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Nick Saban praises Georgia Tech hiring J Batt, former Alabama administrator, as new AD
By Andrew Olson
Published:
J Batt is officially Georgia Tech’s new athletic director. Hours after it was reported that Batt was Georgia Tech’s top target for the position, the hire was officially announced.
Georgia Tech’s announcement includes statements from Nick Saban, Greg Byrne and others praising Batt’s work as executive deputy director of Athletics, chief operating officer, and chief revenue officer with UA athletics.
Saban called Batt a trusted advisor:
“Since arriving at Alabama, J has positively affected our program through the success of the Crimson Standard Initiative while being a trusted advisor to our athletic director, Greg Byrne, and an essential part of our administrative team. We set a vision for the future of Alabama Athletics and Alabama football through the Crimson Standard and J as well as his team delivered with impressive results.”
Byrne said that Georgia Tech made a home-run hire with Batt:
J has been such a strong leader as part of our executive team at Alabama. He has incredible vision and has done an outstanding job overseeing many areas of the department, beginning with development when he arrived in 2017,” said Byrne. “He has done a masterful job with the operations of the department. J has been involved in all of our major decisions and has provided constructive insight and feedback to make us better. His experience working directly with our student-athletes, our coaches and Athletics staff, university leadership, and fan base has prepared him well for this moment. We are thrilled for J, his wife, Leah, and boys, Fitz and Graham. Georgia Tech made a home-run hire with J.”
Batt joined the University of Alabama Athletics team as senior associate athletic director in 2017. Batt’s first big task will be hiring a new head football coach for the Yellow Jackets. Georgia Tech’s current interim head coach is Brent Key, who was on the Alabama football coaching staff from 2016-to-2018 as the offensive line coach.
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
