doing this so so.
Speaker 2: And you know, we had a Methodist affiliation at Millsaps.
Speaker 2: And it's interesting because not to get too into deep
Speaker 2: into the rigionport, but there was a debate amongst some
Speaker 2: different Methodists entities basically arguing John Wesley's feelings on alcohol.
Speaker 2: Some felt it was none and some felt that it
Speaker 2: was in moderation. And I felt that this was a
Speaker 2: good way to moderate drinking in a way people could
Speaker 2: do it safely because people weren't getting.
Speaker 5: You know, they weren't.
Speaker 2: We were controlling it, and it was a way to
Speaker 2: do it responsibly. But you know, the the hate mail
Speaker 2: I got was actually from people who weren't even affiliated
Speaker 2: with most steps. It was just random people from other
Speaker 2: faiths that were sending me letters. And it got a
Speaker 2: little nasty there for a little bit, but it with
Speaker 2: all things that passed and and they still have it today.
Speaker 2: And what's funny, and this is funny, but not funny.
Speaker 2: The beer garden is right next to the kid zone.
Speaker 2: We created a kid zone too, And that sounds funny,
Speaker 2: but it works out great because the parents want to
Speaker 2: drop their kids off at the kids zone, yeah, and
Speaker 2: at the beer garden and let little Johnny and Susie
Speaker 2: run around. And so it was about making making it
Speaker 2: more than just a game. And I said that with
Speaker 2: all due respect to the student athletes, but we had
Speaker 2: to do something bigger. So we we we created a
Speaker 2: kid zone, a beer garden. We took the student section
Speaker 2: and we would do fun things like we did a
Speaker 2: phone party one time during a game where we literally
Speaker 2: had a big phone pit and just let the students
Speaker 2: have fun. So it was it was a place where
Speaker 2: you could try things, make mistakes.
Speaker 5: Learn and grow.
Speaker 2: And it was just a phenomenal place for me to
Speaker 2: get to cut my teeth and trust some things.
Speaker 3: After a couple more years at Louisiana Monroe, you go
Speaker 3: back to Georgia. Now, when you go back to Georgia
Speaker 3: in twenty sixteen to take an associate athletic directory job,
Speaker 3: do you see that as your path? Do you think
Speaker 3: I'm going to be there forever?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was the I left in fourteen to go
Speaker 2: to Millsaps And you'll limp to get outside of my
Speaker 2: comfort zone. If you can imagine at Georgia, I'd come
Speaker 2: up through the ranks and then I was associated, but
Speaker 2: I was in just a couple of areas of responsibility
Speaker 2: and I had to step out of that to get
Speaker 2: experience in fundraising and marketing and ticket sales and everything else.
Speaker 2: And so when I came back to Georgia, it was
Speaker 2: a all due respect to everyone in the building, but
Speaker 2: I'm coming back to take that next step.
Speaker 5: And I was.
Speaker 2: Gonna be patient on it because I didn't know if
Speaker 2: i'd get I knew Greg, my previous boss, was he
Speaker 2: had a few left, he was going to retire at
Speaker 2: some point. But I was okay with Okay, if I
Speaker 2: get it, I get it. If I don't, I don't,
Speaker 2: I'll be ready to take a job somewhere else. And
Speaker 2: this is now going to cap off my experience and
Speaker 2: I'll be ready to interview for whatever's next.
Speaker 5: But it worked out, and.
Speaker 2: I'm you know, luck timing just merged at the right
Speaker 2: time and it worked out. But you know, I came
Speaker 2: back with the thought of I'm either going to be
Speaker 2: at Georgia, be the number two or three the rest
Speaker 2: of my career, or hopefully there's an opportunity here somewhere else.
Speaker 3: Since twenty twenty one, the Athletic Director of Georgia. I've
Speaker 3: got to give you a bunch of fun facts here.
Speaker 3: Twenty twenty three Sports Bureau Journal Athletic Director of the
Speaker 3: Year finalist Georgia highest ranking in eighteen years, ranked seventh
Speaker 3: in the lear Field Director's Cup, basically excellence in sports athletics.
Speaker 1: This stat is insane.
Speaker 3: Josh, Georgia has twenty one sports seventeen finished with a
Speaker 3: top twenty ranking and nine ended up in the top
Speaker 3: ten of twenty twenty three. Is that the best stat
Speaker 3: for you? Is that the stat you're most proud of?
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know it's it's you can never take
Speaker 2: anything away from a national championship in any sport, and
Speaker 2: obviously football is just amazing. But I do take a
Speaker 2: lot of pride and I want to be good in
Speaker 2: every I'm a competitor. I love to compete, and I
Speaker 2: want to be good in every all twenty one sports.
Speaker 2: I always make the joke that if we started a
Speaker 2: bad minton team tomorrow, I'd want to have the best
Speaker 2: bad mint team in the country. I just I'm a
Speaker 2: competitor and that's why I love the shop so much.
Speaker 2: But yeah, there's a lot of pride in that because
Speaker 2: especially when you can you can make a change in
Speaker 2: a program, bringing a new coach and see it grow
Speaker 2: like what our soccer program has done the last two years.
Speaker 2: That's a lot of fun when you see it. Okay,
Speaker 2: we weren't even making the SEC tournament and then we
Speaker 2: made the insula term that we won the SEC. That's
Speaker 2: just that's really fun and that's one of the big
Speaker 2: pride points for me.
Speaker 3: In addition to football, obviously you just mentioned soccer, volleyball,
Speaker 3: track and field softball all making huge strides being very successful,
Speaker 3: and you have ten head coaching hires there. Now, what
Speaker 3: is important for you when you're looking to hire a
Speaker 3: new head coach in any sport?
Speaker 2: You know, it's it's different sport to sport because the
Speaker 2: opportunities and challenges are different in every single sport, and
Speaker 2: not to sound cliches, but it's in the world we
Speaker 2: live in today. I've got to make sure first and
Speaker 2: foremost that I've got someone that I can trust with
Speaker 2: my young men and women that were there's too much
Speaker 2: going on in the world that the deal breaker for
Speaker 2: me is I've got to trust and know that I
Speaker 2: can trust that they're going to do right by the
Speaker 2: young men and women. That's where it starts for me.
Speaker 2: Then it's about development and recruiting, and recruiting is a
Speaker 2: big piece for me. You better have a plan, you
Speaker 2: better enjoy recruiting. You got to be really active because
Speaker 2: at the end of the day, it doesn't matter how
Speaker 2: good of a coach you are. You better have these
Speaker 2: student athletes and the players. And it's not just about
Speaker 2: their ability, it's about their their mindset, their ability to develop,
Speaker 2: the their they be able to make it here academically.
Speaker 5: You know, so you have your your standard things you're
Speaker 5: looking for.
Speaker 2: But then it then it comes down to fit and
Speaker 2: gut and like when I meet someone, does my gut
Speaker 2: tingle when I meet them, because hopefully, if I've narrowed
Speaker 2: it down in three or four they all meet the
Speaker 2: the qualifications I want, and then when I meet them,
Speaker 2: it's gotta I just trust my gut and go, this
Speaker 2: is somebody I believe in. This is somebody that I
Speaker 2: that I want to leave my program.
Speaker 3: God, I love that, Like really good for you, and
Speaker 3: obviously it's working out well for you. But I don't
Speaker 3: want to get on a soapbox here. But you know,
Speaker 3: I mean there's so much talk these days in sports
Speaker 3: about analytics, and I'm not saying analytics are not important,
Speaker 3: but you also, well you have.
Speaker 1: To let's you have to have a good I've got
Speaker 1: a good gut.
Speaker 3: But yeah, but but I love that that and that
Speaker 3: you're and that you're transparent about it, like you've got
Speaker 3: to have somebody or you've got to have a feeling
Speaker 3: about this person that's more than just intellectual.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I've just been always been a big gut person and
Speaker 2: believe it. And I think, Look, I'll be honest with you.
Speaker 2: I am not super talented. Look I've bet I told
Speaker 2: you I was average football player, average athlete. Everybody in
Speaker 2: my department that leads leads a unit, they do it
Speaker 2: better than I could ever do it. Like my CFO
Speaker 2: I could never be a better CFO than her. My
Speaker 2: person that runs development, the person runs to every single
Speaker 2: categorical item in this department. They all do it way
Speaker 2: better than I could ever imagine do it. So I
Speaker 2: don't have a true talent for any of these things.
Speaker 2: I think my best talent is doing what I'm doing.
Speaker 2: You know, I don't know to explain that, but and
Speaker 2: I just got to go with my gut because at
Speaker 2: the end of the day, if they make my gut tingle,
Speaker 2: then then hopefully that means they're going to make recruits
Speaker 2: and others feel the same way, and they'll be able
Speaker 2: to get people here, and they'll get people to buy
Speaker 2: in and believe and know what we're doing. So and look,
Speaker 2: it's not going to be nothing ever is going to
Speaker 2: be full proof, and unfortunately in this business, it's a
Speaker 2: mathematical certainty. At some point I'm going to have to
Speaker 2: probably fire someone I hired, and that day will be terrible,
Speaker 2: but hopefully not. I really enjoy the people I work with,
Speaker 2: and obviously the people I've hired I believe in, and
Speaker 2: then I think my part of my responsibility with that
Speaker 2: is to give them every resource they need to be
Speaker 2: successful and remove the roadblocks, give them the resources to
Speaker 2: where they can do what we've brought them here to
Speaker 2: do well.
Speaker 3: In addition to recruiting, setting a record for fundraising in
Speaker 3: twenty twenty three, as well also record breaking academic year
Speaker 3: in twenty twenty three, setting a new school high mark
Speaker 3: for cumulative GPA. I mean, you're on a good run here, Josh.
Speaker 3: And in addition to everything else, let's just say the
Speaker 3: highest profile sports, college football, you are the first and
Speaker 3: only team to go back to back in the college
Speaker 3: Football Playoff. The last team to go back to back
Speaker 3: in an undisputed way was Alabama in twenty eleven and
Speaker 3: twenty twelve. It's been eleven years since that. You have
Speaker 3: a chance to go for three. What happens on Saturday? Like,
Speaker 3: how are you viewing the game right now? Your comfort level?
Speaker 2: You know, I think it's going to Like you said,
Speaker 2: it's been one of those classic matchups, two really good
Speaker 2: football teams, two great coaching staffs. For me, I always
Speaker 2: say the games are one in the trenches, who controls
Speaker 2: a lot of scrimmage and then and then it could
Speaker 2: come down to a crazy thing happening, a turnover here,
Speaker 2: turnover there. This feels like a game where it's going
Speaker 2: to be important. The winner of the game is probably
Speaker 2: going to win the turnover battle, and unless something crazy
Speaker 2: happens on special teams, I really feel like the turnover
Speaker 2: battle is going to be the deciding point of this game.
Speaker 2: But you know, this is excitement. It's you know that
Speaker 2: there's nerves to go into a game like this, but
Speaker 2: it's also excitement because this is why we do it,
Speaker 2: you know, so you can't shy away from these moments.
Speaker 2: We work, We work to have these opportunities. So you're
Speaker 2: ready to just tee it up and let's let's go,
Speaker 2: and let's see what happens.
Speaker 3: You know, this morning in my car, I was listening
Speaker 3: to Greg McElroy, obviously Alabama quarterback, Greg talking very confidently
Speaker 3: about how Alabama matches up against Georgia. Alabama should not matter.
Speaker 3: What happened last week at Auburn is maybe the greatest
Speaker 3: travesty I have ever seen on a football field, because
Speaker 3: here's the thing. The kick six that happens, this is
Speaker 3: a crazy, unexpected play. This is this is crazy fourth
Speaker 3: and thirty one when you have everyone back in the
Speaker 3: end zone. This is this is something that should should
Speaker 3: not happen. I said on the record, I know you
Speaker 3: can't say it. Everybody at Auburn gone got goodbye, kick
Speaker 3: them out of the conference. You're feeling watching the game last.
Speaker 2: Year at this point in that game, you nothing surprised
Speaker 2: you anymore. It's and I'm gonna tell you Auburn is well,
Speaker 2: it's a crazy place to play where those fans they
Speaker 2: do a great job.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: What's funny about the SEC is like so you you know,
Speaker 2: after going to LSU and they're working at Monroe and
Speaker 2: playing Auburn a bunch and now being at Georgia, Auburn
Speaker 2: has been a team I've played throughout the twenty five
Speaker 2: years of my career all the time, and it's a
Speaker 2: team that you you know, it's a rival. You can't
Speaker 2: stand them in the Senate. Then you meet the people
Speaker 2: that work there and you just love They've got some
Speaker 2: of the great greatest administrators there. Hey d he's a
Speaker 2: great guy there. And it's like, I want to hate you, man,
Speaker 2: like y'all are so nice and such good people, like
Speaker 2: you're supposed to hate Auburn. But and that's the same
Speaker 2: thing with like Tennessee and Florida to other places like,
Speaker 2: I want to hate you so much, but there's just
Speaker 2: so many good people in this profession that it's funny
Speaker 2: that people don't see the behind the scenes side of
Speaker 2: that of so many good people.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I know you're being nice, but that was just
Speaker 3: I mean you, I like, that's pretty good. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 3: I did hear you. I did hear you in an interview.
Speaker 3: I found this fascinating. You just alluded to it right now.
Speaker 3: You talked about how the SEC Athletic directors work.
Speaker 2: Really more, We've done more research than anybody I've ever interview.
Speaker 3: This is there that there is a there is a camaraderie,
Speaker 3: there is a you all are helping each other.
Speaker 1: It is this is this is true, very correct.
Speaker 2: You know, we we're our own little therapy group to
Speaker 2: some degree some points in time when we get together
Speaker 2: because we are some of the only people that know
Speaker 2: what each other are going through, uh, whether we're dealing
Speaker 2: with fans or student athletes, or coaches or staff or
Speaker 2: et cetera. Because it's these chairs can be lonely sometimes
Speaker 2: so being able to talk to the ad at Auburn
Speaker 2: or Florida or Tennessee or whoever and talk through issues
Speaker 2: and really talk about best practices and we and look,
Speaker 2: we understand that as the SEC goes, we all go.
Speaker 2: The more successful they see is the better we're all
Speaker 2: going to be across the ward. So there is a
Speaker 2: common interest in our league doing well. And you know,
Speaker 2: we want to get as many teams in the playoffs,
Speaker 2: so we want to get as many teams in the instantly
Speaker 2: tournament in baseball and basketball, et cetera. So there's pride there,
Speaker 2: and there is great camaraderie and I really enjoy We
Speaker 2: meet in person a few times a year and we
Speaker 2: zoom every couple of weeks and it's a fun group
Speaker 2: and we lean on each other pretty well.
Speaker 3: I love hearing that too, and it and it makes
Speaker 3: a lot of sense. I have to ask you about
Speaker 3: Jim Harbaugh and the Michigan program and what is alleged
Speaker 3: right now is the decision that was made to suspend
Speaker 3: him for three games. Do you think that was the
Speaker 3: right decision?
Speaker 5: You know, I don't know.
Speaker 2: We've we I've tended to always stay stay in our
Speaker 2: own lane and not judge other people, because judge not
Speaker 2: unless you be judged.
Speaker 3: But unless we could come right back. I got you right, Yes, No,
Speaker 3: I understand.
Speaker 2: You know, I've been in those trenches before, and I've
Speaker 2: been on other sides of the table on any situation
Speaker 2: like that, and you never want to judge because you
Speaker 2: know that things can be reported one way and then
Speaker 2: they're the deep. The facts of a situation may not
Speaker 2: be what's being reported out. So you try to hold
Speaker 2: back judgment in any situation like that because you just
Speaker 2: you don't know what you know. Unless you're there, you
Speaker 2: don't know what the truth is. So I have my
Speaker 2: own challenges every day, so I.
Speaker 3: Tend not to you stand your own lane. Well, here's
Speaker 3: the thing that to me is fascinating. Big time college
Speaker 3: sports is a business, and now at this moment where
Speaker 3: we sit right now, the only chance for a big team,
Speaker 3: big ten team to get into the college football playoffs.
Speaker 1: Is if it's Michigan.
Speaker 3: And if Michigan doesn't get in, they're costing themselves and
Speaker 3: their own institutions a lot of money. So the the
Speaker 3: oversight is all to me very confusing.
Speaker 5: That's a good that's an interesting way.
Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, because it's a conflicted feeling of pride
Speaker 2: in the conference and revenue opportunities for the conference. So
Speaker 2: I would that'd be interesting to see how they all
Speaker 2: feel about watching that Big Ten championship game. But but yeah,
Speaker 2: I know, and look, I know fans were probably some
Speaker 2: would probably scoff at me saying this, But we we do.
Speaker 2: We root, we root for us to see for them
Speaker 2: to do well.
Speaker 1: You know, we do, I think most fans do. I mean,
Speaker 1: at a certain it's a.
Speaker 5: Point of pride.
Speaker 2: It is a point of pridm because you can look
Speaker 2: back on it and say and say, look at our history,
Speaker 2: Look how well our conference has done the playoffs. And
Speaker 2: that's a good bragging point to say, this is the
Speaker 2: conference that has the best track record right in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: So I think that's I think that's true.
Speaker 3: I mean, I certainly hear a lot of SEC specifically
Speaker 3: SEC chants from fans at certain games, you know, particularly
Speaker 3: when you get into like you know, the NCAA March
Speaker 3: Madness basketball tournament bracket, Like there's a there's like, well,
Speaker 3: they beat us, and they're better than us this year,
Speaker 3: but them being better makes us better somehow.
Speaker 2: And then and then even when like someone beats an
Speaker 2: SEC team and they tweet or chant, oh, it just
Speaker 2: means more like messing with us. It's like well, you're
Speaker 2: actually proving our point when you when you trouble us
Speaker 2: with that, that means that that hashtags work pretty well
Speaker 2: and it's caught on so you're using it, so obviously
Speaker 2: it's pretty pretty strong state, you know.
Speaker 3: So Yeah, if Georgia does what I hope they do
Speaker 3: and beats Alabama this weekend, it appears all but likely
Speaker 3: that Alabama will not be in the College Football Playoff.
Speaker 3: If somehow it's fourth and thirty one.
Speaker 5: I'm walking out the building. I'm just walking.
Speaker 1: You're just gonna walk out.
Speaker 3: Yeah, if somehow Georgia loses, Georgia, should they still be
Speaker 3: uh in the college football Playoff?
Speaker 2: You know, Look, I'm always gonna advocate for our team,
Speaker 2: but we're a you know how we're wired here, Uh
Speaker 2: with coach marsh leadership, We're focused on one thing and
Speaker 2: one thing only that's that's winning Saturday. That's got to
Speaker 2: be the focus because any minute we spent worrying about
Speaker 2: alternative scenarios is a minute wasted. So we've got to
Speaker 2: be focused on the task in hand. And uh.
Speaker 3: And then I actually like that because I I've spent
Speaker 3: a lot of time worrying about the others.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you can't. I mean, it's a wasted wasted.
Speaker 1: No, you're no, You're right, it is. It is a
Speaker 1: total waste of time.
Speaker 2: I do think there was an important statement that was
Speaker 2: made that I would always fall back to, as this said,
Speaker 2: it is the best four team. So that's all I
Speaker 2: have four teams, that's all I ask for. However, that dice,
Speaker 2: however that shakes out best four team and the best
Speaker 2: four teams, and if and if everyone in the committee
Speaker 2: does that in their art and wherever it falls, it falls.
Speaker 3: But you know, you know, you know who's the smartest
Speaker 3: about that about picking the best four teams?
Speaker 1: Vegas, Vegas. Just go to Vegas.
Speaker 5: They've got they've got true motives to pick the right.
Speaker 1: For well yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3: Uh basketball team, A highly touted new recruit coming to Georgia.
Speaker 3: Talk to me a little bit about in il good.
Speaker 2: I think there's good and bad, right, I think it's here.
Speaker 2: We I'm a I'm an optimist. I focus on the
Speaker 2: positives of it. The positives of it are student athletes
Speaker 2: now have the ability to make money off their name, image, likeness,
Speaker 2: which is great because you know, you see a guy
Speaker 2: like last year, like stets invented and others are now
Speaker 2: other young men on the team and women we have
Speaker 2: in other sports who have an opportunity to go do
Speaker 2: ads and commercials to help some that can just put
Speaker 2: money away from the future, some that can help their
Speaker 2: family right now in need. And that's a great thing
Speaker 2: that because there were some really silly restrictions before, like
Speaker 2: what not let a kid if a kid wants to
Speaker 2: get a local tire dealership to sponsor and why you know,
Speaker 2: so that's open some really good avenues for kids can
Speaker 2: make money, and I think that it's helping some kids
Speaker 2: decide to stay in school for another year.
Speaker 5: Now.
Speaker 2: The bad side of that is tampering and inducements trying
Speaker 2: to get people to transfer. We've experienced the firsthand. And
Speaker 2: people always think it's just football and basketball. It's it's
Speaker 2: widespread across many sports. So you know, there's some bad
Speaker 2: parts to it that hopefully through congressional work and through
Speaker 2: the work we're doing with INSUBLA. I serve on one
Speaker 2: of the NIL subcommittees in Stable A. I'm actually going
Speaker 2: to Indianapolis in December for a meeting that we're trying
Speaker 2: to put some guardrails around some of these around collectives
Speaker 2: and trying to make sense of it.
Speaker 5: It's not easy.
Speaker 2: I promise to that people that are far smarter than
Speaker 2: I that have tried to work through how these guardrails
Speaker 2: will work. And there's some anti trust issues and other things.
Speaker 2: But you know, with any of that, I think there's
Speaker 2: good and bad. I'm optimist. I focus on the positives
Speaker 2: of it, and I think it's here to stay in
Speaker 2: some form or fashion. Just have to keep it evolving
Speaker 2: and doing the best our best with it to make it,
Speaker 2: to make it the best it can be.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's kind of my question, Like we're not done
Speaker 3: with the current system.
Speaker 1: You think we're still gonna No.
Speaker 2: I think it's a yeah, it's a current evolution, and
Speaker 2: hopefully through that we're learning and finding better practices and ways.
Speaker 5: That we can.
Speaker 2: You know, we want the nil, We want the opportunities
Speaker 2: to athletes. What we want to do is put guardrails
Speaker 2: to eliminate the tampering and inducement portion of it, because
Speaker 2: what we don't want is what I don't want is
Speaker 2: anyone using as inducement for a reason to go to
Speaker 2: a school. Now you go to school, you have success,
Speaker 2: then the world's your oyster. Go you know, and we
Speaker 2: will help you within the rules. Every way we can
Speaker 2: provide anil opportunities for you, make connections with you. We
Speaker 2: have we work in partnership with the Classic City Collective
Speaker 2: here in Athos. It does a phenomenal job and they
Speaker 2: do a great job of finding the big deals, the
Speaker 2: small deals and everything in between. But I don't like
Speaker 2: it as an inducement. I think you should choose your
Speaker 2: college destination best based on the other reasons, the education,
Speaker 2: the coach you believe in, that's the place you want
Speaker 2: to live, and all those things. And then then I
Speaker 2: al should be a bonus part of it, not the reason,
Speaker 2: because you know, you know this money comes to money goes,
Speaker 2: but your experiences and all that the four years you
Speaker 2: have here every way more important than any money you
Speaker 2: can make in your early ages, you know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, look, I absolutely think that these student
Speaker 3: athletes should have the opportunity to do those things. I think,
Speaker 3: particularly as a fan viewing this from the outside is
Speaker 3: sort of the combination of the NIL and you know
Speaker 3: the other thing that's been around for a long time.
Speaker 3: It's just getting talked about much more now, which is
Speaker 3: the transfer portal. And so now what it feels like,
Speaker 3: is there's a free flowing market in between schools where
Speaker 3: people are getting induced to go to different schools, and
Speaker 3: this it just becomes it becomes difficult to root for
Speaker 3: the players. And I think that's the thing about college
Speaker 3: sports is, you know, much more than professional sports.
Speaker 1: It's about this. It's about the institution.
Speaker 3: You're rooting for the school, but you obviously want the
Speaker 3: players to be a part of that. And you know,
Speaker 3: how do you feel you know, what is your feeling
Speaker 3: about about the transport portal and how that's sort of working.
Speaker 3: It feels like in connection with the NIL right now.
Speaker 2: I think even though a student may want up somewhere
Speaker 2: and get an NIL deal after they get there or
Speaker 2: whatever may be, you know, it still comes down to
Speaker 2: when you start playing with a group of guys or
Speaker 2: gals and you're on a common mission, you forget about
Speaker 2: all the NIL stuff and you want to go play
Speaker 2: and win. How you know, we're talking about five hundred
Speaker 2: and fifty plus todent athletes who are driven to compete
Speaker 2: and win. And yeah, the N I was a part,
Speaker 2: but I can'tarantine you in the cultures we try to
Speaker 2: build here, it's about the team first and if you
Speaker 2: can go out and get this opportunities, great, But when
Speaker 2: we suit it up, we're between the lines or on
Speaker 2: the court or the field. That's the biggest thing right there,
Speaker 2: is being a good teammate and trying to compete and win.
Speaker 2: You're not thinking about an NL deal.
Speaker 5: Yeah, game, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's a tricky thing.
Speaker 3: I mean your you you mentioned specifically kids having that
Speaker 3: connection to someone that you hired, a coach that they
Speaker 3: feel like is you know, is going to best prepare
Speaker 3: them either in their sport or in their life.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's one of the big things our baseball
Speaker 2: coach Wes Johnson and n Kirby and Mike White and
Speaker 2: coach a lot of our coach you talk about it's
Speaker 2: you got to believe in us that we're going to
Speaker 2: suit you up better for life. So we don't think
Speaker 2: about the short term benefits now because West Johnson baseball
Speaker 2: coach talks by all the time. You go to school
Speaker 2: and get fifty grand, one hundred grand for one year,
Speaker 2: but I'm going to try to get you in the
Speaker 2: first second round of the baseball Draft, which will lead
Speaker 2: to a much bigger deal. So you've got to see
Speaker 2: the big picture, and that's why development is such a
Speaker 2: big piece of this and that that's one of the
Speaker 2: reasons that excited me about Wes and bringing him here
Speaker 2: coach our baseball team is because the work he did
Speaker 2: with Paul Skeens at LSU and other guys and showing
Speaker 2: that hey, you come here. You may not get a
Speaker 2: figure and il deal to come here, but you work here, develop,
Speaker 2: We're going to lead you into a better situation than
Speaker 2: the draft down the road.
Speaker 1: That's right.
Speaker 3: It feels as though right now with the athletic prowess
Speaker 3: dominance I don't know that George is having right now,
Speaker 3: you're not feeling the same pressure in situation. But obviously
Speaker 3: coach Elco just committed to go to Texas A and
Speaker 3: M and shocker alert the next day they're fantastic quarterback
Speaker 3: Leonard enters a transfer Porthal. So now here's a situation
Speaker 3: where let's just assume what I don't know, which is
Speaker 3: that he chose to go to do because of the coach.
Speaker 1: Now the coach is leaving.
Speaker 3: How do you feel about a situation where if you
Speaker 3: have a kid who's bought into a coach, a situation
Speaker 3: wanting to be with that coach and then the coach leaves.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we've had that. I had a coach leave.
Speaker 2: I won't name the sport, but a couple of years
Speaker 2: ago I had a coach leave, and then two or
Speaker 2: three days later, I had two or three of the
Speaker 2: kids asked on the portal, A couple followed them to
Speaker 2: their new school, and you know, one, one or two
Speaker 2: more went to different schools, and at that point, you
Speaker 2: and that's why I'm kind of okay with the one
Speaker 2: time transfer, because I think in life, people could be
Speaker 2: you know, hey, I want to go back home, or
Speaker 2: there's another reason, right. I don't like the multiple transfers,
Speaker 2: But at that point, those kids, you know, they don't
Speaker 2: they don't owe us, they don't owe me anything. They
Speaker 2: if you know, they came here under one thought and
Speaker 2: a coach is leaving. I don't begrudge them that. And
Speaker 2: I'm not going to hold anybody hostage here. And if
Speaker 2: they want to go somewhere else, then so be it,
Speaker 2: and we'll find someone else that wants to be here,
Speaker 2: because I don't want whether we're talking about a student
Speaker 2: athlete to staff and or coach, whatever it is, I
Speaker 2: don't want anybody here that doesn't want to be here.
Speaker 2: This is a phenomenal place, and I say that as
Speaker 2: humbly as I can. But George is awesome. And if
Speaker 2: if you're not bought in, and then we're not going
Speaker 2: to beg you to believe in something that you don't
Speaker 2: believe in. So if it's not in the card for you,
Speaker 2: and again I say this politely as again will there
Speaker 2: are other young men and women and other staf people
Speaker 2: that want to be here, and we'll go recruit them
Speaker 2: to be here in your place.
Speaker 3: No, I get it. I mean that makes again, that
Speaker 3: makes tons of sense to me. You want to you
Speaker 3: want you want student athletes who are as excited about
Speaker 3: the place where you are as most of the people are.
Speaker 2: Because this is hard these Being a student athlete is
Speaker 2: not easy. Being a staff member in athletic person easy.
Speaker 2: Being a coach it's not easy. So you've got to
Speaker 2: make sure that everything in your life is aligned and
Speaker 2: you want to be here. And if you came under
Speaker 2: one coaching style and whatever else you or you just
Speaker 2: feel like I don't want this change. I want to
Speaker 2: see and so be it.
Speaker 3: You know, Yeah, college football playoff expanding next season?
Speaker 1: Is that good? You know?
Speaker 2: I think again, I'm talking out of both sides of
Speaker 2: my mouth. It's good and you know there's good and
Speaker 2: they're bad to it. I think I saw a good
Speaker 2: point about how you know, that Michigan Ohio State game,
Speaker 2: you know, it felt really big because it felt like
Speaker 2: the winner had a chance to be in the loser
Speaker 2: would not. And now if you fast forward to next
Speaker 2: year that same game eleven and zero versus eleven oh
Speaker 2: if like both teams are getting in, they're just playing
Speaker 2: for potentially a buye. So those big, big games won't
Speaker 2: feel quite so intense. But go pass one through six,
Speaker 2: seven through eighteen, seventh through nineteen sevent through twenty, there's
Speaker 2: gonna be more games that are gonna be more impactful.
Speaker 2: Where now, if if eight versus fifteen are playing people
Speaker 2: like ah, it doesn't really matter much. They're not getting
Speaker 2: the top four. Where now there'll be more of those
Speaker 2: matchups across the board that people are fighting for spot ten, eleven, twelve.
Speaker 5: So I think it's.
Speaker 2: Better for more for more schools to be in that mix.
Speaker 2: And it's gonna be interesting to see the logistics of
Speaker 2: how it's gonna work with the you know, five through
Speaker 2: twelve playing and then you know, go to the quarter
Speaker 2: or some So there's a lot of to work through that.
Speaker 2: It's gonna be new but exciting nonetheless, and it'll be
Speaker 2: here next year, so.
Speaker 5: We will we will see soon enough.
Speaker 1: How do you think it affects the SEC?
Speaker 2: You know, look, I'm again, I'm an SEC homer, So
Speaker 2: it affects us because we're trying to We're all gonna
Speaker 2: be in favor of trying to get as many SEC
Speaker 2: teams and those slots as possible. Interesting to look at
Speaker 2: the rankings right now and how many teams, especially when
Speaker 2: you look at the future SEC with Texas and Oklahoma,
Speaker 2: we we're you know, we've got a lot of teams
Speaker 2: that mix to be fighting for those top theoretical eleven
Speaker 2: spots because twelve could be absorbed by the fifth conference champion.
Speaker 2: You're fighting for those top eleven spots. So hopefully, you know,
Speaker 2: the goal for US is set up a schedule, set
Speaker 2: up per formats can help us get as many teams
Speaker 2: in there as possible.
Speaker 1: Right, what's your favorite office episode?
Speaker 2: Oh man, that sounds like picking your favorite kid. That's
Speaker 2: oh god, you know you gotta go for me, goly,
Speaker 2: you know, I got to go back to the first
Speaker 2: season where it was really edgy. The Human Resources Day episode,
Speaker 2: it was just thanks, Yes, you couldn't do like.
Speaker 5: Things you watch Diversity Day.
Speaker 2: Yeah that you couldn't get away with those things today,
Speaker 2: and it was so great. But I did you did
Speaker 2: your prep for this? I did my prep as well,
Speaker 2: and I did my five favorite Kevin lines all time,
Speaker 2: and I try to go not too obvious, right because
Speaker 2: everybody will points to the chili scene or else. So okay,
Speaker 2: I wanted to do top five, but I had to
Speaker 2: do a runner up that didn't make it cut. It
Speaker 2: was right there, so the runner up. This is what
Speaker 2: I use all the time. Anytime you have ten thousand
Speaker 2: and one os you always take it.
Speaker 1: Always take it.
Speaker 2: Because if John Mellencamp ever wins an oscar, I amn't
Speaker 2: going to be a very rich dude.
Speaker 5: So I've been tracking that.
Speaker 2: I'm like, if John, I'm just thinking, at some point
Speaker 2: John Mellencamp is going to be an indie movie that's
Speaker 2: gonna win, and it's gonna be like The Simpsons projecting
Speaker 2: the future. The Office knew the whole time that Mellencamp
Speaker 2: was gonna do something like that.
Speaker 5: So that was a runner up.
Speaker 3: Okay, that's a runner up. That's like, uh, that's like
Speaker 3: Auburn last weekend. You gotta take you gotta take those on.
Speaker 2: Bet. So number five is the CPR scene call it.
Speaker 2: That's that's a classic number four. I thought Roger Ganda
Speaker 2: was a boy's name.
Speaker 3: Okay, that's an obscure one. Okay, it's very good. Uh,
Speaker 3: I'll tell you a little. I'll tell you give you
Speaker 3: a little about that Roger and Ganda. I have had
Speaker 3: people ask me to write that quote. I get when
Speaker 3: people have asked me to write quote and it inevitably
Speaker 3: turns into a three to four minute Google session me
Speaker 3: trying to figure out how to spell it because I
Speaker 3: don't I don't remember.
Speaker 2: Well, yes, yeah, that's a good that that's a good Uh.
Speaker 2: I bet Clark Williams my buddy. I bet he knows
Speaker 2: how to I guarantee you number three, Oscar. I'm now
Speaker 2: prone to surges.
Speaker 1: Yes, there you go.
Speaker 2: That's a good number two, as has Kevin.
Speaker 5: Pause, and then.
Speaker 1: She goes to enough school, Yes, there you go.
Speaker 2: And then my number one, which I think now I'm
Speaker 2: starting to blend what was in it wasn't in because
Speaker 2: this was a I think this was an eleited scene.
Speaker 1: Okay, I know where you're going.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you can ask me directly if she wants a brother?
Speaker 5: Is that right? Don't quote that right?
Speaker 4: That line that was?
Speaker 2: How was that line cut?
Speaker 1: That was? I know, I know the way you delivered
Speaker 1: it too. Thank you.
Speaker 2: I love the Clark and I always go on these
Speaker 2: deep subreddit tweet thought you know like these form whole
Speaker 2: you know about? Was Kevin secretly a genius the whole time?
Speaker 2: Is my favorite theory, like he was just screwed with
Speaker 2: everybody the whole time to get out of work and
Speaker 2: just skate by.
Speaker 3: I love that, I've I've I have been asked about
Speaker 3: that a lot. Unfortunately, I don't I don't think it's true.
Speaker 1: I don't.
Speaker 3: I don't think. I don't take fun, don't. It's fun
Speaker 3: to think about, but I don't think it's true.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 3: The last time in college football all back to back
Speaker 3: to back three in a row eighty seven years ago.
Speaker 3: Minnesota did it in nineteen thirty four to nineteen thirty six.
Speaker 1: Is it going to happen this year? You know?
Speaker 5: I again, I don't know.
Speaker 2: I just I've kept the attitude the whole time of
Speaker 2: never prognosticating, predicting, just taking one time because people messed
Speaker 2: with me. I mean the number one question I got.
Speaker 2: We won a Nation championship my first year's ad, and
Speaker 2: people kept screwing me the whole time. You won a
Speaker 2: NASH championship my first year, What are you going to
Speaker 2: do after that? And I was like, I'm just I'm
Speaker 2: just retiring after that. And then we then we somehow
Speaker 2: pulled off a second. But now I'm just like, man,
Speaker 2: I just literally count my blessings and just appreciate it
Speaker 2: for you know, all the people here that you know,
Speaker 2: Kirby and other people. We obviously get credit or thanks
Speaker 2: for it that you know so many people and these
Speaker 2: student athletes. It's been a special ride and you never
Speaker 2: want to take one moment of it for granted.
Speaker 5: But it has been a fun ride.
Speaker 3: Let me let me tell you you're a good guy.
Speaker 3: The people around you, everyone that I've met has been fantastic. Uh,
Speaker 3: it's so fun And I don't know, maybe this is
Speaker 3: just my perception, but I feel like, uh, at least
Speaker 3: right now, it may change depending on what happens this year.
Speaker 1: But you got a lot of people who are rooting.
Speaker 3: For Georgia over the the evil Empire across state lines.
Speaker 3: So we'll we'll see if that if that goodwill holds up,
Speaker 3: or hopefully we.
Speaker 2: Meet like all the office fans behind us, or you know.
Speaker 3: That's right exactly just for this, for this one uh,
Speaker 3: for this one game, for these two.
Speaker 1: I maybe I.
Speaker 2: Love Greg Byrne, but I would challenge Greg Burn to
Speaker 2: an office quote, you know, any contest office trivia.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 5: I'll have to ask them what is trivia knowledge?
Speaker 3: Maybe that's maybe, maybe that's maybe that's the next thing
Speaker 3: is we get you and the athletic director at Alabama
Speaker 3: to do an office trivia contest. We'll see, we'll see
Speaker 3: what happens. Josh, thank you so much for joining me.
Speaker 3: Thank you for your candor your insight. When you're listening
Speaker 3: to this, the game's already happened. I know you've got
Speaker 3: a busy weekend, which is why we're recording it today.
Speaker 1: Have a great, great weekend.
Speaker 3: And best of luck in not just football, but the
Speaker 3: rest of.
Speaker 1: Your twenty one sports the rest of the year.
Speaker 5: Appreciate it. Go Dogs, Go Dogs.
Speaker 6: Thanks Josh, Josh.
Speaker 1: Thanks for coming on. I know you're busy.
Speaker 3: Good luck the rest of the year and go dogs, sick'em.
Speaker 1: Woof, woof, woof. Yep, that's what we say. Thanks for listening, listeners.
Speaker 3: You're gonna find me here again next week with a
Speaker 3: very very special guest.
Speaker 1: How can I tease this one? If you were alive
Speaker 1: in the.
Speaker 3: Eighties in the nineties, you're you're a fan of this guy,
Speaker 3: I promise, so we'll.
Speaker 1: See you next week.
Speaker 3: Off the Beat is hosted and executive produced by me
Speaker 3: Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive producer Lang Lee. Our senior
Speaker 3: producer is Diego Tapia. Our producers are Liz Hayes, Hannah Harris,
Speaker 3: and Emily Carr. Our talent producer is Ryan Papa Zachary,
Speaker 3: and our intern is Ali Amir Sahem. Our theme song
Speaker 3: Bubble and Squeak, performed by the one and only Creed
Speaker 3: Brack