On July 30th, Troy Athletic Director Brent Jones was announced as Associate Vice President and Executive Deputy Athletics Director at Georgia Tech.

This move was a surprise to Trojan Nation, as Jones’ tenure resulted in much success for Troy.

Jones came to Troy in March 2017 with Jeremy McClain when he left Southern Miss and followed John Hartwell as Troy’s AD. Jones served as Deputy Athletics Director for External Operations for two and a half years.

He took over as Athletic Director on June 12, 2019, following McClain’s departure for the same position at Southern Miss.

It is hard to quantify all that Jones accomplished during his time at the helm of Troy Athletics, but there are three clear areas where it’s clear he elevated the department: successful coaching hires, pioneering revenue generation and campus-wide construction.

Coaching Hires

Let’s face it, this is the metric by which all Athletic Directors are measured. If your teams aren’t winning, you aren’t succeeding.

Jones had to make seven hires in eight years, and in that time Troy’s programs won 10 Sun Belt Championships.

In football—the most expensive, recognizable and likely important program—Jones inherited Chip Lindsey. After the 2021 season, Jones replaced him with Jon Sumrall.

Sumrall may well be Jones’ best hire. He won two Sun Belt Championships, hosted each title game, racked up a 23-4 record, and went 14-2 in Sun Belt play.

Troy football hit a peak when it ended the 2022 season ranked (#19) for the first time in FBS history.

Following Sumrall’s departure for Tulane after the 2023 season, Jones hired Gerad Parker. Parker went 4-8 (3-5 in SBC) in his first season, but the team showed growth and promise over the last six games, going 3-3 down the stretch.

Jones’s time at Troy ended before Parker’s second season began, so time will tell how that hire stacks up.

In addition to on the field successes, Troy gained national recognition in other avenues with Jones at the helm. Larry Blakeney was finally inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2024. He was the first Troy and Sun Belt coach to be inducted.

DeMarcus Ware was inducted into the Pro Sports Hall of Fame in 2023, the first Sun Belt alum, much less the first Troy player to make it. On September 3, 2023, further history was made when Ware’s #94 was retired, the first official jersey retirement for Troy football and the third in Troy Athletics history.

The only basketball hire Jones made was Scott Cross on March 26, 2019. The former UT Arlington coach experienced a rough first two seasons, but finally turned a corner in 2021-2022. Troy began a current streak of four 20+ win seasons.

Troy made the CBI in 2021-22 and won the Sun Belt regular season and conference tournament in 2024-25, returning to the Big Dance for the first time since 2017.

Skylar Meade was Jones’ second longest-tenured hire, having just finished his fourth season in the Wiregrass. He has an overall record of 148-89 (69-51 SBC) and hasn’t won fewer than 32 games each of his four years.

Troy made the NCAA Regionals in 2023, narrowly missing out on a Super Regional. The 2025 team was ranked for all but one week of the regular season, reaching #14 for the first time at the Division I level.

Stuart Gore, the former Northwestern State coach, took over Troy Women’s Soccer in 2023. He immediately doubled the win total from the 2022 season and added another 5 wins in 2024.

His overall record of 11-19-5 is low, but shows promise for growth in the future.

Softball was the only sport aside from football in which Jones made more than one hire. After Beth Mullins took a leave of absence in 2022, the head job was split between Taylor Smartt and Holly Ward.

The two guided Troy to a 31-win season, its fourth in five years. They finished 15-12 in SBC play.

For 2023, Jones hired Eric Newell, the AUM head coach. The move was a success, continuing Troy’s run of 30-win seasons with three of his own. In 2025, his Trojans completed its first series win over Louisiana, a program that set a record for 89 consecutive conference series wins from 2013-25.

After three seasons, Newell sits at 100-65-1 (39-32-1 SBC).

In addition to his “big three” hires, other coaches have seen great success during his tenure. Women’s Basketball coach Chanda Rigby won two Sun Belt titles and made two deep WNIT runs (Fab 4 and Final) the past two years.

Golf Coach Randy Keck built consistent programs in both Men’s and Women’s golf, sending the Men’s team to the NCAA Championships in 2025. Tennis coach Rolando Vargas also helped push Troy tennis to the brink of championships in both men’s and women’s.

Revenue Generation

One of Jones’ main avenues for the success of Troy Athletics was funding. He targeted several significant areas for potential revenue growth and attacked them with his staff.

In his six years, Troy set multiple records for fundraising, gifts, corporate sponsorship, licensing and ticket sales.

Jones also focused on finding new ways to bring Troy products to its fans. Licensed merchandise was created through Peter Millar and Trojan Threads. He also partnered with Dothan’s Folklore Brewery to produce Troy’s first two craft beer products, Trojan Ale and Blakeney’s Brew.

Finally, a deal was struck with Troy-based distiller Clyde May’s to produce two special offerings of its bourbon with Troy branding on it—one of which was a single barrel, specially-colored bottle.

Jones created many other fan-related generators during his administration, such as T-Roy’s Kids Club, T-Roy’s Pet Pals, and the Spring Yard Sale.

The “Pack The Vet” campaign has broken football ticket sales records, year over year, since its inception. Troy also began offering new gameday experiences—more on that below.

There were also several notable donations made to Athletics, including facilities named for individuals, like the Allen E. Owen III Terrace at The Vet (pictured above).

Construction and Renovations

What good is raising revenue if you don’t spend it? From almost the beginning of his tenure, Jones was responsible for upgrades to Troy facilities.

A month after his hire, the turf at Veterans Memorial Stadium was replaced, bringing a new look (and returning cardinal endzones) to The Vet.

Speaking of The Vet, one of the biggest marks left by Jones on Troy was the improvements for the fan gameday experience: new signage, water bottle refill stations, and TVs in concession lines. Troy spent $750,000 on replacing chairback seating, carpet, and furniture in the premium areas of The Vet during the 2020 season.

Trojan Arena was also the focus of improvements in 2020. The department spent $200,000 on a new basketball court and a new volleyball court. The volleyball and track and field offices were rebranded as well.

In 2021, Troy installed new grass in the soccer complex. 2022 saw a $250,000 investment in the tennis programs via a new Daktronics scoreboard, new branding, and court resurfacing, and the next year $100,000 was used to rebrand the men’s and women’s basketball offices.

In 2024, baseball and softball were the focus. Softball saw a significant rebranding of the stadium, along with a $1.5 million scoreboard, and baseball received the largest investment since the North End Zone project in 2018.

Riddle-Pace Field got a $12.5 million renovation. This added all-chairback seats, the RBI Club (a premium area similar to the Stadium Club), new coaches offices, a new locker room, team meeting room, improved concourses and merchandise areas, a striking rotunda, and a players’ lounge.

It also received new scoreboards, the largest in the Sun Belt and three of the largest in the G5.

The final major improvement to Troy Athletics facilities under Brent Jones’ leadership will be an $11 million Indoor Practice Facility. Much like the aforementioned NEZ, the under-construction IPF project spent several years as a rumor before its official announcement.

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There are many other improvements made behind the scenes and likely not known to the general public. What is known is that Brent Jones accomplished what I consider to be the hallmark of a job well done: he left Troy in a better place than when he arrived.

We at the Wall will miss Brent being in the Wiregrass and hope the next AD takes notes on Brent’s leadership.

And, of course, we will miss the suits.