Official: Brent Key is Georgia Tech Football's Head Coach

[lv20gt]

I understand how you could see that, and I am by no means the number one Key guy here, he was maybe four or five on my list of candidates. But in his interim he has proved to be more than a "Tech Guy" he is a leader of young men who rallied these guys to beat teams they had no business beating despite having injured QBs etc. He obviously has his flaws in his limited experience and his OL being not good, but there is no denying his interim stint was impressive and he is an exceptional leader. To proclaim this a hire of a "Tech Guy" is ignorant to what happened, he proved he can lead a football team over the last eight weeks, and given we are strapped for cash we decided that was the best route. But he certainly isn't just a "Tech Guy" hire with no other merits.

And I disagree. I think the last 8 games says a lot of good things about the defensive coaching staff but little tangible about Key (or anyone on the offense really). To me, that people looked at the last 8 games and think that makes him qualified is because of the "tech guy" mentality. But I'm not going to convince you or anyone else here otherwise.

 

[Js-showman]

I agree with all of this. I wanted Chadwell, but I'm content with Key. You are right, there is a considerable downside risk here, but so far, so good. If he can bring us to break even next season (6 - 6) I think most people will be more then content. I think that is within possibility, though graduation is going to hit us hard on D. There are other intangibles as well, especially how the money will be spent to improve the program.

But, while he wasn't my first choice, I don't feel that apprehensive with Key in charge. We'll have to see how it works out.

My sentiments too. Chadwell has done everything that Key has done as an interim coach and has a successful track record as head coach. He was my first choice, but I have been impressed with Key given the hand he was dealt.

 

[Js-showman]

What I get a kick out of are our fans that hear from their UGAG friends that “we made the right choice” and “we like Key”, etc. They really believe that ugag fans want something good for us!! Like our phrase is THWG. They want us to always be nothing, trust me. They may pretend they want a competitive rival, but they don’t. They already have several with their SEC brothers.

A lot of these same fans could not handle the ribbing from these same people about our “high school offense”. It’s like they live their lives caring what gaggers think or say.

It is what it is, now. I’m hoping against hope that BK can miraculously take us to great heights.

Exactly. Wtf cares what they think. It is that mentality of being the kid brother to the cow pasture university to the east that drives us into making stupid decisions like Collins.

 

[JacketOff]

My guess is the Cabal of the Key Club intimidated Batt into choosing Key; the Key Club members, including the big donors, would not agree to wash out Key from the team. It would be my guess the applicants would not go along with that and made it easy for the donors and Batt to push them out of the way to select Key.

I am sure the rest of the football world is laughing their rear off at Tech at this time. It is beyond comprehension that the main person on the staff (Offensive Line Coach) is selected as the new coach when his duty was the worst part of GT football during the Collin's tenure.

Instead of getting the blame for Collins failures, he is being positioned as the Head Coach. My grandchild could have done a better job. Batt miserably failed his first job at Tech and gave in to the intimidation to keep his job.

I have been through the good years of Tech football since the mid-forties, but the wiser people are no longer at Tech. I agree with many, it is time to move on.

You’re such a weird guy lol. Weren’t you supposed to leave the board like 2 weeks ago? Even left your (supposed) full name and email address to be used to aid in the deletion of your account.

Don’t let the door hit you on the way out. You left the KEY inside and he ain’t leaving anytime soon. See ya in 2025 when you come back after our Orange Bowl win to cap off an 11 win year

 

[jgtengineer]

You’re such a weird guy lol. Weren’t you supposed to leave the board like 2 weeks ago? Even left your (supposed) full name and email address to be used to aid in the deletion of your account.

Don’t let the door hit you on the way out. You left the KEY inside and he ain’t leaving anytime soon. See ya in 2025 when you come back after our Orange Bowl win to cap off an 11 win year

Why keep it low. Key needs to win the cfb becofe we bolt to the big 10

 

[Oldgoldandwhite]

Having gone through the last 3 years there’s no where to go but up.

Agree! Now to the hard part. Staff and recruiting.

 

[85Escape]

If you ever attended any of their training, you completely missed the basic elements they tried to convey to you and notably you missed lesson #1 by as much as you possibly could.

That's 100% what I was thinking when I read that comment. What they really say is "There are no bad teams, only bad leaders."

 

[85Escape]

Now that Key has been officially hired, it marks a turning point in my GT fandom. I had hoped that we were committing to the program going forward with the firing of Collins and TStan. I also had high hopes that JBatt would make a solid hire. That couldn't have been more wrong. Watching us strike out on multiple good to mediocre coaches and have to settle on our fall back option was sad. Watching other programs make great hires and build excitement makes me even more sad. That could have been us. We could have had something to look forward to but apparently we can't afford it. It's unfortunate but sometimes life takes you a different direction. I don't think I can support the program much going forward. Here's hoping basketball can turn things around.

That's cool. I am curious, however. Why are you sharing this if you don't care anymore? Looking for validation or just trying to bring others down too? Not being snarky, I'm really curious about the motivation of coming to a fan site to say that you are no longer a fan.

 

[Bleedwhiteandgold]

Congrats to Brent, I'll admit with two games to go in the season I was against this, but the way we fought to beat UNC and clawed and brawled against UGA with our 3rd and 4th string QB's, he won me over. If the rumor is true that Chip wasn't making play calls in the final two games that brings a big smile to my face, the offense looked more fluid and selection of play calls on key downs were much better than we had saw earlier in the season. At least to my eye.

Brent, congrats, now go get Nate Mccollum back please, that should be your 1st priority. Second, should be ridding yourself of Chip Long and go get a proven OC.

Fan's its time to donate to the AA and support our new ball coach. LFG!

 

[4shotB]

'tech guys' are full of themselves and think just because they went to GT it means they are instantly good at whatever they do.

Wait a minute....are you suggesting here that this ISN"T true??????

 

[croberts]

My guess is the Cabal of the Key Club intimidated Batt into choosing Key; the Key Club members, including the big donors, would not agree to wash out Key from the team. It would be my guess the applicants would not go along with that and made it easy for the donors and Batt to push them out of the way to select Key.

I am sure the rest of the football world is laughing their rear off at Tech at this time. It is beyond comprehension that the main person on the staff (Offensive Line Coach) is selected as the new coach when his duty was the worst part of GT football during the Collin's tenure.

Instead of getting the blame for Collins failures, he is being positioned as the Head Coach. My grandchild could have done a better job. Batt miserably failed his first job at Tech and gave in to the intimidation to keep his job.

I have been through the good years of Tech football since the mid-forties, but the wiser people are no longer at Tech. I agree with many, it is time to move on.

I respect everyone’s opinion but have one of my own.
Brent Keys credentials aren’t shabby . He was in line to take George’s place at UCF before that went south. Sabin grabs him. While at Alabama he was recognized as the #1 recruiter in the country, his line won the Joe Moore award as the best line in the country and was part of national championships.
For anyone to think that Batt made a poor choice with this guy, it’s hard to imagine.
I hope people noticed the drastic improvement in the offensive line over the last 8 weeks. By the way, we started 2 freshmen and 3 sophomores against UGA.
1. This is an excellent financial hire.
2. It is a very good football decision.
3. This could turn into a great hire.

 

[yeti92]

Wonder what Ken at the AjC now has to say , after his blunder earlier ...

Some of y'all are making a way bigger deal out of this than it is. His tweet about Fritz didn't even say its definitely Fritz, and he retracted it. It doesn't matter at all anymore.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

We should all rejoice that the CGC era is over and the program is now stabilizing under Key and the Tech administration. It can only improve from here.

Time to settle in for the rebuild. It will seem long because of four years of frustration but will actually not take that long now that the players are rallying to the program. We will have 8 wins by 2024.

 

[awbuzz]

Unfortunately it's not a turning it off and on thing.

I'm a sidewalk fan mostly because my dad went there and was a huge fan and we bonded over watching GT football and basketball growing up. It was literally the best memories I have growing up. Plan was to go there but life happened and ended up elsewhere. Didn't really change anything. Watched every game and called him every half time and after the game to discuss. Unfortunately he died so that reason is gone. Didn't really change things at first. Still loved watching GT games and it helped me get through it. The last 4 years I just accepted as the transition issues that we were told to expect way back when Johnson was first hired, and held on hope that once we got through it and made the next hire I'd be excited again.

And we just decided to promote from within largely because he's a 'tech guy'. However, my view of what it means to be a 'tech guy' probably differs from most here. Most of my experience with 'tech guys' are they are full of themselves and think just because they went to GT it means they are instantly good at whatever they do. If something goes wrong, it must be because someone else messed up. And this hire epitomizes that attitude. No HC experience? No problem. He's a GT guy. So he's obviously good enough naturally. His one year of experience as OC was horrible. Obviously not his fault. Terrible OL the past 4 years he was OL coach here? Obviously not because of him. Yeah, the players love him, he bleeds white and gold, would run through a brick wall, and a bunch of other superficial rara nonsense (ironic considering the depiction of Collins). Great if you're one of those super believers in the 'tech guy' thing. Not so much if you aren't. And now there isn't even the hope that the next time we make a coaching change I'll have something to look forward to. Just got burned with that belief. Realistically I'll probably only be interested in the next BBall hire but I have no reason to believe we won't go cheap there as well.

So it's not really a turning it off. Just slowly losing interest. And that means there really isn't a turning it back on either.

But hey, apparently a lot of guys got who they wanted.

I understand your thought process and hope that Key and GT get the football program turned around and we are bowling every year and start pumping out 10 - 16 win seasons. Regrading BBall, you are right on there too... disappointing team so far, but I'll save other thought fo the Bball forum.

Now about the importance of a coach being a "Tech Guy", I don't care that he's a Tech Guy or not. In fact I think that should not even be part of the consideration. I don't if a coach usded to coach at uGa, Auburn, Alabama, USC, Oregon, Ohis St. etc. I only care that they can coach/recruit/hire a good staff/manage the clock/lead the team in a way that translates to WINS on the field.

During Key's interim period he appears to show most of the things above (couldn't hire all new staff, but let's see what happens in this off season as to who is retained, etc. But remember we have some coaches on contract that we'd are on the hook for and i don't know if we have the $ to dump them (thank you FADTS and FCGC... not!) so that has to be considered.

 

[GTRambler]

Some of y'all are making a way bigger deal out of this than it is. His tweet about Fritz didn't even say its definitely Fritz, and he retracted it. It doesn't matter at all anymore.

Yes, I agree. Ken did a great job in trying to keep readers updated.

I believe Coach Fritz did, in fact, want the GT job, and he and Mr. Batt agreed to proceed with contract negotiations. In the end, Coach Fritz was not satisfied with the terms of the written contract once it was offered — and if an attempt was made to negotiate an agreeable compromise, it failed.

 

[Ramble1885]

My take on the hiring:

Key may not be the best overall option out there, but he’s by far the most suited for the job of Georgia Tech head coach. A player who played in some of our glory days, he knows what we’re capable of. He cares for the success of this program, and he cares for the success of his players. He’s a no nonsense, no gimmick, football man. He’s almost the opposite of Collins, which makes me wonder how the hell the two were on a staff together.

We basically have George O’Leary and Bill Curry combined into one man.
I’m excited for the future.

 

[nod]

I picked Key 1st day of the who do you want as coach poll thread. I’m liking the hire.
Forget all the narratives, this was a hire to win a national championship. Buckle up and enjoy the ride.
Go Jackets!

 

[leatherneckjacket]

I’m fine with Key. I don’t think you can realistically be confident that Fritz or Chadwell would have any better chance of leading us to an ACC title than Key would.

Key could just be a fan and probably would want a Georgia Tech national championship more than every person on this board. You can see it in his interviews. There’s some definite value in that. Key has a deep seated passion for the Institute.

Of course you can be realistically confident that a coach with a proven record of success at multiple programs would have better than a coach with no record of success. That is nonsensical to suggest otherwise.

Key is our head coach and I support him unconditionally, but it is not outlandish to believe that other coaches with records of success might have been better. Just because there is value in Key does not mean we could not have obtained greater value in another coach.

 

[g0lftime]

Congrats to Brent, I'll admit with two games to go in the season I was against this, but the way we fought to beat UNC and clawed and brawled against UGA with our 3rd and 4th string QB's, he won me over. If the rumor is true that Chip wasn't making play calls in the final two games that brings a big smile to my face, the offense looked more fluid and selection of play calls on key downs were much better than we had saw earlier in the season. At least to my eye.

Brent, congrats, now go get Nate Mccollum back please, that should be your 1st priority. Second, should be ridding yourself of Chip Long and go get a proven OC.

Fan's its time to donate to the AA and support our new ball coach. LFG!

I would hope that McCollum would reconsider now that Key has been selected but there may be more factors than just a head coach change. His decision may not even be related to football. These kids have a life outside being a football player. I do hope he decides to stay.

 

[4shotB]

1. This is an excellent financial hire.

I think that the handful of people who are angry at the hire don't understand budgets and constraints and are therefore directing their ire at Key as the scapegoat. If we should be angry with anyone, it's the previous administrations, both at the school level and the department level (GTAA) that have led us to our current position. I can and would understand and support those feelings. But given our financial realities, I could not be happier with this decision. I hope Key succeeds to the level that he is both wanted by the unlimited budget schools but we can then afford to keep him as well.