Brent Key's Work at Georgia Tech Continues to Be Overlooked in the Latest ACC Coach Rankings

New ACC power rankings for head coaches were released earlier this week by the well-respected national brand On3. Let’s just say they weren’t the most generous to the Yellow Jackets head coach, Brent Key. Key was ranked in the middle of the pack in the ACC, which has 17 teams.

NEW: ACC head football coach rankings📈

(via @AndyStaples) https://t.co/IYHLaNBqGo pic.twitter.com/FXPwgjrZlM
— On3 (@On3) June 17, 2026

Key came ranked at No.9 in the conference. He ranked behind Mario Cristobal, James Franklin, Dabo Swinney, Rhett Lashlee, Jeff Brohm, Manny Diaz, Pat Narduzzi, and Tony Ellio. We all know that Coach Key is a better coach than his ranking suggests.

Unfair ranking

In terms of accolades, Key hasn’t won an ACC conference championship yet, but neither has Lashlee, Brohm, Cristobal, Franklin (who just joined the conference), nor Elliot. Now, Cristobal has guided the Hurricanes to a national championship and established himself as one of the better coaches in the conference, alongside Dabo Swinney. You can also throw in Manny Diaz, who won an ACC title last year and has consistently won games at a high level.

Regardless, I think you have to put Coach Key in the top five at a minimum. He has beaten a lot of the coaches ahead of him in the conference. He beat Clemson and Dabo last year, and Cristobal the year before, when he had the No. 1 overall pick, Cam Ward, and handed them their first loss of the season. He also beat Cristobal in an improbable comeback on the road a few seasons ago. Key also beat Duke on the road last season and outcoached Manny Diaz.

Key hasn’t played Lashlee or Franklin yet. Among the conference elite, Key has beaten everyone except Brohm, the coach ranked ahead of him. He has a split 1-1 with Narduzzi at Pittsburgh. He beat Virginia Elliott back in 2023. I bring all that up to say that, yes, he may not have the accolades just yet to match the coaching elites in the conference, but he has won the big-time matchups, whether at home or on the road, against the best.

Entering his fourth full year with the program and with a number of elite matchups, Coach Key has the chance to put himself on an even bigger stage and prove yet again that he wins the big games. Key has a 5-1 record as an underdog in top 25 matchups and an overall 7-7 record in top 25 matchups. To put it simply, he wins those big games, especially as a non-favorite.

With major matchups against Tennessee, Georgia, Louisville, Virginia Tech, and Clemson, he will once again be in the spotlight to prove how elite a coach he is. Key is much better than the middle-of-the-pack coach. He has won games, developed NFL talent, turned around a bottom-dwelling program into a nationally recognized one, and produced an ACC player of the year.

The one part you have to respect about him, especially this year, is the way he doesn’t run from the big matchup. Of the 12 regular-season games, 11 are Power 4 opponents for the Yellow Jackets. While most wouldn’t fathom playing that kind of schedule, Key loves to see what his team is made of and to challenge them to see how they perform on those stages.

Coach Key deserves more respect for what he has accomplished in a short span as a head coach, including a winning record every season. 2026 could be the year that he puts it all together and gets the Yellow Jackets to the promised land. That should result in him getting more love nationally than he currently does.

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