TROY HEAD COACHES

Now in his fourth year, Troy Director of Athletics Brent Jones has overseen a restructuring of the department’s external and internal teams that has led the department to set records in academics, fundraising, licensing, revenue generation, attendance and season ticket sales and in addition during Jones’ tenure over $40 million has been dedicated to capital projects. Jones leads the department under his W-4 mantra – Winning in the Classroom, Winning on the Field, Winning in the Community and Winning in the Stands.

Jones currently serves as vice chair for the Sun Belt Conference Athletics Directors, chair of the Sun Belt Conference’s Baseball and Softball committee, the co-chair of the Sun Belt Conference’s Marketing, Communications and Branding Committee, was appointed to the Sun Belt’s Name, Image and Likeness Committee and began a four-year term on the NCAA Committee on Sportsmanship and Ethical Conduct in the spring of 2021. He will assume the chair role of the Sun Belt Conference Athletics Directors for the 2023 season.

On the court, the Troy women’s basketball team has won three Sun Belt Conference championships and appeared in the NCAA postseason twice (missed one year due to COVID-19), the volleyball team has posted three straight winning seasons for the first time in program history, the women’s track & field turned in its two best finishes at the Sun Belt Championship in program history, soccer finished second in the Sun Belt in 2019 and the softball team earned an at-large selection into the 2021 NCAA Tournament – Troy’s first postseason appearance in 25 years. The women’s cross country also posted its best-ever finish at a Sun Belt Championship meet and the men’s basketball team returned to the postseason and won 20 games in 2022 following a six-year hiatus.

Off the field of play, Jones has led Troy Athletics to extraordinary levels as academic performance continues to establish new benchmarks. This past academic year, twelve of Troy’s 16 athletic programs had team grade point averages that surpassed the 3.0 mark, with eight of the Trojans’ nine women’s programs hitting that threshold. All told, 57 percent of Troy’s student-athletes finished the spring semester with a 3.0 GPA or greater, while 34 percent of Troy’s student-athletes recorded a 3.5 GPA for the semester and 53 Trojans earned a perfect 4.0 in the spring.

Jones has led the search for five new head coaches during his tenure as Athletics Director with the addition of Jon Sumrall (football), Skylar Meade (baseball), Eric Newell (softball), Robert Lane (soccer) and Forrest Schultz (men’s golf). In Meade’s first season, Troy swept Louisiana (first time in program history) and Indiana and improved its RPI 35 spots from the previous season, while Shultz’s Trojans played nine rounds under par as a team, combined for 50 individual rounds under par, and posted a 97-53-2 record. Last year, Troy had one team round under par, 21 individual rounds under par and a 21-79 overall record.

Troy’s facilities have also been upgraded with more than $40 million dedicated to capital projects including the North End Zone facility for football, a massive renovation of Riddle-Pace Field scheduled to be completed in time for the 2023 season. Additionally, Jones has overseen new turf in The Vet, a new sod turf for soccer, a new court design in Trojan Arena and a state-ofthe-art volleyball playing surface. Additionally, the volleyball and track & field offices in Trojan Arena have gone through a rebranding process. Troy’s tennis courts underwent a rebranding effort with a new scoreboard and the playing surfaces receiving upgrades, while the Troy Soccer Complex received new turf prior to the 2021 season. Prior to the 2021 football season, Troy released a new premium seating area in the South End Zone of The Vet -- the Ultra Lounge -- which sold out a month prior to the season. It was expanded in 2022 and subsequently sold out again.

During the summer of 2020, Jones worked with Troy’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee in the creation of Troy CARES, which operates under the core values: Communicate, Action, Respect, Educate, Social Responsibility. Troy CARES is a program to promote a culture of Jones led a renegotiation on Troy’s multimedia rights deal with Playfly Sports, which has increased revenue for Troy Athletics for years to come. Additionally, Troy secured a new partnership with Affinity Licensing, which significantly amplified Troy merchandise volume in the marketplace in addition to increasing revenue and better serving Troy’s fans and merchants.

Thanks in part to a new partnership with IMG-L Ticket Solutions, the Trojans set numerous benchmarks during his time at Troy, including record-breaking attendance numbers for Troy football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, volleyball, softball and baseball. Men’s basketball season ticket sales increased by 400 percent during his first season in the AD chair, while a record number of season tickets were sold for football, baseball and women’s basketball. Troy led the Sun Belt in both men’s and women’s basketball attendance for the 2021-22 season, the first time in program history, and sold the most baseball tickets in more than a decade.

Troy has seen crowds of 20,000-plus at Veterans Memorial Stadium in 22 of the last 24 games (not counting reduced capacity season of 2020). Six of the top nine singlegame crowds have occurred since the start of the 2017 season, and Troy led the Sun Belt Conference in total attendance for the first time in school history in 2018 and ranked second in 2019 and 2021.

The restructuring of the overall athletics department led to increased production across the board including an establishing of best practices by the internal operations department to best maximize staff and transitioning development to the external operations team, which led to a significant increase in giving and major gifts. Troy’s philanthropic giving increased nearly 70 percent year-over-year from 2020 to 2021, while 2020’s giving was up 17 percent from 2019, and giving hit record-setting numbers in 2022. Jones launched the Drive to 1887 and Football Excellence Fund over the past 12 months and both fundraising projects exceeded their stated goals ahead of schedule.

In the spring of 2021, Troy Athletics announced a dynamic partnership with DeMarcus Ware which provides Troy University students, fans, employees and alumni with free access to Ware’s D2W fitness app and put officially licensed Troy jerseys with Ware’s name and iconic No. 94 in the Troy Bookstore and online store.

Jones, who was introduced as Troy’s Director of Athletics on June 12, 2019, took over the role following a two-year stint as Troy’s Deputy Director of Athletics for External Operations. In his role as Deputy Director of Athletics, Jones had oversight of marketing, communications, advertising, ticket sales, Troy Sports Properties, broadcasting, promotions, fan engagement, fan experience, branding, licensing and trademarks. He served as the sport administrator for the baseball program and oversaw football scheduling.