ATLANTA – For 16 seconds, with his eyes welled with tears, Brent Key sat in front of the media at Sanford Stadium and said one thing last Nov. 29.
“It’s tough.”
That’s all he could manage after the emotions of an eight-overtime game that left Georgia Tech on the short end of a 44-42 score against rival Georgia.
Last Saturday, he stood in front of the media after Georgia Tech saw a chance at an ACC Championship Game berth essentially evaporate in a 42-28 loss to Pittsburgh. There was a tear stain on his right cheek as he explained a loss is a loss, that his team was never going to get that day back. Once again, the emotions were front and center.
Key and No. 23 Georgia Tech (9-2) get a shot to wash some of the sting away from the Pitt loss and gain a measure of revenge for last season’s excruciating affair with No. 4 Georgia (10-1) on Black Friday, when the Yellow Jackets renew their Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate rivalry at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
Every coach cares about every game. But there is no doubt this one means more to Key.
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Brent Key's George O’Leary, Nick Saban coaching tree
Toughness is a word that has been tied to the Georgia Tech program since Key took over first as interim coach and then full-time coach during the 2022 season. The Yellow Jackets have completed the years-long offensive overhaul needed to transition away from Paul Johnson’s triple-option offense, but still believe in a ground-heavy attack. Keys’ offensive lines, the position he played from 1998-2001 on the Flats, have been up to the challenge and play with a physical edge that mirrors their coach’s philosophy of how the game should be played.
Before returning to Georgia Tech as O-line coach in 2019 under Geoff Collins, Key had spent almost his entire coaching career under two men – his college coach George O’Leary and Alabama legend Nick Saban.
“The roots of their programs were rooted in the same concepts and beliefs,” Key told AllSportsPeople in his office overlooking Bobby Dodd Stadium. “Different coaches, but the same demanding personality style.”
Key worked for O’Leary at UCF from 2005-2015, gradually moving up the ranks from graduate assistant to eventually associate head coach/offensive coordinator. One of the most difficult aspects of the job was what were called ‘clinics’, where coaches would present their installs in front of the group before spring practice. The other coaches in the room would pepper the coaches with questions, not so much to question the philosophy but to reinforce the coach’s belief in what they were presenting.
George Godsey, Key’s quarterback from his playing days, was also on that UCF staff at the time and echoed the demands, and the benefits, of that particular exercise.
“That’s really the foundation of being a coach, to build a system of rules for your players that sustain every different look,” said Godsey, who has been an NFL assistant coach for the past 15 years and is currently the tight ends coach with the Baltimore Ravens. “That process is really how you build anything that you're doing. Not everybody gets a chance to go through that grind.”
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Key said in his early days at UCF under O’Leary, the head coach asked him in a staff meeting where a particular player was. Key assumed he was in class. O’Leary wanted to know what class, and how the player was doing. It was a mistake Key would not make twice.
“I made a three-ring binder, and one of the sections was class schedules,” Key said. “So I had every player's class schedule in there, where they were at that time, every one of their grades in the class. You were expected to know.”
O’Leary gave Key more and more responsibility as the seasons passed and UCF built a solid program.
“I never want to be around the ‘yes’ guys,” O’Leary told SN. “They used to drive me nuts. Brent wasn't a ‘yes’ guy, but he's a very loyal guy. If he saw a problem that he thought we could (solve and) win more games, he'd come in and see me, and I respected that. And I think that's what led to the friendship.”
Key was considering pursuing some NFL jobs after leaving UCF, but had made an impression on Saban after an interview years earlier and wound up heading to Tuscaloosa.
During Key’s three years at Alabama from 2016-18, the Crimson Tide played in three national championship games, winning one. The Saban Machine was in peak form, and Key tried to soak up everything he could.
On the advice of former Florida coach Billy Napier, who was on the Alabama staff in 2016, Key started taking notes on everything that happened on a daily basis within the Alabama program. He has notebooks filled with his hand-written notes, and pulled some out from the 2017 preseason to show SN. There were observations from a practice that included a young true freshman running back named Najee Harris.
Key says he refers back to those notes mostly to see how Saban handled player issues that arose and the psychology of leading the program more than just the daily practice ideas. Key said constant evaluation of players’ and situational football were two of the Saban staples, and he has continued those at Georgia Tech.
"There's a lot of secret sauce in Brent Key that people don't realize on the surface because they see the guy with the cutoff sleeves on the hoodie, the state trooper sunglasses and the hat" said Wes Durham, who was Georgia Tech’s radio announcer during Key’s playing days and a prominent voice with the ACC Network now. "He looks exactly like he did, as a player. He's an offensive lineman, and now he's the head coach. But here's the thing -- he's emotional, he has no filter. He might be raw to some people just with the way he does certain things. But that's what it takes at Georgia Tech."
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Brent Key connects with his players
Key is still close with his high school coach Jack Wood, whom he played for in the mid-1990s at Hewitt-Trussville High School just outside of Birmingham, Ala. Wood coached there for 19 years and now serves as the President of the High School Football Coaches Association in Alabama.
Wood was at Key’s introductory press conference at Georgia Tech and has been mentioned several times by Key as one of the key figures in his football journey.
“He, I mean, shoot, you know, brought me to tears more than once at his press conference,” Wood told SN. “Brent, you know, really didn't have a father in his life. Mother was a school teacher. Great lady. Our coaches had a little more influence with him than maybe others in that case. I'm just proud of the type of man he is and how he represents himself, his school and his family, no doubt.”
Key’s relationship with Wood set the foundation for how he relates to his players. The Yellow Jackets are coached hard and their practices are physical, but there is an emotion to Key that comes through. He calls himself a players’ coach, but it has to be the right kind of player. Key says they need to want discipline, routine and structure.
“You might fool your boosters and your administration, your assistant coaches, but you don't fool the players,” Wood said. “As long as they know you care about them, you can be as rough as you want, but you know you're not gonna fool them. He cares about them and they know that.”
Key has an incredibly tight bond with his quarterback Haynes King, who has started for three years at Georgia Tech and has helped the program earn its highest national ranking since 2009. King is the type of tough, physical quarterback that is perfect for the personality Key wants to imprint on his team. When King willed Georgia Tech to a last-second win against Clemson earlier this season, taking a pounding while running time and again to set up the winning field goal, Key couldn’t help but get emotional after the game.
“It feels like an extension of me,” Key said after the 24-21 win. “I feel like I’m playing quarterback on the field.”
Georgia Tech will always be a big piece of Brent Key
During Georgia Tech’s November off week, Key was part of a clip that quickly circulated in college football social media circles. He was asked how he addresses his team about rumors that he would be a candidate at the numerous Power 4 jobs that are open.
“Slice me open and see what colors I bleed,” he said.
Georgia Tech head coach Brent Key had a strong response today when asked about his name circulating as a potential candidate for the open head coaching jobs 🐝
— CFB Kings (@CFBKings) November 6, 2025
“Slice me open and see what colors I bleed.” Pic.twitter.com/UkEx24AoAS
Key didn’t set a personal goal when he graduated from Georgia Tech to one day be its head coach. In fact, he dabbled in commercial real estate after serving as a Georgia Tech graduate assistant before realizing putting on nice shoes and a tie every day was not for him (he prefers a hoodie with cutoff sleeves). He was once the head- coach-in-waiting at UCF, and then he considered the NFL route when that did not work out in Orlando.
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But after he went to Tuscaloosa for three years and had an opportunity to return to Georgia Tech under new coach Geoff Collins in 2019, Key jumped at the chance. His career as a four-year starter at guard saw the Jackets go 34-14, make four bowls and finish in the AP Top 25 all four years. Notably, he won his final three games against Georgia.
“That game means a lot to him,” Durham said. “When you win it, you know what it means to win. And he won it three times. It's a whole different deal.”
Godsey said Key’s experience at Georgia Tech is one of the most important aspects of being able to relate to today’s players.
“He knows exactly what they are going through day-to-day,” Godsey said. “He’s given so much to everybody who's been there as a teammate and as a player. We put a lot of time into that institution and for those colors. I think Brent wears that on his heart.”
On Monday, Key talked about how the Georgia game means more to him, how it is a showcase for high school football in Georgia since so many Bulldogs and Yellow Jackets stay in state. And while last year's marathon was bitterly fought to the last play, there were no fisticuffs, flag planting or other postgame lowlights between the winners and losers.
"The hardest players play is against people you know the best, because its like two brothers fighting," Key said. "You know they are going to go at it, but after the game, there's still going to be that respect for each other."
There is plenty of respect for Key inside and outside the Georgia Tech program after three straight bowl seasons, and he isn't about to change the approach learned from O'Leary and Saban and the hard work that it has taken to revive his program.
"He hasn't changed his stripes one bit since I've known him," said Godsey, who was hosted on his recruiting visit by Key over 25 years ago. "All you can ask for from a friend, from a coach, from a colleague, is consistency. When you see Brent Key, you get consistency every day, whether it's on the field or, or off the field. He's gonna give every minute of dedication to whatever the task is at hand."