An athletic director’s relationship with his head football coach is typically the most discussed interaction between two public figures you will find on a university campus.
When it comes to Josh Brooks and Kirby Smart, Georgia’s new AD said the two are on the same page, although he never asked the Bulldogs’ head coach, or anybody else, to lobby on his behalf.
“Kirby and I have had discussions about my aspirations before, so he knew clearly what my goal and aspirations were to be the AD here,” Brooks said. “But I would respect that process, and I wanted to earn this on my own, quite frankly. I did not want to ask anyone to lobby on my behalf. I wanted to get in that room, at that table, and compete against other sitting ADs.”
Georgia president Jere Morehead acknowledged he spoke with Smart when Brooks was going through the vetting process.
“I'd just like to add that I did have conversations with Coach Smart, and I don’t want to put words in his mouth. So I’ll let you (media) talk to him directly, but I think you’ll find that he is supportive of this decision,” Morehead said.
While Smart has not been available to publicly comment, he did offer support for Brooks when asked about him back in early December.
“He’s had a wide range of experiences in college athletics, all over,” Smart said at the time. “He’s a good, logical choice to be the interim. And I know he’ll be a candidate who’s looked into deeply.”
Brooks, who promoted to fulltime AD on Wednesday after serving in an interim capacity since Jan. 1 following the retirement of Greg McGarity, said his main job in his relationship with Smart—along with Georgia’s other head coaches—will be to make sure they're given every opportunity to succeed.
The 40-year-old Brooks said it's akin to being a director on a Hollywood movie set.
“When you talk about the relationship with head coaches, look—(I’m) the AD. I am the boss. I’m the one who is ultimately responsible for this athletic department—but I understand there are coaches who are stars,” Brooks said. “If this were a movie set, I would be the director and they would be the actors, right? And we have to find ways to make them successful, and we've entrusted Kirby to lead this football program. He knows what he needs to be successful. It’s our job to support him.”
Brooks added that the same holds true for every coach.
“We’ve hired them to do a job to lead their program, so it’s our job to help guide them and to give them the resources they need to be successful in every facet of it,” Brooks said. “Of course, in this process and especially in a year like this, there are going to be some ‘No's’ and some things we can’t do, but as long as you have a great heart and you communicate with people why, you can work through those things.”
Brooks said he will lean on the lessons he learned as a young administrator to help guide him through the months and years to come.
“My humility is first and foremost, so I never think I’ve got to come in and pound my fist on the table saying, ‘This is the way it has to be.’ I came up as a student manager, so that's not my mindset, so I can’t pretend to be someone I’m not,” he said. “But I do understand our role in all of us, and at the end of the day, we all serve this institution. This institution has been here before us, and it will be here after us. So we always have to keep that in mind in any role we have, whether it’s AD or any other spot I may have had.”
