Josh Lee has stepped down as Georgia’s director of football operations amid an investigation by UGA’s Equal Opportunity Office (EOO), into allegations of sexual harassment, according to Chip Towers of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

UGA beat reporter Marc Weiszer of the Athens Banner-Herald identifies Lee as one of the program’s key staffers.

The AJC relays that Georgia initially only confirmed Lee resigned “to pursue other professional opportunities.” When the AJC sought documentation through an open records request, Georgia cited an investigation:

However, in its response to the AJC’s open records request seeking documentation, UGA cited a state policy [OCGA 50-18-72 (a)(8)] that keeps “material obtained in investigations related to suspension, firing or investigation of complaints” exempt from open records review until 10 days after the matter has been concluded.

Towers reports, per sources, that Lee is alleged to have sent inappropriate text messages to at least one of his direct reports over a period of time. The AJC article notes that this was brought to the attention of athletic director Josh Brooks in October and was immediately turned over to the EOO. Lee, however, continued to work on scouting trips to the College Football Playoff sites as recently as last week.

Lee first worked at UGA in 2005 and ’06. He then spent 5 years at UAB and briefly left sports administration before returning to Georgia in 2014. Lee made $208,000 in 2020.