When Aaron Murray became University of Georgia’s starting quarterback, a leadership expectation came with the jersey.

What it did not include was a manual. “You’re the quarterback, so you’re expected to lead,” Murray said. “But no one really teaches you how.”

That realization now sits at the center of RedZone Advantage, a leadership consultancy Murray is building alongside Brian Hoffman, professor of the Industrial-Organizational Psychology program in UGA’s Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.

Together, they are applying psychology research to a common challenge in sports, business, and other high-pressure environments: how to prepare high performers to become effective leaders.

“In sports, the best player often becomes the leader,” Hoffman said. “In companies, the highest producer gets promoted into management. But performance and leadership are not the same thing.”

Applying research to leadership

RedZone Advantage uses leadership assessments, feedback tools, and structured development plans to help sports teams and businesses identify leadership potential, build stronger sports teams and businesses, and give emerging leaders a way to practice before the stakes get higher.

For Murray, the project traces back to his time as a Georgia student-athlete.

Murray remains one of the most accomplished quarterbacks in Southeastern Conference history. During his career at Georgia from 2010-2013, he set conference records for passing yards and touchdowns while leading some of the program’s most successful teams of the modern era. He later played professionally in the NFL and Canadian Football League before moving into broadcasting as a college football analyst for ESPN and host of a national sports podcast.

Alongside football, Murray also pursued coursework connected to Industial-Organizational psychology at Georgia. During that time, he began working with Hoffman on research examining leadership among quarterbacks and how those dynamics compare with leadership in business settings.

Re-thinking leadership roles

Hoffman has spent much of his career studying leadership assessment and human performance. His research focuses on leadership development, talent selection, feedback tools, workplace behavior, and evolving work trends.

That work has reinforced one of the central ideas behind RedZone Advantage: leadership should be developed intentionally, not assumed.

That idea became personal for Murray during his junior season at Georgia.

Before the 2012 season, Hoffman and Murray adapted a leadership assessment tool commonly used in corporate settings known as 360-degree feedback. Using a version they developed, Murray, his coaches, and his teammates evaluated his leadership skills. One weakness emerged consistently: Murray struggled to hold teammates accountable.

Rather than simply discussing the results, Hoffman and Murray drew on leadership development principles from psychology to help Murray strengthen that skill. Murray launched an ambitious summer workout program designed to increase participation in voluntary team workouts in Athens.

To reinforce that effort, Hoffman then worked with Murray to create a leadership assignment that required him to practice holding teammates accountable, giving him an opportunity to apply and develop the skill in a real-world setting.

“It forced me to grow,” Murray said. “You have to be willing to serve and get feedback. People get put into leadership positions all the time without support.”

Leadership under pressure

The growth Murray experienced that offseason carried into one of the defining years of Georgia football.

The 2012 Bulldogs entered the SEC Championship game against Alabama with a chance to play for the national championship. Murray clearly remembers the pressure surrounding that week. Alongside preparing for Alabama’s defense and handling media responsibilities, he was balancing coursework and final exams.

“There were 90,000 people in the stadium, and you know every game matters,” Murray said. “You lose one game and everything changes.”

Georgia carried a 10-point lead into the fourth quarter before Alabama rallied for a 32-28 win in one of the most memorable SEC Championship games in conference history. The Bulldogs’ final drive ended just short of the goal line as time expired.

For Murray, the season reinforced lessons about accountability, preparation and leadership under pressure that continue to shape his work today.

Building leaders intentionally

Those experiences also helped shape RedZone Advantage’s approach to leadership development.

The consultancy focuses on helping teams and organizations develop leaders intentionally rather than assuming leadership skills will emerge through experience, title, or talent.

“A lot of organizations collect feedback and then stop there,” Hoffman said. “People can become defensive if they do not know how to use it constructively. We want to help create a plan for growth.”

Their process includes identifying strengths and weaknesses, developing action plans and creating leadership challenges and experiences designed to stretch their capabilities and work on their weaknesses before they step into larger roles.

One question often guides participants: Do they want to lead?

The work also reflects broader changes in sports psychology and athlete development.

The issue resonates for Murray, who has watched athletes navigate public scrutiny and pressure throughout their careers. He pointed to growing awareness across sports, including conversations surrounding Olympic gymnast Simone Biles and former Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett. Hoffman recently helped launch the Organizational Science and Sports Network, a professional group connecting researchers and practitioners working at the intersection of psychology and athletics.

“At the end of the day, you are still talking about people working together under pressure,” Hoffman said.

Murray said athletes today are more willing to discuss vulnerability, feedback and personal growth than previous generations. That openness, he said, can create stronger teams when it is paired with clear expectations and intentional leadership development.

For them, the lesson is straightforward: leadership cannot be assumed simply because someone performs well. It has to be practiced, supported and developed. "Football culture talks a lot about toughness and accountability,” Murray said. “Culture matters. Leadership matters. People have to believe in each other.”