Editor’s Note: It may be time for the Georgia Bulldogs to take back the SEC East in 2017. We’ve featured the most important UGA players, coaches, fans and staff for the upcoming season in a 20-part video series, which you can binge-watch right here.

ATHENS – If you are a regular at Georgia sporting events, you recognize their faces. You see them everywhere you go, but you rarely talk to them and often don’t even know their names. But when it comes to the Georgia Bulldogs having success on the field and pleasing their fans, they’re as vital as the players on the field.

They are the unsung heroes behind the scenes for UGA. Following are just a few:

  • Matt Borman – Unless you’re an individual who donates a lot of money to the university and/or athletics, you probably never have heard of Borman, who has been on board since February. He is the executive associate athletic director for development for UGA, which means he’s in charge of raising money. That’s a big job because the Bulldogs are busy trying to pay for big projects such as the $30.2 million indoor athletic facility and the $63 million West End renovation at Sanford Stadium, among other things. He came to UGA from West Virginia, where he was the lead fundraiser for athletics.
  • Tim Cearly – Cearly (pronounced KEER-lee) is the associate AD for ticket operations. As such, he has dealt with every UGA football season ticket-holder. Ultimately, he’s the one who decides how many tickets folks get and where they sit, home and away. That’s a big job any year, but especially this one. Cearly processed thousands more requests for Notre Dame tickets than the 8,000 seats he had to offer.
  • Claude Felton – Felton is a Hall of Fame member in the sports communication business. He has worked at UGA for nearly four decades. He’s the one who sets the message for UGA athletics, promotes athletes, arranges interviews and also has the difficult task of being the liaison between the school and the media.
  • Matt Hollan – As heads groundskeeper at Sanford Stadium, it’s Hollan’s job to make sure the grass is green and the hedges are robust. That’s not easy when an outside company charged with clearing the field of chairs after graduation rips up the turf to the point it all had to be replaced. Hollan is another new hire for UGA this year, coming to Athens in February from Los Angeles where he was Southern Cal’s groundskeeper at the L.A. Coliseum.
  • Melvin Robinson – Robinson is one of those faces one sees every time the doors are opened to one of UGA’s sports venues. As assistant AD for facilities, he’s not only the man with the keys to everything but he also oversees some of the department’s most important construction projects. He did that for football’s indoor facility, he’s doing that at Stegeman Coliseum now and he’ll do it for the new West End construction. Probably more important to UGA fans, he’s in charge with making sure the new restrooms and concession set-ups at Sanford come online in time and to their satisfaction.

Click here to see more of “Own the East,” our 2017 season preview of the Georgia Bulldogs in video form.