ATHENS, Ga. — The words “Go Dawgs” landed with a little extra bite on Tuesday morning.
Inside Georgia’s basketball facilities, the university rolled out its newest standard-bearer for women’s basketball, introducing Ayla Guzzardo as head coach — a hire that says as much about where the program wants to go as it does about what she’s already done.
A Statement From the Top
This wasn’t a quiet handover. It was a show of intent.
University of Georgia President Jere Morehead framed the appointment as another step in a broader push across the athletic department.
“Coach Guzzardo is the latest addition to an athletic program built on strong leadership and a commitment to excellence,” Morehead said, pointing to the work of J. Reid Parker Director of Athletics Josh Brooks and a department he described as unified behind student-athletes’ “academic, athletic and personal growth.”
“I think this appointment reflects that continued momentum,” he added, welcoming “a coach who embodies our vision for success.”
Brooks didn’t bother hiding that Guzzardo sat near the top of his mental shortlist long before the Georgia job opened.
“From the beginning of this search, our goal was simple,” he said. “Find an exceptional leader, someone who is first and foremost a tremendous human being, someone who connects with student-athletes, engages with our fans and alumni and truly invests in this community.”
Then he went further.
“You will not find a better person than Coach Ayla Guzzardo,” Brooks said. “Ask any AD in the country and there's always a list that you keep, and when a job like this opens from day one Coach Guzzardo was top of mind.”
A Résumé Built on Turnarounds
Brooks has the numbers to back up the praise.
At McNeese, Guzzardo didn’t just win. She flipped an entire trajectory. She inherited a program that had gone 10–21 the year before she arrived and turned it into a 29–6 team this past season — a record-breaking campaign for the school.
“It was one of the best turnarounds in the country and just one win shy of the largest single-season turnaround in the history of college women's basketball,” Brooks noted.
McNeese posted its first 20-win season in a decade and the winningest season in program history under her watch. Before that, she spent eight seasons at Southeastern (Louisiana), where she reshaped a struggling program into a consistent winner.
But Brooks kept circling back to the same theme: impact beyond the box score.
“More than the wins, what stands out the most, her student athletes believe in her, her community rallies around her, and here, that matters,” he said.
Embracing Georgia’s Past, Aiming for New Heights
Guzzardo didn’t try to distance herself from Georgia’s storied past. She leaned straight into it.
“When you think about Georgia, you think about Andy Landers,” she said, invoking the legendary coach who built the Lady Bulldogs into a national power. “Watching him when I was growing up, I have so much respect for what he's built here and the program that he's built, what he's done and the tradition and the trajectory this program is going to see new heights, and he's built that for us.”
Her message to alumni and fans was direct and inclusive.
“Georgia has a long and storied history because the alumni and their fans and I want each and every one to know that you'll always have a spot on our team, and we mean that,” she said.
Looking around the room on her first official day, she saw evidence of the school’s investment.
“When you look around us today, there's no question that Georgia is committed to basketball,” Guzzardo said. “Thank you for this tremendous opportunity, and I can promise you that our team will be fun to follow. We'll be passionate, energetic on the court and off the court and you're going to get to know us as people, as humans and you're going to see us in this community.”
Athens, she made clear, is not just a workplace.
“Athens is great and we can't wait to be a part of it. I'm excited, I'm humbled and I know I'm going to work hard. My staff is going to work hard, and our players are going to work hard and that's going to translate on and off the floor. I'm telling you we're all in this together. Go Dawgs!”
The Fit: From Hammond to Athens
The connection between Brooks and Guzzardo runs deeper than a coaching résumé. It runs through the same small hometown.
“Josh is a very important person back where I'm from,” Guzzardo said. “I don't think we talk about it enough but he's up there with Kim Mulkey, Pete Golding, and then Josh. Hammond, Louisiana is taking over the SEC. It's a special place. We have some of the same values and core expectations. But for us, we have the same alignment and I think that's important.”
Brooks confirmed they didn’t grow up knowing each other personally, but Hammond still linked them.
“I don't know. I'm sure if we dig deep enough, we probably have a lot of relatives that know each other,” he said. “Hammond is a small town so I'm sure we do. I'm confident we have a lot of mutual friends, but we didn't know each other per say.”
The turning point came on a scouting trip.
“After I saw her team play in Iowa, I looked up her bio and saw that she was from my hometown,” Brooks recalled. “That's when I started keeping up with her and just following her career.”
What he saw on the floor mirrored his own path in the profession.
“Not to make it about myself, but her career reminded me of my career a lot,” he said. “I came from Louisiana-Monroe and had to grind to get to where I am. That's how her team played, with tenacity. If I was a basketball coach, that's exactly how I would coach, so that was exciting.”
The shared background mattered.
“The connection is the piece that's so important to me,” Brooks said. “We share the same values, being from the same hometown. Where we come from, the connection with people is very important, so that was an instant thing that really stood out to me.”
Coaching Style: Loud, Feisty, and Very Much Present
Ask Guzzardo about her playing days and she’ll give you a scouting report that doubles as a mission statement for her teams.
“If you watch us play our games, it's the exact same way,” she said. “My coaching style translates from me as a player. I was loud. I was energetic, passionate, intense in a sane way, and feisty. I try to mimic that with my players.”
That energy will not be confined to the sideline. She plans to build Georgia’s roster and culture around relationships that last well beyond senior night.
“We do that in the early recruiting process,” she said. “This isn't just a job for me. These are lifelong relationships and friendships that we're creating. My job isn't done when they graduate. My job is to continue to watch them get jobs, get married, have families and succeed in life. I think it's bigger than just basketball for us.”
Realizing the Stage
For all the confidence, there was also a moment of realization.
On envisioning herself at a place like Georgia, Guzzardo admitted the dream only crystallized when she met Brooks and set foot in Athens.
“I didn't imagine it until I met Josh,” she said. “This place is a special place. It was always a goal of mine. Once I got to Athens, I realized how important and how special it was, I knew it was the right place to be.”
Now, the coach who turned McNeese into a 29-win force steps into a program with banners, expectations, and a fan base that still measures itself against the standard Andy Landers set.
The question isn’t whether Ayla Guzzardo brings energy and belief. Those arrived with her on day one.
The question is how quickly that edge, that feisty, loud, Hammond-bred tenacity, can turn Georgia’s tradition into its next era of winning.
