This feels like the right hire. It mightn’t feel that way five years from now, but we’re not living in 2027. We’re living at a time when Georgia Tech is trying to correct the biggest wrong in Institute annals. Brent Key feels like the right place to start.
He’s an alum. That’s major. He wants the job, which is, too. Geoff Collins drove the Yellow Jackets so far into the ditch that extricating them figured to take years if not decades. As interim coach, Key gave a mighty tug. He won four games in eight tries. Collins won 10 in 38. Collins is home counting his Waffle House coffee cups. Key gets to try and fix what the master marketer broke, which was an entire program.
Collins acted as if he’d inherited Tech at its all-time low. On that as on everything, he was wrong. Over Paul Johnson’s final three seasons, the Jackets were 21-16 overall, 13-11 in ACC play – not anywhere near great, but not awful. Johnson’s successor disavowed all he inherited, even the good parts. Of Collins’ 28 losses, nine were by 30-plus points. Over two games against Georgia, his Jackets were outscored 97-7.
