Brent Key’s Culture and Foundation Will Keep Georgia Tech Competitive In The ACC Despite Heavy Turnover

At the forefront of any roster change or coaching turnover, you always look at the head coach to discern if he was a factor in it. There are two ways to look at the coin. On one hand, you can say the coaches left for better opportunities and that comes with winning at a program which coach Key has done. We saw this a lot in the Nick Saban era at Alabama, where coaches would leave for other opportunities consistently every year in hopes of being a head coach. Coach Key has had a winning record every season Key has been the permanent head coach. He was 7-6 in 2023, 7-6 in 2024, and 9-4 in 2025. You can see the growth of the team.

On the other side of the coin, you can see a coach that demands excellence and the best of the best. Sometimes that leads you to move on from certain assistant coaches and try to look in a different direction to get the most out of your team.

Despite all the changes, the culture and foundation remain intact. Now, what is that culture or foundation? It is smash mouth football. Winning the line of scrimmage on every down and dominating your opponent from start to finish. We have seen this apparent in the revival of the Clean-Old-Fashioned Hate series. Despite the Bulldogs winning the last eight matchups, you can see a changing of the guard and the Yellow Jackets being very physical with a national contender each time they play. The best example is in 2024 when they went to eight overtimes to decide a victor.

We have also seen in this in prime ACC games. You can go back to 2024 when the Yellow Jackets went up against Florida State in Ireland and pulled off the comeback victory. Miami is another example where the Yellow Jackets pulled off the improbable upset against the eventual No.1 overall pick in Cam Ward and handed the Hurricanes their first loss of the season in the same year. The other was last year when you saw Georgia Tech dominate the trenches against a defensive line full of NFL talent to win a thriller at home against rival Clemson. The DNA is there for Coach Key, and it doesn’t matter who the assistant coaches are. As long as he is at the helm as the head coach, it is not changing.

The moves in the offseason embody that. Going to add three offensive linemen from the portal in Markell Samuel, Favour Edwin and Joseph Ionata to bolster the offensive trenches. The acquisition of Justice Haynes proves that Coach Key wants to run the football at a high level. In a sense, it is bully ball, and the Yellow Jackets want to be known as a bully. They certainly will if their offensive line plays at the same level they did in 2025.

On defense, the Yellow Jackets invested heavily in the defensively line to solve some of their woes in stopping the run and getting pressure on the quarterback. Coach Key was serious here with the number of players they added on the defensive line alone in the 2026 cycle. The Ramblin Wreck added six guys to bolster the defensive line. Those names include Tawfiq Thomas, Vincent Carroll-Jackson, Taje McCoy, Jordan Walker, Tim Griffin, and Noah Carter. This is another part of the foundation that Coach Key is looking to get stronger and play at a more optimal level. With the acquisitions and the core of players returning, he should have a very physical and stout defensive line in 2026.

Despite all the changes and turnover, one thing remains the same for the Yellow Jackets, and it is being a physical football team that takes it to you over and over again. They kind of resemble the Miami Hurricanes and Mario Cristobal in what they did to turn around their program and be in the national spotlight. They built from within the trenches on both sides of the ball and made the other acquisitions necessary to complete the team. It feels like Coach Key has that same formula, and it should pay dividends soon enough.

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