Unless you have Chadwell or Deion in line ready to go, I think you keep Key in that scenario. He would finish his year 4-3, beating every team he should on paper, as well as upsetting a team he shouldn’t have beat, and all 3 losses would be expected losses. A team who’s best record in the previous 3 years was 3-7, suddenly turning around and going 4-3 (with one loss coming via a probable CFP participant) and 5-7 on the year after starting 1-3 it would be blatantly obvious that the program is moving forward, rather than laterally or backwards.
Any new coach we bring in is going to come with their own set of growing pains. There will be transfers in and out, a completely new staff, a new playbook, a new culture. If we hire somebody new I don’t think we are immediately successful in 2023, and getting to a bowl game would probably be pretty difficult again. Retaining Key limits the growing pains, and I think he has a very solid vision for the program. Key played here during what was probably the best stretch of GT football since the Dodd years. Tech finished the season ranked in all 4 of Key’s years as a player and a captain. The last time Tech had 4 consecutive ranked seasons before that? Never. It had never been done before, and it hasn’t been done since. Key’s teams went 3-1 against UGA, and still have the most recent win at home against them. They also have the most recent win by more than 1 score.
Brent Key knows the culture at Georgia Tech. He loves the school, and he loves the place. AND he was a large part of one of, if not the most successful stretches of GT football in the modern era. Now all of that doesn’t automatically qualify him as the best candidate to be our head coach, but it does make him very attractive. Key has worked closely with some of the most successful college head coaches ever. He’s been part of conference and national championship teams. So far he seems competent as a head coach, and he even made less mistakes regarding time management and discipline than Collins did who had many more years of HC experience.
I think with the challenges that come along with being the head coach at Georgia Tech, you need somebody willing to embrace it and take it head on. With some help from Cabrera and the Hill, we can definitely work to mitigate some of those challenges, but they will never disappear entirely. Key seems like the guy most willing to embrace that, and he will do it because he loves this place, and not because he loves his job or the money that comes along with it.
And of course Key may retain the job as the permanent head coach and be a total bust. But with the hand he’s been dealt, getting this team to 5-7 would be a massive accomplishment, one I think is worthy of serious consideration for getting the full time gig. Because we’ll already have information on how he handles himself and the team as Georgia Tech’s coach. If you get somebody from the outside, there’s risks in that you don’t really know what you’re going to get.
