Tech president: ‘We are on the brink of doing great things on the field’

“Honestly, if I were in (Alpert’s) shoes, there are not many opportunities like this, where you can make a difference and own that difference and really have that sense of pride that four years from now, five years from now you can look back and see, ‘I did that, I helped build that.’ Honestly, that is the best thing we can offer any ambitious athletics director is a project that they can lead and be incredibly proud of and we have that in spades.”

Alpert came to Tech from Tennessee, where he was the senior deputy athletic director and chief revenue officer working alongside Volunteers AD Danny White. White wasn’t able to make Wednesday’s news conference, but many of Alpert’s now former Tennessee colleagues were, as were Alpert’s wife and two young daughters, his parents and his two siblings.

A first-time AD, Alpert’s immediate mission is quite clear: To not derail the fundraising and revenue progress Batt made in his two-plus years in Midtown. Alpert’s long-term mission will be to take Tech athletics to the next level.

“This is not going to be easy,” Alpert said as part of his prepared statement. “We are gonna raise the expectations, we’re gonna push the boundaries, we are gonna challenge the status quo, but when we do that, and we will, the results will be remarkable.”

Alpert has already been on the job for a little more than a week. Temporarily housed at the Georgia Tech Hotel and Conference Center, Alpert noted in a conversation Tuesday with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that his first few days of this week have included a Beyoncé concert, MLB All-Star Game festivities and SEC Media Days. It’s not lost on the South Carolina graduate that the city is a hub of entertainment, activity and, ultimately, dollars.

And dollars and cents will be a major focus of his, he said, in the infancy of his tenure. Tech will not only need to continue to raise funds to stay competitive in the open market of paying its athletes, but to keep up with the Joneses when it comes to facility upgrades and upkeep.

“I lean on my core principles of who I am and that’s a revenue generator. There’s all sorts of pressures going on in college sports; I’m always gonna attack a problem with how do we fund it, how do we grow the revenue,” he said. “That’ll be a lot of my focus. I want to keep culture moving in the right direction internally, both with our coaching staffs, with our staff as well. I’ll focus on what I know best: getting to know our community, getting to know our donors, getting to know our student-athletes, but attacking our issues through revenue generation.”

Alpert also spoke at length about what his five principles will be when it comes to leading the Yellow Jackets: competitiveness, alignment, investment, culture and integrity. The alignment piece, he said, was a major part of his evaluation of whether or not Tech was the right fit for him professionally.

Cabrera called Alpert a builder, connector and visionary.

“We were overwhelmed by the caliber of the pool and the caliber of people who were interested in the job,” Cabrera added. “This has always been an incredible program, an incredible job within the whole space of intercollegiate athletics. The history of Georgia Tech athletics is really unmatched. We were overwhelmed with the talent that we had. It took some work, and a lot of intense work, in trying to find the right person within that space. I can tell you very quickly within that pool, (Alpert) was the best fit for us.”

Alpert reportedly signed a five-year contract with Tech, but the terms of that contract have not been disclosed.