Josh Brooks

Just before the past weekend’s SEC Championship game, University of Georgia Athletic Director Josh Brooks sat down with Brian in anticipation of the big game. They reminisce about their viral beginnings, playing sports in suits, and their beloved Dawgs.  See Josh throw a javelin in his business attire here, and the video that made them friends here.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's your favorite Office episode?

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Oh man, that sounds like picking your favorite kid. That's
I am Josh Brooks, the Jay Reed Parker, director Athletics
at the University of Georgia and Office super fan.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
Hi there, everybody, We're back. You're back. We're all here.

Speaker 3 (00:28):
This is Off the Beat, and I am your host,
Brian Baumgartner. I'm so stoked for our guest today. He's
a pretty big deal to me, and he should be
to anyone who loves college sports. Josh Brooks happens to
be the athletic director of my childhood love, the University

(00:49):
of Georgia Bulldogs, and over the last three years, he
has helped lead their athletic program to unprecedented heights in softball, volleyball, soccer,
track and field, and of course their football team back
to back national championships the last two years and one

(01:11):
more if I have my way this year, go Dogs.
In this conversation, you're going to hear how I met Josh.
Let's just say it was a viral moment. To be sure,
Josh is a fan of the Office, So yes, we're
going to talk a little Office today. But now the

(01:31):
truth is, I'm about as big a fan of his
work as he is of mine. He's just about the
best in the business in college athletics.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
He's up for awards.

Speaker 3 (01:42):
But here's the thing, he's even nicer than he is accomplished.
So I can't wait for you to get to know him.
Today he talks frankly about a multitude of topics, ripping
through the headlines of college sports, controversy at Michigan, pressures
of nil, and of course the transfer portal. You're not

(02:04):
gonna want to miss this. And Josh, guess what, I'm
going to release this to the public, just like you
sent us viral a few years ago. Yeah, this thing
right here, this is going to be on the intranet.
Here he is my buddy, Josh Brooks.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
Bubble and squeak. I love it, bubble and squeak on
bubble and squeak, I could.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
Get every mole lift over from the nine.

Speaker 4 (02:35):
Before Go Dogs, Go Dogs.

Speaker 5 (02:48):
Got the hat on, love.

Speaker 3 (02:49):
It Go Dogs. Of course I have the hat on.
I'm excited. I'm ready to go. How you doing, I'm great.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
We're what forty nine hours await and kick off.

Speaker 3 (03:00):
Forty nine hours as we're recording this podcast from the
SEC championship game. I'm so excited about this game. I
think it's going to be the proverbial game of the
century that happens every year.

Speaker 1 (03:12):
How are you feeling about it?

Speaker 2 (03:14):
You know, I'm always I'm nervous, but I'm I'm nervous
for every game, whether it's a we have a women's
basketball game tonight or men's basketball game last night. I'm
I live in a state of nervousness for every game.
But thankfully I don't have to do anything but just
show up.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
So how many games do you go to over the
course of a week. Are you going to awake game?

Speaker 2 (03:34):
I never miss a football away game. I tried to
make a few away games of other sports if I can,
when the travel works out. If it's instabl a tournament,
I try to go so but there's a conflict, Like
our volleyball team is playing in Provo, Utah tomorrow night,
but that game is six thirty Eastern time in Utah
and there's no way I can make it back.

Speaker 5 (03:54):
So I won't make that.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
But last year we were playing in Austin, Texas volleyball
and I went to blab blah match front in Texas,
flew back, got into Atlanta, you know, two o'clock in
the morning and made it back to the city champion game.
So I'll try to get you know, it's a lot
of travel, you know, just this week alone. Men were
on the road. Last night in Florida State women played
Duke tonight at home. Men basketball have Mercier Friday night,

(04:16):
women blulleyball first round Ares of State at Utah, and
then football Saturday. So it's twenty one sports. It's NonStop.
But it's fun, you know.

Speaker 3 (04:26):
I mean it sounds very fun. It sounds like a
good job to me. But yes, being on the road
that much is a lot. I learned a lot about you,
and I mean I knew about you, but I've learned
a lot about you in preparing to talk to you.
It's fascinating stuff. First off, I want to I want
to mention how we got connected, you and you and

(04:49):
I take us through the because we haven't fully talked
about it. I don't know exactly how it happened.

Speaker 1 (04:57):
Yeah, but it was when you got the position as
the athletic director of Georgia. Tell me what happened.

Speaker 5 (05:05):
So it all starts.

Speaker 2 (05:06):
I've got a good group of buddies Clark, Will Brad
and Tanner. We have a group text, and it's one
of those group texts that's been going on for ten
plus years, and it's always full of you know, office
memes or this and that, where you know, it's NonStop
this and that, and Clark is Clark and I debate
over who's the bigger Office fan. We even had a
bet at the end of the series that he thought

(05:27):
Jim and Pam were going to break up and he
had to buy me dinner when they did not, because
I'm more of an optimist and Clark's more of a realistic.
Clark's like, they're going to break He was so set
that they were going to break up that he saw
it coming. So we've been Office diehearts a long as time.
We knew you had a connection to Georgia, and so
Clark being the diehard fan he was. The day that
I got the eight job, he did the cameo with

(05:48):
you Yeah, and he shows up at my house. He's
and he's just like, hey, I need to show you something. Now.

Speaker 5 (05:53):
I'm thinking, oh god, three days in the job, there's
a problem. What's wrong.

Speaker 2 (05:56):
He's like, I got to show you this, and he
goes he connects my TV with his phone and he
streams it and you pop up and I was like,
oh my god, this is the creazy And then and
then you went above and beyond, which was great because
it wasn't just a normal like you just you. You
made it so much better and it was And then
I think I posted it or shared it. Yes, and
then it went viral, and I wonder if he's even

(06:17):
gonna see this?

Speaker 3 (06:19):
It went, it went viral, So from my perspective, you know,
I get requests to send people messages and I saw
this request and I'm like, well, this is fun.

Speaker 1 (06:29):
Here's the new guy.

Speaker 3 (06:30):
And I think I went crazy and said a bunch
of go dogs type things. Of course, the wolf wolf.
I don't think much about it. And then suddenly Yahoo
Sports ESPs like suddenly this thing is like living on
and on.

Speaker 1 (06:46):
It was really fun. It was.

Speaker 2 (06:47):
And that's funny because sometimes in our world we think
so small, we're like, does he is he even gonna
see this? He even gonna realize that this thing's going viral?

Speaker 3 (06:53):
You made sure, No, you made sure that I was
gonna see it. I mean, it went it went everywhere,
which was very very fun.

Speaker 2 (07:02):
Yeah, they got me some cool points. But people were like,
how did you pull that off? Like, well, Clark, it
was a great president from Clark.

Speaker 3 (07:08):
Oh boy, Well we'll talk a little bit more about
the office in a bit. You grew up in Louisiana, Hammond, Louisiana.
I understand you played high school football. What position did
you play?

Speaker 5 (07:24):
Linebacker?

Speaker 1 (07:24):
You were a linebacker?

Speaker 2 (07:25):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (07:26):
Were you tough or no?

Speaker 5 (07:29):
Toughnes?

Speaker 2 (07:29):
Yeah, that's probably the only attribute you could give me
credit for is being at least being tough.

Speaker 5 (07:33):
I could. I will claim that, not fast, not.

Speaker 1 (07:36):
Slow and tough.

Speaker 2 (07:37):
Yeah, slow and sough. I would I would make the tackle.
It wasn't pretty right. My coach would often yell at
me about the way I would tackle. But I was
results oriented is how I would tackle. That's the best
way to describe myself.

Speaker 5 (07:48):
But very average.

Speaker 3 (07:51):
Okay, And now I don't know if these things normally
go together. They seemed not to me, But what do
I know? So you played a high school football and
then you also threw the javelin.

Speaker 5 (08:03):
Yeah, that's a random one.

Speaker 2 (08:06):
That was one that my older brother's friend threw it
in high school and he got a scholarship LSU and
his dad sort of helped me out, and it was
a basically like a moneyball way for me to find
an event that no one else was doing. And with
a bad arm but good technique, you could make up
for a lot of you know, you could make up
a lot of ground. So just because I had a
really good technique, I could beat a lot of people.

(08:26):
But what happened was in high school, the coach knew
I was so good at the technique and he had
no idea how to throw it. That he'd often bring
like the kid with the strongest arm out to practice.
Say hey, Josh, teach this kid how to throw, And
a week later he's still kicking my button. I'm like,
why did I even show this guy?

Speaker 5 (08:40):
Killing me?

Speaker 2 (08:41):
So I inevitably trained everybody to be better than me
and javelin. I guess that's what I thought. I'd be
a good coach at that point, because when you can't
do something, you coach it as best you can.

Speaker 3 (08:50):
When was the last time you threw a javelin? Do
you go show your students?

Speaker 1 (08:54):
Now?

Speaker 2 (08:55):
Well, my son he wants to be at the athlete.
He's training for to be a Catholic. Right now, javelin's
one of his events. So I've been working with him
on that and I've taught him how to throw, but
my track team did not know. Most of the majority
of my track team had no idea. I threw the
javelin in high school and we had a staff to
kathlon a year ago or so, and I missed the
first part of it. And I walked out to the

(09:17):
kathalan late where the staff was all competing and ninety
percent of staff could barely throw javelin.

Speaker 5 (09:21):
And I showed up in a tie, slacks and dress shoes.

Speaker 2 (09:24):
I took my dress shoes off, with the tie still on,
slack still on, grabbed the javelin and beat everybody on
the staff.

Speaker 5 (09:30):
And to throw it.

Speaker 2 (09:30):
It was that became that video off the texta to you.
It became a little viral because it just looks so funny.
Some guy barefooted in a tie slinging a javelin.

Speaker 3 (09:38):
Well, you know what, that reminds me of another guy
in a sport coat and a tie and dress shoes
shooting hoops.

Speaker 5 (09:45):
Oh yeah, yeah. That No one saw.

Speaker 1 (09:47):
Come that's with that, and no one saw.

Speaker 2 (09:50):
I watched that episode, uh just the two days ago.
Thanks a matter of fact, if.

Speaker 3 (09:54):
You need somebody to come and teach your guys and
gals there how to shoot.

Speaker 5 (09:59):
Shoot for throws if nothing else.

Speaker 3 (10:01):
Yeah, you got it's by the way, that's fifteen that's
free throw line extended. That's an that's a fifteen foot
arc around that I was hitting. And that was one take.
Josh really and no edits on the DVD. There's thirteen
in a row. They are you serious? Greg Daniels called
me and said, I'm really sorry. We couldn't use six

(10:24):
minutes of the episode. You just shoot in free throws.
We had We had to out edit it down a
little bit. Uh you went to LSU, did you always?
Being from Louisiana? Was that where you always wanted to go?

Speaker 2 (10:39):
Yeah, when you grow up in South Louisiana, that becomes
the home based school you root for and the place
you care about. And uh so that was my childhood
dream to to go to LSU. And and you know,
my dream in high school was to be the head
wall coach there one day and and win national championships.
That was always that in my mind in high school,
That's what I was going to do.

Speaker 5 (10:58):
And people thought it.

Speaker 2 (10:59):
And look, people thought I was crazy, but they I
knew that dream at an early age, and people made
fun of me about it at early age, which is
funny now because now my mom will run into somebody
from my hometown and like, they always knew you were
going to do big things. I'm like, no, they didn't.
Don't make fun of me all the time.

Speaker 5 (11:13):
You know, I don't hear that.

Speaker 1 (11:17):
So, so you initially you wanted to be a coach.

Speaker 5 (11:20):
Oh yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (11:21):
But when I left LSU after being a student assistant
and I worked for jimbo Fisher, he was the office
coordinat quarterbacks coach LSU Samean was a head coach. I
left to go to Louisianman Road to be a GA
and I coached there for two years, and then after
two years of being a GA there, my head coach
offered me a job as football ops. He's like, look,
I don't I don't really hire people that didn't play colshawal,
but you're really good at computers, you're organized.

Speaker 5 (11:43):
I think you have a career path in this and
I didn't see it.

Speaker 2 (11:46):
I didn't understand it, but I'm so glad he did
that for me because I've enjoyed this pathway although there's
always that little pool in your heartstrings of like, man,
what if I was, you know, still coaching into it,
you know, but obviously I can't complain.

Speaker 1 (11:58):
So that's how that's that's what put you on the path.

Speaker 2 (12:00):
Yeah, is that that change where I literally got out
of coaching and went into administration. That but I was,
you know, twenty three, twenty four years old, off for
my first full time job, making twenty thousand dollars a year.
I thought I was rich and made it and I
was ready to start my career.

Speaker 3 (12:14):
Well, by the way you just rolled through some names,
I'm gonna I'm gonna roll through a few more. You're
at LSU. Saban is the coach. Jimbo Fisher is there
as the OC if I'm if I'm not mistaken, Freddy
Kitchens is there, Adam Gate, Adam Gase is there, Will
must Him mus Him is there.

Speaker 1 (12:34):
I mean, this is Sarah Dooley.

Speaker 2 (12:35):
Stan Hickson is there. At the same time, Derek Dooley
was coaching tight ends recruiting coordinator. Stan Hickson a longtime
great coach, worked with Michael Haywood who was eventually you know,
coached the places.

Speaker 1 (12:47):
Say it was a this is the tree. I mean
this is literally the tree.

Speaker 2 (12:51):
Yeah, it was insanity to think to be in just
to be as a student assistant charting and being on
the headset listening to Coach Fisher and and all those
guys talk and be witness to that was just unbelievable.
What a great experience at twenty one years old to
see and hear those things.

Speaker 3 (13:10):
As you mentioned, you end up going to Louisiana Monroe.
But I got to ask you a question. If LSU
called and said, come be the athletic director here, do
you go?

Speaker 1 (13:19):
No?

Speaker 5 (13:19):
I mean honestly, people ask me that question all the time.

Speaker 1 (13:23):
So it was a bad question. No, No, what I want.
I want the answer.

Speaker 2 (13:28):
I like to be a public about it because it's
no disrespect to LSU. It's a great place, great people. Obviously,
I've got a ton of family back there. But when
you go from LSU and you work at Louisiana in
row so many years, you lose the tie to the
to your institution, and it because more about people you
work with. So I don't even root for LSU. I
just root for people I've worked with more than anything else.

(13:49):
And then I've been at Georgia now fourteen years my
children were born here. You know, this is my home,
this is my place, this is this is where I
want to spend the rest of my life.

Speaker 5 (13:59):
And it's no, and I don't mean.

Speaker 3 (14:01):
That that's where you want to spend the rest of your life. Yeah,
I mean you're on the record right now.

Speaker 1 (14:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (14:05):
My dream is to work here until I can retire,
and then I'd love to live here after that. I mean,
if you look at the track record of people, whether
it's football coaches or other coaches that or administrators that
have worked here and then retire stay here, it's just
a great mean. I'm not trying to be, you know,
over the top about my love of Athens, but it's
just it's just a really great place to live. And

(14:27):
if they'll have me, I'll stay as long as as
long as I can.

Speaker 3 (14:31):
I do have to ask you about your time. I
love this. At Louisiana Monroe. You're a graduate assistant and
I read the story that the budget was very low
to the athletic department there. That is a fair assessment,
and the school could not afford snacks for the football
players for the football players after summer workouts, So you

(14:55):
went to a local store and you struck a deal
to get peanut butter and jelly and a local bakery
to give bread, and you and other graduate assistants would
make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the football players.

Speaker 2 (15:09):
True or false, That is true. That's that's some good
research right there. That's a impressive.

Speaker 3 (15:14):
We've got a cracked team here. Gosh, we didn't have.
I found out a lot I won't talk about.

Speaker 1 (15:19):
No, that's this.

Speaker 2 (15:20):
This was before the days of the resources that you
can now provide without any cost, you know, to student athletes.
And we didn't have a lot of money back then
at Monroe. So we're very resourceful. And I went to
the local grocery shore they would give us gift cards
a week exchange for peb and j and then the
local bakery would give me like two day old bread.
So me and the student systems would make sandwiches NonStop,

(15:43):
put them, wrap them up, put them in the refrigerator,
and the kids would come by all summer. And that's
how we kept our team. You know, they had meal
plans and stuff, but this was their way to get
all the extra stuff instead of the shakes and smoothies
and things like that, this was hard. Something's a little
that's a low fridge and it helped feed me a
couple of days a week.

Speaker 1 (16:02):
Yeah, there you go.

Speaker 3 (16:05):
Maybe it's just like yesterday for you, but but it's
been so long. Two thousand and seven. You're there, you're
the director of football operations at Louisiana Monroe and you
play a game in Tuscaloosa. And now this is Saban's
first year with the Tide. He's gone to Alabama and

(16:26):
Louisiana Monroe wins in Tuscaloosa twenty one to fourteen?

Speaker 1 (16:31):
Were you there?

Speaker 2 (16:32):
I was for bops there. Yeah, I was there.

Speaker 1 (16:34):
Yeah, but you were in the stadium.

Speaker 5 (16:36):
I was on the sideline.

Speaker 1 (16:37):
You were on the sidelines. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (16:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (16:39):
Is that where your hatred for Alabama started? Not hatred
your rivalry?

Speaker 1 (16:45):
Is that?

Speaker 2 (16:45):
Like?

Speaker 3 (16:45):
And Saban is there and you had worked under him
at LSU, Like, how special was that game for you personally?

Speaker 2 (16:54):
That was special for me honestly, because you know, I
felt there was an tunity that I had to that
I was interviewed for a job. The one thing I
to tell about when I was at Monroe. After my
first year at Monroe, coach Fisher called me back up
and said there was a job opportunity for it to
be a g A at l s U. Yeah, and

(17:16):
I interviewed and didn't get it. That's a whole nother story.
But so there was a little bit of a resentment
towards Jelish. That's where a little bit of my resentment
started towards Jellis shoes that I didn't get that job.
They won a national championship the next year while I
was still at Monroe, So there was a little bit
of a you know, not a rabbit free but you know,
me wanting to beat him.

Speaker 5 (17:33):
But at the same time, you know it's you. You
have to I have to be.

Speaker 2 (17:38):
Thankful for coach Saban and everything else, for I wouldn't
be where I am today without all those coaches in
the experience. So it's a mixed emotion of yeah, I
wanted to beat him, you want to beat everybody. But
that's where it started a little bit for me. And
I always loved to give Kirby a hard time about
that because he was at A at Bama that year too,
So whenever he makes a jab at me, I always
remind him that he was on the side the other

(17:58):
sidelines of that game when I let we took them down.
But the funny thing about that story, and this is
not me, this was one of the coaches in our staff.
So when you're a school like Louisiana Monroe and you
play Alabama normally, when you lose that game and you're
shaking hands with the other coaches, one of the common
comments that the big school tells a small school. And
I've been on the other end of this a million times, Hey,

(18:20):
good luck and conference. It's kind of a way of
saying like, yeah, we beat you, but we're gonna hope
you'll do all in your conference. One of our coaches
went right up to one of the BAMA coaches and
the strip said, good luck a conference.

Speaker 3 (18:32):
Oh that's so good.

Speaker 2 (18:37):
I don't I don't take one thing I've learned in
this like I don't take victory laps. I don't do.
You know, I've always tried to and all victories stay
humble because you know, when you come up through Monroe
and when you come up that end, you've been on it.
I've been on both sides of it. So I've learned
in this profession you better stay humble or you will
quickly be humbled. So I don't take victory laps. I'm
when we beat someone, I go to my counterpart and

(18:59):
I'm like, I was like just hugging them and giving
him a nice handshake and just saying could get you know,
I've never before I celebrate. I try to at least be.

Speaker 1 (19:08):
Yeah, glad, you're a nice guy.

Speaker 2 (19:10):
I am a nice I've tried to be at least.

Speaker 1 (19:30):
Briefly.

Speaker 3 (19:31):
You go to Georgia twenty eight to fourteen for the
first time, your football ops. There, you are getting your
masters at the same time, right that you become an
associate athletic director. There are you just working your ass off?

Speaker 2 (19:48):
And I think so that was in like twelve through fourteen,
so I had I had twin three year old and
a one year old at the time, so my wife
appreciated the uh, maybe I can't help with the kids.

Speaker 5 (20:00):
I got to study for this mid.

Speaker 3 (20:03):
Yeah, where she's going to heaven for sure she's the
saying yeah.

Speaker 5 (20:06):
So I knew.

Speaker 2 (20:08):
It's not the case in every situation, but in a
lot of situations, when they post an a d job,
they say there's a requirement of a master's degree, or
at least say master's degree. For so I was like,
I need to check this box just to not if
any reason that someone couldn't interview me God or any reason.
But you know, so I went into it with the
mindset of I need to check this box. But actually

(20:29):
I went to grad school Georgia and it was great
for two things. One it made me think in different
ways that I hadn't before from a textbook standpoint in
sports management. And two, it brought me a deeper connection
with Georgia because now it's prideful to say, like I'm
a Georgia grad, I'm not a lum, and that that
means something to me. That the fact that I want
to be in the rest of my life that I
can say I'm not just a you know, person worked

(20:51):
to have a person who actually graduate career. So that's
helped deepen my connection and makes it makes it a
little more special for me.

Speaker 3 (20:57):
Of course, you get that degree and immediately get an
athletic director job Millsaps College there in Jackson, Mississippi. This
was my fun fact about this time. You were one
of the first athletic directors and a young athletic director,
a newly minted athletic director, in college sports to introduce

(21:20):
on site beer gardens at the game, and you had
a little pushback.

Speaker 1 (21:26):
On this is that right?

Speaker 3 (21:28):
Talk to me about the decision that, like, why did
you make the decision? Why did you feel like it
was a good thing.

Speaker 2 (21:33):
So I felt at a place like Millsaps, you can
take chances, I thought, And it's a place where I
could take a chance to do something different. And I
knew that organically you weren't going to have a lot
of people just show up at millsapsotball games in Jacksonsissippi,
So we had to do something different to excite the
local families and people to come out to games. So
when I went on the interview at Millsaps, I said,
I'm going to be myself to the full play it

(21:55):
all out there. I've had a few ideas, one of
them will being the beer guarden. But there was a
handful of ideas I pitched, and I said, they're there
gonna like me, or they're gonna hire me, or they're
not gonna like me, and they're not gonna hire me,
and it wouldn't be meant to be. So I pitched
all my ideas like that and a few other ones.
Similar to that, and they loved them. And I get
there and I get hired in July, and the football
season obviously starts to September, and I thought, okay, I'm

(22:17):
gonna wait till a year in and start the beer guarden.
You don't come in and throw all your crazy ideas
out there. And then a couple of weeks in people
were like, hey, man, what's up this beer guarden?

Speaker 5 (22:26):
You told us about an interview.

Speaker 2 (22:29):
I was like, okay, I guess we're doing this so so.
And you know, we had a Methodist affiliation at Millsaps.
And it's interesting because not to get too into deep
into the rigionport, but there was a debate amongst some
different Methodists entities basically arguing John Wesley's feelings on alcohol.

(22:50):
Some felt it was none and some felt that it
was in moderation. And I felt that this was a
good way to moderate drinking in a way people could
do it safely because people weren't getting.

Speaker 5 (23:00):
You know, they weren't.

Speaker 2 (23:00):
We were controlling it, and it was a way to
do it responsibly. But you know, the the hate mail
I got was actually from people who weren't even affiliated
with most steps. It was just random people from other
faiths that were sending me letters. And it got a
little nasty there for a little bit, but it with
all things that passed and and they still have it today.
And what's funny, and this is funny, but not funny.
The beer garden is right next to the kid zone.

(23:22):
We created a kid zone too, And that sounds funny,
but it works out great because the parents want to
drop their kids off at the kids zone, yeah, and
at the beer garden and let little Johnny and Susie
run around. And so it was about making making it
more than just a game. And I said that with
all due respect to the student athletes, but we had

(23:43):
to do something bigger. So we we we created a
kid zone, a beer garden. We took the student section
and we would do fun things like we did a
phone party one time during a game where we literally
had a big phone pit and just let the students
have fun. So it was it was a place where
you could try things, make mistakes.

Speaker 5 (23:59):
Learn and grow.

Speaker 2 (23:59):
And it was just a phenomenal place for me to
get to cut my teeth and trust some things.

Speaker 3 (24:05):
After a couple more years at Louisiana Monroe, you go
back to Georgia. Now, when you go back to Georgia
in twenty sixteen to take an associate athletic directory job,
do you see that as your path? Do you think
I'm going to be there forever?

Speaker 1 (24:18):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (24:19):
Yeah, that was the I left in fourteen to go
to Millsaps And you'll limp to get outside of my
comfort zone. If you can imagine at Georgia, I'd come
up through the ranks and then I was associated, but
I was in just a couple of areas of responsibility
and I had to step out of that to get
experience in fundraising and marketing and ticket sales and everything else.
And so when I came back to Georgia, it was

(24:41):
a all due respect to everyone in the building, but
I'm coming back to take that next step.

Speaker 5 (24:47):
And I was.

Speaker 2 (24:48):
Gonna be patient on it because I didn't know if
i'd get I knew Greg, my previous boss, was he
had a few left, he was going to retire at
some point. But I was okay with Okay, if I
get it, I get it. If I don't, I don't,
I'll be ready to take a job somewhere else. And
this is now going to cap off my experience and
I'll be ready to interview for whatever's next.

Speaker 5 (25:06):
But it worked out, and.

Speaker 2 (25:08):
I'm you know, luck timing just merged at the right
time and it worked out. But you know, I came
back with the thought of I'm either going to be
at Georgia, be the number two or three the rest
of my career, or hopefully there's an opportunity here somewhere else.

Speaker 3 (25:22):
Since twenty twenty one, the Athletic Director of Georgia. I've
got to give you a bunch of fun facts here.
Twenty twenty three Sports Bureau Journal Athletic Director of the
Year finalist Georgia highest ranking in eighteen years, ranked seventh
in the lear Field Director's Cup, basically excellence in sports athletics.

Speaker 1 (25:45):
This stat is insane.

Speaker 3 (25:47):
Josh, Georgia has twenty one sports seventeen finished with a
top twenty ranking and nine ended up in the top
ten of twenty twenty three. Is that the best stat
for you? Is that the stat you're most proud of?

Speaker 2 (26:04):
Yeah, and you know it's it's you can never take
anything away from a national championship in any sport, and
obviously football is just amazing. But I do take a
lot of pride and I want to be good in
every I'm a competitor. I love to compete, and I
want to be good in every all twenty one sports.
I always make the joke that if we started a
bad minton team tomorrow, I'd want to have the best
bad mint team in the country. I just I'm a

(26:24):
competitor and that's why I love the shop so much.
But yeah, there's a lot of pride in that because
especially when you can you can make a change in
a program, bringing a new coach and see it grow
like what our soccer program has done the last two years.
That's a lot of fun when you see it. Okay,
we weren't even making the SEC tournament and then we
made the insula term that we won the SEC. That's
just that's really fun and that's one of the big

(26:46):
pride points for me.

Speaker 3 (26:47):
In addition to football, obviously you just mentioned soccer, volleyball,
track and field softball all making huge strides being very successful,
and you have ten head coaching hires there. Now, what
is important for you when you're looking to hire a
new head coach in any sport?

Speaker 2 (27:09):
You know, it's it's different sport to sport because the
opportunities and challenges are different in every single sport, and
not to sound cliches, but it's in the world we
live in today. I've got to make sure first and
foremost that I've got someone that I can trust with
my young men and women that were there's too much
going on in the world that the deal breaker for

(27:29):
me is I've got to trust and know that I
can trust that they're going to do right by the
young men and women. That's where it starts for me.
Then it's about development and recruiting, and recruiting is a
big piece for me. You better have a plan, you
better enjoy recruiting. You got to be really active because
at the end of the day, it doesn't matter how

(27:51):
good of a coach you are. You better have these
student athletes and the players. And it's not just about
their ability, it's about their their mindset, their ability to develop,
the their they be able to make it here academically.

Speaker 5 (28:02):
You know, so you have your your standard things you're
looking for.

Speaker 2 (28:05):
But then it then it comes down to fit and
gut and like when I meet someone, does my gut
tingle when I meet them, because hopefully, if I've narrowed
it down in three or four they all meet the
the qualifications I want, and then when I meet them,
it's gotta I just trust my gut and go, this
is somebody I believe in. This is somebody that I
that I want to leave my program.

Speaker 3 (28:23):
God, I love that, Like really good for you, and
obviously it's working out well for you. But I don't
want to get on a soapbox here. But you know,
I mean there's so much talk these days in sports
about analytics, and I'm not saying analytics are not important,
but you also, well you have.

Speaker 1 (28:44):
To let's you have to have a good I've got
a good gut.

Speaker 3 (28:50):
But yeah, but but I love that that and that
you're and that you're transparent about it, like you've got
to have somebody or you've got to have a feeling
about this person that's more than just intellectual.

Speaker 1 (29:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (29:03):
I've just been always been a big gut person and
believe it. And I think, Look, I'll be honest with you.
I am not super talented. Look I've bet I told
you I was average football player, average athlete. Everybody in
my department that leads leads a unit, they do it
better than I could ever do it. Like my CFO
I could never be a better CFO than her. My
person that runs development, the person runs to every single

(29:25):
categorical item in this department. They all do it way
better than I could ever imagine do it. So I
don't have a true talent for any of these things.
I think my best talent is doing what I'm doing.
You know, I don't know to explain that, but and
I just got to go with my gut because at
the end of the day, if they make my gut tingle,

(29:46):
then then hopefully that means they're going to make recruits
and others feel the same way, and they'll be able
to get people here, and they'll get people to buy
in and believe and know what we're doing. So and look,
it's not going to be nothing ever is going to
be full proof, and unfortunately in this business, it's a
mathematical certainty. At some point I'm going to have to
probably fire someone I hired, and that day will be terrible,

(30:06):
but hopefully not. I really enjoy the people I work with,
and obviously the people I've hired I believe in, and
then I think my part of my responsibility with that
is to give them every resource they need to be
successful and remove the roadblocks, give them the resources to
where they can do what we've brought them here to
do well.

Speaker 3 (30:24):
In addition to recruiting, setting a record for fundraising in
twenty twenty three, as well also record breaking academic year
in twenty twenty three, setting a new school high mark
for cumulative GPA. I mean, you're on a good run here, Josh.

(30:45):
And in addition to everything else, let's just say the
highest profile sports, college football, you are the first and
only team to go back to back in the college
Football Playoff. The last team to go back to back
in an undisputed way was Alabama in twenty eleven and

(31:07):
twenty twelve. It's been eleven years since that. You have
a chance to go for three. What happens on Saturday? Like,
how are you viewing the game right now? Your comfort level?

Speaker 2 (31:19):
You know, I think it's going to Like you said,
it's been one of those classic matchups, two really good
football teams, two great coaching staffs. For me, I always
say the games are one in the trenches, who controls
a lot of scrimmage and then and then it could
come down to a crazy thing happening, a turnover here,
turnover there. This feels like a game where it's going

(31:41):
to be important. The winner of the game is probably
going to win the turnover battle, and unless something crazy
happens on special teams, I really feel like the turnover
battle is going to be the deciding point of this game.
But you know, this is excitement. It's you know that
there's nerves to go into a game like this, but
it's also excitement because this is why we do it,
you know, so you can't shy away from these moments.

(32:03):
We work, We work to have these opportunities. So you're
ready to just tee it up and let's let's go,
and let's see what happens.

Speaker 3 (32:09):
You know, this morning in my car, I was listening
to Greg McElroy, obviously Alabama quarterback, Greg talking very confidently
about how Alabama matches up against Georgia. Alabama should not matter.
What happened last week at Auburn is maybe the greatest

(32:30):
travesty I have ever seen on a football field, because
here's the thing. The kick six that happens, this is
a crazy, unexpected play. This is this is crazy fourth
and thirty one when you have everyone back in the
end zone. This is this is something that should should

(32:51):
not happen. I said on the record, I know you
can't say it. Everybody at Auburn gone got goodbye, kick
them out of the conference. You're feeling watching the game last.

Speaker 2 (33:03):
Year at this point in that game, you nothing surprised
you anymore. It's and I'm gonna tell you Auburn is well,
it's a crazy place to play where those fans they
do a great job.

Speaker 1 (33:13):
You know.

Speaker 2 (33:14):
What's funny about the SEC is like so you you know,
after going to LSU and they're working at Monroe and
playing Auburn a bunch and now being at Georgia, Auburn
has been a team I've played throughout the twenty five
years of my career all the time, and it's a
team that you you know, it's a rival. You can't
stand them in the Senate. Then you meet the people
that work there and you just love They've got some
of the great greatest administrators there. Hey d he's a
great guy there. And it's like, I want to hate you, man,

(33:35):
like y'all are so nice and such good people, like
you're supposed to hate Auburn. But and that's the same
thing with like Tennessee and Florida to other places like,
I want to hate you so much, but there's just
so many good people in this profession that it's funny
that people don't see the behind the scenes side of
that of so many good people.

Speaker 3 (33:52):
Yeah. I know you're being nice, but that was just
I mean you, I like, that's pretty good. Yeah, you know,
I did hear you. I did hear you in an interview.
I found this fascinating. You just alluded to it right now.
You talked about how the SEC Athletic directors work.

Speaker 2 (34:18):
Really more, We've done more research than anybody I've ever interview.

Speaker 3 (34:21):
This is there that there is a there is a camaraderie,
there is a you all are helping each other.

Speaker 1 (34:30):
It is this is this is true, very correct.

Speaker 2 (34:34):
You know, we we're our own little therapy group to
some degree some points in time when we get together
because we are some of the only people that know
what each other are going through, uh, whether we're dealing
with fans or student athletes, or coaches or staff or
et cetera. Because it's these chairs can be lonely sometimes
so being able to talk to the ad at Auburn
or Florida or Tennessee or whoever and talk through issues

(34:56):
and really talk about best practices and we and look,
we understand that as the SEC goes, we all go.
The more successful they see is the better we're all
going to be across the ward. So there is a
common interest in our league doing well. And you know,
we want to get as many teams in the playoffs,
so we want to get as many teams in the instantly
tournament in baseball and basketball, et cetera. So there's pride there,

(35:16):
and there is great camaraderie and I really enjoy We
meet in person a few times a year and we
zoom every couple of weeks and it's a fun group
and we lean on each other pretty well.

Speaker 3 (35:26):
I love hearing that too, and it and it makes
a lot of sense. I have to ask you about
Jim Harbaugh and the Michigan program and what is alleged
right now is the decision that was made to suspend
him for three games. Do you think that was the
right decision?

Speaker 5 (35:45):
You know, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (35:46):
We've we I've tended to always stay stay in our
own lane and not judge other people, because judge not
unless you be judged.

Speaker 3 (35:56):
But unless we could come right back. I got you right, Yes, No,
I understand.

Speaker 2 (36:02):
You know, I've been in those trenches before, and I've
been on other sides of the table on any situation
like that, and you never want to judge because you
know that things can be reported one way and then
they're the deep. The facts of a situation may not
be what's being reported out. So you try to hold
back judgment in any situation like that because you just

(36:24):
you don't know what you know. Unless you're there, you
don't know what the truth is. So I have my
own challenges every day, so I.

Speaker 3 (36:31):
Tend not to you stand your own lane. Well, here's
the thing that to me is fascinating. Big time college
sports is a business, and now at this moment where
we sit right now, the only chance for a big team,
big ten team to get into the college football playoffs.

Speaker 1 (36:50):
Is if it's Michigan.

Speaker 3 (36:52):
And if Michigan doesn't get in, they're costing themselves and
their own institutions a lot of money. So the the
oversight is all to me very confusing.

Speaker 5 (37:06):
That's a good that's an interesting way.

Speaker 2 (37:08):
I mean, yeah, because it's a conflicted feeling of pride
in the conference and revenue opportunities for the conference. So
I would that'd be interesting to see how they all
feel about watching that Big Ten championship game. But but yeah,
I know, and look, I know fans were probably some
would probably scoff at me saying this, But we we do.
We root, we root for us to see for them
to do well.

Speaker 1 (37:28):
You know, we do, I think most fans do. I mean,
at a certain it's a.

Speaker 5 (37:32):
Point of pride.

Speaker 2 (37:32):
It is a point of pridm because you can look
back on it and say and say, look at our history,
Look how well our conference has done the playoffs. And
that's a good bragging point to say, this is the
conference that has the best track record right in the playoffs.

Speaker 1 (37:44):
So I think that's I think that's true.

Speaker 3 (37:45):
I mean, I certainly hear a lot of SEC specifically
SEC chants from fans at certain games, you know, particularly
when you get into like you know, the NCAA March
Madness basketball tournament bracket, Like there's a there's like, well,
they beat us, and they're better than us this year,
but them being better makes us better somehow.

Speaker 2 (38:06):
And then and then even when like someone beats an
SEC team and they tweet or chant, oh, it just
means more like messing with us. It's like well, you're
actually proving our point when you when you trouble us
with that, that means that that hashtags work pretty well
and it's caught on so you're using it, so obviously
it's pretty pretty strong state, you know.

Speaker 3 (38:24):
So Yeah, if Georgia does what I hope they do

(38:46):
and beats Alabama this weekend, it appears all but likely
that Alabama will not be in the College Football Playoff.
If somehow it's fourth and thirty one.

Speaker 5 (38:59):
I'm walking out the building. I'm just walking.

Speaker 1 (39:02):
You're just gonna walk out.

Speaker 3 (39:03):
Yeah, if somehow Georgia loses, Georgia, should they still be
uh in the college football Playoff?

Speaker 2 (39:10):
You know, Look, I'm always gonna advocate for our team,
but we're a you know how we're wired here, Uh
with coach marsh leadership, We're focused on one thing and
one thing only that's that's winning Saturday. That's got to
be the focus because any minute we spent worrying about
alternative scenarios is a minute wasted. So we've got to
be focused on the task in hand. And uh.

Speaker 3 (39:29):
And then I actually like that because I I've spent
a lot of time worrying about the others.

Speaker 5 (39:34):
Yeah, you can't. I mean, it's a wasted wasted.

Speaker 1 (39:36):
No, you're no, You're right, it is. It is a
total waste of time.

Speaker 2 (39:40):
I do think there was an important statement that was
made that I would always fall back to, as this said,
it is the best four team. So that's all I
have four teams, that's all I ask for. However, that dice,
however that shakes out best four team and the best
four teams, and if and if everyone in the committee
does that in their art and wherever it falls, it falls.

Speaker 3 (39:56):
But you know, you know, you know who's the smartest
about that about picking the best four teams?

Speaker 1 (40:02):
Vegas, Vegas. Just go to Vegas.

Speaker 5 (40:06):
They've got they've got true motives to pick the right.

Speaker 1 (40:09):
For well yeah, exactly.

Speaker 3 (40:11):
Uh basketball team, A highly touted new recruit coming to Georgia.
Talk to me a little bit about in il good.

Speaker 2 (40:24):
I think there's good and bad, right, I think it's here.
We I'm a I'm an optimist. I focus on the
positives of it. The positives of it are student athletes
now have the ability to make money off their name, image, likeness,
which is great because you know, you see a guy
like last year, like stets invented and others are now

(40:45):
other young men on the team and women we have
in other sports who have an opportunity to go do
ads and commercials to help some that can just put
money away from the future, some that can help their
family right now in need. And that's a great thing
that because there were some really silly restrictions before, like
what not let a kid if a kid wants to
get a local tire dealership to sponsor and why you know,
so that's open some really good avenues for kids can

(41:08):
make money, and I think that it's helping some kids
decide to stay in school for another year.

Speaker 5 (41:12):
Now.

Speaker 2 (41:12):
The bad side of that is tampering and inducements trying
to get people to transfer. We've experienced the firsthand. And
people always think it's just football and basketball. It's it's
widespread across many sports. So you know, there's some bad
parts to it that hopefully through congressional work and through
the work we're doing with INSUBLA. I serve on one

(41:33):
of the NIL subcommittees in Stable A. I'm actually going
to Indianapolis in December for a meeting that we're trying
to put some guardrails around some of these around collectives
and trying to make sense of it.

Speaker 5 (41:44):
It's not easy.

Speaker 2 (41:45):
I promise to that people that are far smarter than
I that have tried to work through how these guardrails
will work. And there's some anti trust issues and other things.
But you know, with any of that, I think there's
good and bad. I'm optimist. I focus on the positives
of it, and I think it's here to stay in
some form or fashion. Just have to keep it evolving
and doing the best our best with it to make it,
to make it the best it can be.

Speaker 3 (42:05):
Yeah, that's kind of my question, Like we're not done
with the current system.

Speaker 1 (42:09):
You think we're still gonna No.

Speaker 2 (42:11):
I think it's a yeah, it's a current evolution, and
hopefully through that we're learning and finding better practices and ways.

Speaker 5 (42:18):
That we can.

Speaker 2 (42:19):
You know, we want the nil, We want the opportunities
to athletes. What we want to do is put guardrails
to eliminate the tampering and inducement portion of it, because
what we don't want is what I don't want is
anyone using as inducement for a reason to go to
a school. Now you go to school, you have success,
then the world's your oyster. Go you know, and we
will help you within the rules. Every way we can
provide anil opportunities for you, make connections with you. We

(42:40):
have we work in partnership with the Classic City Collective
here in Athos. It does a phenomenal job and they
do a great job of finding the big deals, the
small deals and everything in between. But I don't like
it as an inducement. I think you should choose your
college destination best based on the other reasons, the education,
the coach you believe in, that's the place you want

(43:01):
to live, and all those things. And then then I
al should be a bonus part of it, not the reason,
because you know, you know this money comes to money goes,
but your experiences and all that the four years you
have here every way more important than any money you
can make in your early ages, you know.

Speaker 3 (43:18):
Yeah, I mean, look, I absolutely think that these student
athletes should have the opportunity to do those things. I think,
particularly as a fan viewing this from the outside is
sort of the combination of the NIL and you know
the other thing that's been around for a long time.
It's just getting talked about much more now, which is
the transfer portal. And so now what it feels like,

(43:42):
is there's a free flowing market in between schools where
people are getting induced to go to different schools, and
this it just becomes it becomes difficult to root for
the players. And I think that's the thing about college
sports is, you know, much more than professional sports.

Speaker 1 (44:02):
It's about this. It's about the institution.

Speaker 3 (44:04):
You're rooting for the school, but you obviously want the
players to be a part of that. And you know,
how do you feel you know, what is your feeling
about about the transport portal and how that's sort of working.
It feels like in connection with the NIL right now.

Speaker 2 (44:20):
I think even though a student may want up somewhere
and get an NIL deal after they get there or
whatever may be, you know, it still comes down to
when you start playing with a group of guys or
gals and you're on a common mission, you forget about
all the NIL stuff and you want to go play
and win. How you know, we're talking about five hundred
and fifty plus todent athletes who are driven to compete

(44:42):
and win. And yeah, the N I was a part,
but I can'tarantine you in the cultures we try to
build here, it's about the team first and if you
can go out and get this opportunities, great, But when
we suit it up, we're between the lines or on
the court or the field. That's the biggest thing right there,
is being a good teammate and trying to compete and win.
You're not thinking about an NL deal.

Speaker 5 (45:03):
Yeah, game, you know.

Speaker 1 (45:04):
Yeah, it's it's a tricky thing.

Speaker 3 (45:06):
I mean your you you mentioned specifically kids having that
connection to someone that you hired, a coach that they
feel like is you know, is going to best prepare
them either in their sport or in their life.

Speaker 2 (45:19):
Yeah, and that's one of the big things our baseball
coach Wes Johnson and n Kirby and Mike White and
coach a lot of our coach you talk about it's
you got to believe in us that we're going to
suit you up better for life. So we don't think
about the short term benefits now because West Johnson baseball
coach talks by all the time. You go to school
and get fifty grand, one hundred grand for one year,
but I'm going to try to get you in the

(45:39):
first second round of the baseball Draft, which will lead
to a much bigger deal. So you've got to see
the big picture, and that's why development is such a
big piece of this and that that's one of the
reasons that excited me about Wes and bringing him here
coach our baseball team is because the work he did
with Paul Skeens at LSU and other guys and showing
that hey, you come here. You may not get a

(46:01):
figure and il deal to come here, but you work here, develop,
We're going to lead you into a better situation than
the draft down the road.

Speaker 1 (46:07):
That's right.

Speaker 3 (46:08):
It feels as though right now with the athletic prowess
dominance I don't know that George is having right now,
you're not feeling the same pressure in situation. But obviously
coach Elco just committed to go to Texas A and
M and shocker alert the next day they're fantastic quarterback

(46:31):
Leonard enters a transfer Porthal. So now here's a situation
where let's just assume what I don't know, which is
that he chose to go to do because of the coach.

Speaker 1 (46:40):
Now the coach is leaving.

Speaker 3 (46:41):
How do you feel about a situation where if you
have a kid who's bought into a coach, a situation
wanting to be with that coach and then the coach leaves.

Speaker 5 (46:51):
Yeah, we've had that. I had a coach leave.

Speaker 2 (46:53):
I won't name the sport, but a couple of years
ago I had a coach leave, and then two or
three days later, I had two or three of the
kids asked on the portal, A couple followed them to
their new school, and you know, one, one or two
more went to different schools, and at that point, you
and that's why I'm kind of okay with the one

(47:14):
time transfer, because I think in life, people could be
you know, hey, I want to go back home, or
there's another reason, right. I don't like the multiple transfers,
But at that point, those kids, you know, they don't
they don't owe us, they don't owe me anything. They
if you know, they came here under one thought and
a coach is leaving. I don't begrudge them that. And

(47:34):
I'm not going to hold anybody hostage here. And if
they want to go somewhere else, then so be it,
and we'll find someone else that wants to be here,
because I don't want whether we're talking about a student
athlete to staff and or coach, whatever it is, I
don't want anybody here that doesn't want to be here.
This is a phenomenal place, and I say that as
humbly as I can. But George is awesome. And if
if you're not bought in, and then we're not going

(47:55):
to beg you to believe in something that you don't
believe in. So if it's not in the card for you,
and again I say this politely as again will there
are other young men and women and other staf people
that want to be here, and we'll go recruit them
to be here in your place.

Speaker 3 (48:11):
No, I get it. I mean that makes again, that
makes tons of sense to me. You want to you
want you want student athletes who are as excited about
the place where you are as most of the people are.

Speaker 2 (48:24):
Because this is hard these Being a student athlete is
not easy. Being a staff member in athletic person easy.
Being a coach it's not easy. So you've got to
make sure that everything in your life is aligned and
you want to be here. And if you came under
one coaching style and whatever else you or you just
feel like I don't want this change. I want to
see and so be it.

Speaker 3 (48:41):
You know, Yeah, college football playoff expanding next season?

Speaker 1 (48:47):
Is that good? You know?

Speaker 2 (48:49):
I think again, I'm talking out of both sides of
my mouth. It's good and you know there's good and
they're bad to it. I think I saw a good
point about how you know, that Michigan Ohio State game,
you know, it felt really big because it felt like
the winner had a chance to be in the loser
would not. And now if you fast forward to next
year that same game eleven and zero versus eleven oh
if like both teams are getting in, they're just playing

(49:10):
for potentially a buye. So those big, big games won't
feel quite so intense. But go pass one through six,
seven through eighteen, seventh through nineteen sevent through twenty, there's
gonna be more games that are gonna be more impactful.
Where now, if if eight versus fifteen are playing people
like ah, it doesn't really matter much. They're not getting

(49:31):
the top four. Where now there'll be more of those
matchups across the board that people are fighting for spot ten, eleven, twelve.

Speaker 5 (49:37):
So I think it's.

Speaker 2 (49:39):
Better for more for more schools to be in that mix.
And it's gonna be interesting to see the logistics of
how it's gonna work with the you know, five through
twelve playing and then you know, go to the quarter
or some So there's a lot of to work through that.
It's gonna be new but exciting nonetheless, and it'll be
here next year, so.

Speaker 5 (49:57):
We will we will see soon enough.

Speaker 1 (50:01):
How do you think it affects the SEC?

Speaker 2 (50:03):
You know, look, I'm again, I'm an SEC homer, So
it affects us because we're trying to We're all gonna
be in favor of trying to get as many SEC
teams and those slots as possible. Interesting to look at
the rankings right now and how many teams, especially when
you look at the future SEC with Texas and Oklahoma,
we we're you know, we've got a lot of teams
that mix to be fighting for those top theoretical eleven

(50:24):
spots because twelve could be absorbed by the fifth conference champion.
You're fighting for those top eleven spots. So hopefully, you know,
the goal for US is set up a schedule, set
up per formats can help us get as many teams
in there as possible.

Speaker 1 (50:37):
Right, what's your favorite office episode?

Speaker 2 (50:40):
Oh man, that sounds like picking your favorite kid. That's
oh god, you know you gotta go for me, goly,
you know, I got to go back to the first
season where it was really edgy. The Human Resources Day episode,
it was just thanks, Yes, you couldn't do like.

Speaker 5 (51:02):
Things you watch Diversity Day.

Speaker 2 (51:04):
Yeah that you couldn't get away with those things today,
and it was so great. But I did you did
your prep for this? I did my prep as well,
and I did my five favorite Kevin lines all time,
and I try to go not too obvious, right because
everybody will points to the chili scene or else. So okay,
I wanted to do top five, but I had to

(51:25):
do a runner up that didn't make it cut. It
was right there, so the runner up. This is what
I use all the time. Anytime you have ten thousand
and one os you always take it.

Speaker 1 (51:34):
Always take it.

Speaker 2 (51:35):
Because if John Mellencamp ever wins an oscar, I amn't
going to be a very rich dude.

Speaker 5 (51:40):
So I've been tracking that.

Speaker 2 (51:41):
I'm like, if John, I'm just thinking, at some point
John Mellencamp is going to be an indie movie that's
gonna win, and it's gonna be like The Simpsons projecting
the future. The Office knew the whole time that Mellencamp
was gonna do something like that.

Speaker 5 (51:52):
So that was a runner up.

Speaker 3 (51:53):
Okay, that's a runner up. That's like, uh, that's like
Auburn last weekend. You gotta take you gotta take those on.

Speaker 2 (52:03):
Bet. So number five is the CPR scene call it.
That's that's a classic number four. I thought Roger Ganda
was a boy's name.

Speaker 3 (52:14):
Okay, that's an obscure one. Okay, it's very good. Uh,
I'll tell you a little. I'll tell you give you
a little about that Roger and Ganda. I have had
people ask me to write that quote. I get when
people have asked me to write quote and it inevitably
turns into a three to four minute Google session me

(52:36):
trying to figure out how to spell it because I
don't I don't remember.

Speaker 2 (52:40):
Well, yes, yeah, that's a good that that's a good Uh.
I bet Clark Williams my buddy. I bet he knows
how to I guarantee you number three, Oscar. I'm now
prone to surges.

Speaker 1 (52:52):
Yes, there you go.

Speaker 2 (52:53):
That's a good number two, as has Kevin.

Speaker 5 (52:57):
Pause, and then.

Speaker 1 (52:58):
She goes to enough school, Yes, there you go.

Speaker 2 (53:02):
And then my number one, which I think now I'm
starting to blend what was in it wasn't in because
this was a I think this was an eleited scene.

Speaker 1 (53:10):
Okay, I know where you're going.

Speaker 5 (53:12):
Yeah, you can ask me directly if she wants a brother?
Is that right? Don't quote that right?

Speaker 4 (53:17):
That line that was?

Speaker 2 (53:20):
How was that line cut?

Speaker 1 (53:21):
That was? I know, I know the way you delivered
it too. Thank you.

Speaker 2 (53:29):
I love the Clark and I always go on these
deep subreddit tweet thought you know like these form whole
you know about? Was Kevin secretly a genius the whole time?
Is my favorite theory, like he was just screwed with
everybody the whole time to get out of work and
just skate by.

Speaker 3 (53:43):
I love that, I've I've I have been asked about
that a lot. Unfortunately, I don't I don't think it's true.

Speaker 1 (53:49):
I don't.

Speaker 3 (53:50):
I don't think. I don't take fun, don't. It's fun
to think about, but I don't think it's true.

Speaker 2 (53:55):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (53:56):
The last time in college football all back to back
to back three in a row eighty seven years ago.
Minnesota did it in nineteen thirty four to nineteen thirty six.

Speaker 1 (54:12):
Is it going to happen this year? You know?

Speaker 5 (54:14):
I again, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (54:16):
I just I've kept the attitude the whole time of
never prognosticating, predicting, just taking one time because people messed
with me. I mean the number one question I got.
We won a Nation championship my first year's ad, and
people kept screwing me the whole time. You won a
NASH championship my first year, What are you going to
do after that? And I was like, I'm just I'm
just retiring after that. And then we then we somehow

(54:40):
pulled off a second. But now I'm just like, man,
I just literally count my blessings and just appreciate it
for you know, all the people here that you know,
Kirby and other people. We obviously get credit or thanks
for it that you know so many people and these
student athletes. It's been a special ride and you never
want to take one moment of it for granted.

Speaker 5 (54:58):
But it has been a fun ride.

Speaker 3 (55:00):
Let me let me tell you you're a good guy.
The people around you, everyone that I've met has been fantastic. Uh,
it's so fun And I don't know, maybe this is
just my perception, but I feel like, uh, at least
right now, it may change depending on what happens this year.

Speaker 1 (55:18):
But you got a lot of people who are rooting.

Speaker 3 (55:19):
For Georgia over the the evil Empire across state lines.
So we'll we'll see if that if that goodwill holds up,
or hopefully we.

Speaker 2 (55:29):
Meet like all the office fans behind us, or you know.

Speaker 3 (55:31):
That's right exactly just for this, for this one uh,
for this one game, for these two.

Speaker 1 (55:38):
I maybe I.

Speaker 2 (55:39):
Love Greg Byrne, but I would challenge Greg Burn to
an office quote, you know, any contest office trivia.

Speaker 1 (55:45):
I don't know.

Speaker 5 (55:45):
I'll have to ask them what is trivia knowledge?

Speaker 3 (55:48):
Maybe that's maybe, maybe that's maybe that's the next thing
is we get you and the athletic director at Alabama
to do an office trivia contest. We'll see, we'll see
what happens. Josh, thank you so much for joining me.
Thank you for your candor your insight. When you're listening
to this, the game's already happened. I know you've got

(56:09):
a busy weekend, which is why we're recording it today.

Speaker 1 (56:12):
Have a great, great weekend.

Speaker 3 (56:14):
And best of luck in not just football, but the
rest of.

Speaker 1 (56:18):
Your twenty one sports the rest of the year.

Speaker 5 (56:21):
Appreciate it. Go Dogs, Go Dogs.

Speaker 6 (56:24):
Thanks Josh, Josh.

Speaker 1 (56:38):
Thanks for coming on. I know you're busy.

Speaker 3 (56:41):
Good luck the rest of the year and go dogs, sick'em.

Speaker 1 (56:47):
Woof, woof, woof. Yep, that's what we say. Thanks for listening, listeners.

Speaker 3 (56:51):
You're gonna find me here again next week with a
very very special guest.

Speaker 1 (56:57):
How can I tease this one? If you were alive
in the.

Speaker 3 (57:02):
Eighties in the nineties, you're you're a fan of this guy,
I promise, so we'll.

Speaker 1 (57:09):
See you next week.

Speaker 3 (57:17):
Off the Beat is hosted and executive produced by me
Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive producer Lang Lee. Our senior
producer is Diego Tapia. Our producers are Liz Hayes, Hannah Harris,
and Emily Carr. Our talent producer is Ryan Papa Zachary,
and our intern is Ali Amir Sahem. Our theme song

(57:38):
Bubble and Squeak, performed by the one and only Creed
Brack