When Tech fired Geoff Collins after four games of the 2022 season, the excitement around Jackets football sat close to an all-time minimum. Collins had finished the previous season three and nine, which featured consecutive shutouts against Notre Dame and u[sic]GA to close the season. Bobby Dodd looked empty, and students and alumni had lost hope.
Then, enter Brent Key. At the time the assistant head coach and offensive line coach, Key received the call to step into the interim role following the firing of Collins. As a four-year starter at Tech here in the late nineties, he jumped at the opportunity to lead his alma mater onto the field. Ever since Key took over the role, the program’s attitude and the fans’ attitudes have changed. Key made an immediate impact, knocking off multiple ranked opponents during his interim tenure, and after being promoted to full-time head coach, he finished the last two years with consecutive multiple winning seasons for the first time since 2013-2014. Included in these two winning seasons are amazing memories like multiple field storms (2023 University of North Carolina, 2024 University of Miami) and a top ten victory against Florida State University in Dublin.
Entering this year, the Jackets’ momentum has only increased. For the first time since 2014, Tech started the 2025 season 4-0, which included a field-storming victory over number 12 ranked Clemson. But how did Key transform a team that sat at the bottom of the ACC into a College Football Playoff contender in just three years, and what are the Jackets’ mentality for the rest of the season?
Following the 2025 win against Clemson, Key spoke to the media about one of the core values that he instills in his team: toughness.
“You know, when you start building a program and you build your foundation in toughness, that’s not an easy thing to do. I mean, toughness is a mental aspect to the way you approach every day,” Key said.
Key’s tough, hard-nosed style of football is one of the most important reasons his team is 7-1 against ranked ACC opponents. Knowing these values, it makes sense why Tech decided to pursue Texas A&M redshirt sophomore quarterback Haynes King in the transfer portal following the 2022 season. Winner of the Aggies’ toughness award and offensive attitude award, King fit the traits of someone Key wanted to lead the Jackets going forward. It is impossible to build a program with toughness without a quarterback who would be willing to do anything for his team to win.
While King may not have the arm of a first round NFL draft pick, he has the grit and mentality of a winner, a trait that is very difficult to coach. Over summer camp, King admitted that he chose to sleep inside Bobby Dodd to focus on the task at hand — making the team better. He shows his toughness every game as he runs and takes hit after hit and gets back up to play even harder. He rushed for over 150 yards in the opener against Colorado and over 100 against Clemson, including the late go-ahead touchdown. Specifically on that touchdown run, King initially got hit at the two yard line by a Clemson defender, but lowered his shoulder, kept his feet moving and lunged into the end zone for the touchdown. King’s dedication and determination mimics the toughness that Key preaches every single day, and proves why King’s leadership is crucial to Tech’s success.
This desire to always improve fit the qualities of a “Tech man,” a culture that Key preaches both on and off the football field. Being a Tech man begins with the Institute motto “Progress and Service.” While this motto is typically applied to innovative work done in a research lab, it also applies to the football team.
Since Key took over the reins, fans have seen the “Tech man’ mentality on the field each weekend at Bobby Dodd off the field. In the past three semesters, tTech’s football team average GPA has been above 3.0. Also, programs like the Total Person Program, a student-athlete developmental program pioneered by former Tech athletic director Homer Rice, set up Tech for future success by giving them access to career development and leadership resources.
In a world with Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) and revenue sharing, one aspect of Tech that stands out among the rest are these world class academic and career development programs. When the program can pair a top-tier education with a chance to win an ACC Championship, it allows them to pitch a perfect package to recruits.
While Tech currently sits in one of the better spots in the last decade, Key stresses to his team the danger of complacency. Athletes have to play their best every game, no matter the stage or the opponent. Key teaches his players at Tech similar values to what he saw Nick Saban preach while Key was the offensive line coach at University of Alabama. One of the lessons he stresses details the danger of taking the foot off the pedal.
“Coach Saban used to tell us more people die on the way down from Mount Everest than on the way up and you can’t relax,” Key said in a press conference earlier last week.
While Tech may not have hit “Mount Everest” yet, the grim analogy of what it takes to be the best is a constant message for Key’s team as the Jackets continue to rise the ranks of the Associated Press (AP) Poll. Following a 45-21 win over Temple, Tech sits at 16 in the AP Poll and 17 in the Coaches Poll. On paper, Tech’s schedule looks promising, with Tech likely to be favored in every remaining game until u[sic]ga, but King and the rest of the team know the task at hand.
“We’re not done yet, we’re not even anywhere close to where we need to be,” King said following the Clemson win.
Going forward the eyes remain on the prize of an ACC Championship and College Football Playoff berth, but Key stresses to the team the importance of staying in the present and working week by week. Coming into the Temple game this past week, Key explained his goals and expectations for the rest of the season to the media.
“You can’t relax. You have to be just as prepared every single week. There is no crescendo or top…. As long as we keep our heads in the right place and stay focused, I think other things will take care of themselves,” Key said.