Brent Key's Poor Offseason Choices Have Georgia Tech Trending In The Wrong Direction

I have gotten to see Brent Key do a lot of good things in his first three seasons at Georgia Tech. After the dark days of the Geoff Collins era, Key immediately made the team play better as an interim coach. After a 1-3 start to the season, and 1-11 looking like a real possibility, Key managed to pull off two ranked wins and get the team to 5-7, their best mark since 2018.

Key parlayed that into getting the full-time head coaching job at his alma mater and he proceeded to guide Georgia Tech to three consecutive bowl appearances. Not only that, but Georgia Tech has been the only program in the ACC over the past three seasons to finish in the top four of the conference standings. Just this time last season, Georgia Tech was ranked in the top ten and had a reasonable path to the College Football Playoff. His teams have played tough, physical football and always had a penchant for beating ranked ACC teams.

Everything since last November has been a disaster for the Yellow Jackets, though, and Key should get most of, if not all, the blame for where the program sits right now.

It should not be this bad

Brent Key Georgia Tech — Sep 26, 2026; Stanford, California, USA; Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets head coach Brent Key looks on before the game against the Stanford Cardinal at Stanford Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Sergio Estrada-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

After beating Virginia Tech to move to 8-0, Georgia Tech proceeded to lose four of its next five games. They lost by double digits on the road to an average NC State team, and then needed a field goal to beat a 2-10 Boston College team. It got worse in a win and in scenario against Pittsburgh. If the Yellow Jackets had won, they would have gone to the ACC Championship and had a shot at a playoff berth. Instead, they fell behind 28-0 in the first half and could not catch up. The season ended with losses to Georgia and BYU, leaving the Yellow Jackets with a 9-4 record, their best since 2016. It was a good season and seemingly a step forward, but fans were right to be upset about how things ended.

Then came a critical offseason for Key and the program and it is fair to say now that he failed it in every aspect.

Georgia Tech was losing a lot of veteran talent after the 2025 season, most notably Haynes King. King was the face of the rebuild for Georgia Tech under Key and was one of the most productive quarterbacks in program history, winning the 2025 ACC Player of the Year. King and a host of others were going to have to be replaced, and that job got a lot harder when offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner left to take the same position at Florida.

Faulkner took with him Aaron Philo (UF's starting QB), Bailey Stockton (UF's second leading receiver), Harrison Moore (UF's starting center), and Luke Harpring (UF's starting TE). All of those players would have been starters for Georgia Tech and players they could really use on this year's team.

It was not just the players that left for Florida, but Georgia Tech lost other young talent too, including Isiah Canion, who left to go play for rival Georgia. Canion has been injured this season, but the Yellow Jackets did not replace him well in the portal.

After all the talent that left, Faulkner (one of, if not the best offensive coordinators in the country) going to Gainesville, and Blake Gideon leaving to go back to Texas, Key was tasked with replacing both coordinators and nailing a transfer portal class to keep his program competitive in the ACC.

Poor hires

When you are the kind of head coach that Brent Key is, you have to nail your coordinator hires. Key is not a play caller, but does a good job with running a program, setting a good culture, and recruiting. Hiring coordinators is not an easy thing (ask Clemson), but you have to hit more than you miss and through his first three and a half seasons, there is no evidence that Key can pick good coordinators. Aside from choosing Faulkner back in 2023 (which he should get a lot of credit for), Key is on his fourth defensive coordinator in four years and his latest offensive coordinator hire has been a poor one.

The decision for Faulkner to leave was tough enough, but the decision that will haunt Key and could have made this a better season was if he had hired Chip Kelly to be the offensive coordinator instead of George Godsey.

NEW: Chip Kelly has interviewed for the open Georgia Tech offensive coordinator job, @PeteNakos reports👀

Intel: https://t.co/HnFxIzgjvW https://t.co/LQLguGfLiT pic.twitter.com/YoYIbHGHae
— On3 (@On3) December 11, 2025

Kelly has been a big reason for Northwestern having a 6-1 season and being in the College Football Playoff conversation. Their offense has been innovative and one of the hardest to stop in the Big Ten. This was the first real misstep for Key in the offseason.

Hiring Godsey did not make any sense at the time and it looks even worse now. He was a failed NFL coordinator who did not have long stints as a playcaller in the NFL and he had not coached in college since 2010. Not only that, Godsey had never called plays in college. He got the job because he was a former Yellow Jackets quarterback and because he was close friends with Key, that is plain to see now. Anyone with Godsey's resume would not have been considered for the job and replacing one of the best playcallers in the country with him was a disaster choice.

The Yellow Jackets offense has shown a little more life as of late, but they have been one of the worst in the ACC in nearly every major category. After having one of the hardest offenses in the country to stop, Georgia Tech has the exact opposite.

While Key should be given credit for hiring Faulkner, he has not been able to hire a defensive coordinator. The Andrew Thacker/Kevin Sherrer pairing was a mistake, Tyler Santucci was a decent hire, but left for the NFL, Gideon went back to Texas after one terrible season, and Jason Semore has not done any better.

The hiring of Semore made a bit more sense than Godsey, but it was also fair to say that he was probably not qualified for the job. Semore did a good job as linebackers coach for the Yellow Jackets in 2022, coaching Ace Eley and Charlie Thomas to strong seasons. He was a solid coordinator for Southern Miss and Marshall, having defenses that sacked the quarterback and created turnovers, two things Georgia Tech has not been able to do.

But Saturday's game was an embarrassing effort from Semore. It is fair to point out the injury situation that Georgia Tech's defense has been facing, but giving up 399 rushing yards to Boston College is incomprehensible. Whether it was Tennessee, Stanford, Duke, Virginia Tech, or Boston College, the Yellow Jackets defense has been one of the worst in the country.

We are only seven games into the season, but this is another poor hire for Key.

Another hire that looks poor right now and did not get as much criticism is Allen Mogridge as offensive line coach. After stints as the assistant O-Line coach for Georgia Tech and one season at App State, where the offensive lines were not very good, he was hired to replace Geep Wade.

The Yellow Jackets' offensive line has been nothing short of a disaster this season, and that might be the most disappointing thing about this team. Key has built his program based on strong offensive line play, and this has been the worst unit on the team. Mogridge was another questionable hire that has turned out poorly for Key and the program.

Poor personnel choices

Given the veteran talent that ran out of eligibility and the talent going out in the transfer portal, it was going to be tough for Key and his staff to replace everything and have Georgia Tech right back in the thick of things in the ACC. However, this has been a poor all-around transfer portal class for Georgia Tech.

QB Alberto Mendoza- One of the rare bright spots, though far from perfect. He has thrown for over 1,700 yards, 10 touchdowns, and six interceptions. He has been a downgrade from Key, but he has not been the problem. 78.5 overall grade at Pro Football Focus
RB Justice Haynes- Has 515 yards on the ground and four touchdowns. Has not been the star fans had hoped, but not a bad season. 79.5 overall grade on PFF
WR Jaiven Plummer- Six catches for 94 yards and three touchdowns. 67.0 PFF grade in 71 snaps.
WR Isaiah Fuhrmann-Perhaps the biggest disappointment of all. Six catches for 83 yards and a 51.8 overall PFF grade.
TE Chris Corbo- 13 catches for 121 yards and a 61.1 overall grade on PFF.
TE Gavin Harris- Four catches for 36 yards and a 53.3 PFF grade in 88 snaps. Was supposed to be a big receiving threat in this offense, but has battled injuries and been far from that.
TE Spencer Mermans- Mermans has a 44.8 overall grade in 69 snaps. He was touted as an eltie blocker, but has barely been able to get on the field.
OL Joseph Ionata- Ionata was highly-touted in the offseason, but has a 54.1 grade in over 350 snaps and has not been a good player.
OL Markell Samuel- 41.1 overall grade at PFF in 164 snaps.
OL Favour Edwin- Has not played this season
DL Tim Griffin- Has played three snaps this season
DT Tawfiq Thomas- The biggest portal win for Georgia Tech. He is one of the best run stopping tackles in the ACC and has been their best defensive player.
CB Jonas Duclona- Has only played 94 snaps this season
Taje McCoy- a 69.0 overall grade in over 300 snaps and has two sacks.
DE Jordan Walker- Battled injuries and only played 63 snaps
CB Jaylen Mbakwe- 65.2 overall grade in 298 snaps
Vincent Carroll-Jackson- 61.4 overall grade in 254 snaps

This has been an overall poor transfer portal class and Key has not shown the ability to evaluate and make good personnel choices on the defensive side of the ball.

Where we are now

When you are replacing as many coaches and players that Georgia Tech had to, a stepback season was not out of the question.

What has transpired this season on the field is something that nobody saw coming.

I was one that thought the ACC was weak enough and that Key had earned the benefit of the doubt when it came to personnel choices. I predicted this team to go 8-4 and be in the mix to go to Charlotte. Given how the ACC looks right now, that was not a crazy assumption, but I did not give enough thought to things I did not think went well this offseason.

Fast forward to now, Georgia Tech is 2-5 and going to be an underdog in every remaining game this sesaon. They have losses to Colorado, Stanford, and Boston College, three games that Georgia Tech should not be losing in year four of the Brent Key era. Even if this was a step back season, those are three teams that should not be able to beat you if your program is in healthy shape, even in this crazy, upset filled era of college football.

Dating back to last season, Georgia Tech is 3-9 in their last 12 games and one of their wins is a victory over Mercer, an FCS program. When asked on Saturday about his team's performance, Key did not give an answer that inspires confidence:

"Yeah, it does. I mean, it's, you know, it's most bewildering is the word. But, no, it is. I mean, just everything. Everything from the point of going out and being able to execute. And, look, it doesn't matter if you have a good week of practice. I thought we had a good week of practice. I thought we had a really good end to the week of practice. And you go out there and you don't execute. And when I say execute, I'm talking about everyone. Everyone. All of our jobs are to go out there to coach, to adjust, to correct and put players to play, all those things.

And that's where I'm really holding off of saying exactly where it's at because what I don't want to do is get up here and talk about the execution of it and you've got guys playing and they were in the position they were supposed to be in but they weren't the right call. Does that make sense? And vice versa. So I'm going to be very – I'm going to stay very generic with that part because I know what I saw on the field. But when you're looking at something like this, guys, it's that embarrassing of a loss. I want to be very careful with the words I choose and how I address this."

What happens next?

We will see if Georgia Tech is able to scrap together anything over the next five games, but a 2-10 season looks likely.

Another troublesome thing for Georgia Tech is how good that Buster Faulkner has done at Florida. Were Faulkner and Haynes King more reasons for Georgia Tech's success from 2023-2025 than Key? It sounds harsh, but it is something that every Yellow Jackets fan is wondering. If the answer is yes, that makes things difficult for the future.

This program looked to be ascending just 12 months ago, but a poor end to the 2025 season, poor coordinator and coaching hires from Key, and poor personnel choices in the transfer portal have this team staring down a very disappointing season.

A step back after a strong 2025 season was possible, but Brent Key's poor decision making this past offseason has this program heading in the wrong direction and the embarrassment against Boston College shows it.

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