What Grade Does Georgia Tech Deserve For Its 2025 Season?

Georgia Tech won nine games this season, but faltered down the stretch and missed the ACC Championship game as well as the College Football Playoff. What kind of grade should they receiver for this season?

Nov 28, 2025; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets head coach Brent Key on the sideline against the Georgia Bulldogs in the third quarter at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-Imagn Images | Brett Davis-Imagn Images

When looking at the 2025 Georgia Tech season, there are a couple of different ways to view it.

On one hand, this team finished the regular season 9-3, improving on their win total from the previous two seasons under Brent Key and winning the most games in a regular season since 2014, when they went 10-2. If the Yellow Jackets can beat BYU in the Pop Tarts Bowl, it will be the first time that they have had a double-digit win season since that 2014 season, and they will finish the season ranked. Quarterback Haynes King finished in the top ten of the Heisman Trophy voting as well. The Yellow Jackets beat Clemson for the first time in over a decade and played another one-score game vs Georgia. It has been a great season by a lot of standards.

However, you can make the case that Georgia Tech also had a major missed opportunity.

Georgia Tech began the season 8-0 and rose to the top ten of the national polls. However, they lost three of their last four games, including a home game to Pittsburgh. With a win against the Panthers, Georgia Tech would have punched a ticket to the ACC Championship where they could have had a chance to earn their way to the College Football Playoff. Instead, Pitt raced out to a 28-0 lead and held on for a win.

While playing Georgia close again is noteworthy, at some point Georgia Tech would love to win a game in this rivalry and snap this long losing streak to the Bulldogs. While the defense was not elite by any means in the early part of the season, they collapsed in November, particularly in losses to NC State and Pitt as well as the win over Boston College.

This had a chance to be a really special season for Georgia Tech, but it will have to settle for being pretty good, which is still not a bad accomplishment for Brent Key in his third full season as the head coach for the Yellow Jackets.

What grade do they deserve?

Nov 28, 2025; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets quarterback Haynes King (10) runs the ball against the Georgia Bulldogs in the first quarter at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-Imagn Images | Brett Davis-Imagn Images

Given everything that I laid out above, what kind of grade should Georgia Tech get for the season that they had? According to CBS Sports CFB analyst Chip Patterson, the Yellow Jackets get a "B":

"The Yellow Jackets were on the cusp of a historic season, racing out to an 8-0 start with favorable matchups the rest of the way and jump-starting the conversation of a potential College Football Playoff appearance. But then the Yellow Jackets lost three of four and landed with a bid to the Pop-Tarts Bowl instead. The biggest issue here would be the defense, which gave up 48 and 42 points in the two conference losses that cost the Yellow Jackets a shot to play for the ACC championship and, in turn, a shot at the CFP as well. Grade: B"

I think a B is perfectly fair. Again, there are plenty of high points for this season, but there will be some wondering what could have been if things had gone a little differently in the month of November.

Georgia Tech will wrap up its season on December 27th in the Pop Tarts Bowl vs No. 12 BYU.