University of Alabama head coach Margo Geer has received a three-year contract extension worth a base salary of $160,000 per year. The agreement was approved by the Compensation Committee of the Board of Trustees on Tuesday, along with a number of other Alabama athletics extensions and hires.
The deal runs through June 30, 2026, and is a vote of confidence from high profile athletics director Greg Byrne.
Byrne hired Geer as the program’s new head coach after her personal coach Coley Stickels left the program mid-season in 2020 after just 18 months on the job. Geer officially took over the program for the 2021-2022 season, and is now two years into her tenure.
Alabama’s NCAA Finishes:
- 2021: Men 15th, Women 5th
- 2022: Men 14th, Women 4th
- 2023: Men 19th, Women 14th
While her predecessor Stickels never got to take his team to the NCAA Championships because of COVID and then his midseason departure, Geer’s first full year in charge of the Crimson Tide was a success. Both men’s and women’s programs, with rosters largely made up of swimmers who committed or transferred to train under the talented but controversial Stickels, improved one spot from their prior year, and the Alabama women’s 4th place finish was the best in program history.
The women returned all of their relay legs and all of their points from that team, but attrition throughout the season, losing stars like Morgan Scott and Cora Dupre to injury, retirement, or both, dramatically hurt the team’s results in March.
It wasn’t all bad for the Tide, though. 5th year Kensey McMahon won NCAA titles in the 500 free and the 1650 free, and swimmers like Charlie Hawke and Derek Maas had good years at Alabama, scoring All-America honors.
The offseason came with the departure of most of the Alabama coaching staff, including Ozzie Quevedo leaving for SMU, leaving Geer, herself still very young as a coach, with an inexperienced staff. The hiring of Andrew Hodgson from Northwestern helped replace Quevedo’s veteran presence, but the tumult of transfers and coaching changes led to a lot of infighting among athletes and parents in very public spaces on the internet.
None-the-less, Byrne is prepared to give Geer the opportunity to bring in her own athletes and her own assistant coaches to build the program in her own vision. Byrne was formerly the AD at the University of Arizona where Geer was an All-American as an athlete under the still-influential Frank Busch. He was the AD there for the entirety of Geer’s undergraduate career which included being named a finalist for NCAA Woman of the Year in 2015.
Some of y’all are guilty of wishing for a bunch of innocent student-athletes to lose their current head coach. If you don’t like Margo or the current roster, just don’t come, leave or let your kid(s) leave. Don’t assume that she’s purposely hurting the team.
Whether Margo is a good head coach or not, shouldn’t we be giving athletes some kind of security? There have already been so many changes on the team, so why not provide athletes with some stability?
Let’s all pretend to be in the athletes’ shoes. Each athlete in my class has experienced at least one coach change. Are consistent coaching changes good for athletes, both physically and mentally?
What’s more ridiculous? The divers have… Read more »
Margo, thank you for the success of the continued destruction to a program that was a NCAA contender under the leadership of Hall of Fame Coach Dennis Pursley. We look forward to you continuing to bring this program to a destination that we can finally omit it from the varsity sports offering.
Roll Tide! Let the haters hate!
Streets telling me Margo is interested in adding these prestigious names to her coaching staff to continue her masterclass in coaching at Bama:
Lol what a plot twist that would be. Coley goes back to learn under his old Volunteer Assistant
wow. had at least three different coaches say, “she’s definitely done after this year.” just this past weekend. big ? from the AD
UH – WHAT?
Why hello again, Margo Geer, for three more years, we will cheer!. Send
Lol rewarding a terrible job with more opportunities. Makes sense.
This will be entertaining