Georgia Tech Tosses Out A New Plan For The Team--Constantly Compete As Hard As You Can

Just four games into a 12 game season , Georgia Tech is looking to reorganize and regroup. And on Tuesday, Brent Key produced another term. Rebuild. That's a tall task anytime, let alone mid-season.

But the Yellow Jackets have gotten off to a terrible start, and have looked terrible doing so. Tough times call for tough measures.

Even their play in the one win over Mercer was suspect for stretches of time. Tech won that contest 44-11, but there was plenty to make Tech fans worry– a porous run defense, another blocked kick, and confoundingly poor communication on both sides of the ball.

Those same qualities were evident in their narrow loss to a bad Colorado team in week one, and again in their second half collapse vs. Stanford last week. To put it bluntly, they haven't played like we are accustomed to seeing a Brent Key-coached team play. And that part is the most concerning to Tech country, even beyond the actual wins and losses.

This is Key's fourth full season at the helm. He took over for Geoff Collins just four games into the 2022 season, coincidentally then with a 1-3 record. Key righted the ship to earn a 4-4 record over the final eight games . That .500 record as an interim doesn't look overly impressive until you consider that the Tech program at that point had not won more than three games in a single season since Paul Johnson's last campaign back in 2018.

From there, Key's team have shown solid improvement, with winning records each year. 7-6 in 2023, 7-6 again in 2024, and then 9-4 last season.

Steady improvement has been the recent Tech pattern, built on fundamental football– run the ball, stop the run, play tough in all phases and avoid silly mistakes.

This year, so far, while watching Key's charges perform, you could squint a little bit and see vestiges of 2019 again. Hard to watch. Lots of miscommunication, some outright confusion, variable effort, inexplicably poor play against weaker opponents, lack of focus.

And now, having lost two games that they should have won handily, Tech sits at 1-3 instead of 3-1, and they looking down the barrel of a long, sad season . Hence the rebuild remarks from the head coach.

This is new territory for Key. His no-nonsense approach to winning football games has bern coupled with teams that look and act the part. The steady improvement has shown evidence that Key's coaching works, and that continued improvement was a reasonable expectation. That expectation was fed by Key himself, who said through this past summer that he liked this team , and his coaches, and that they planned to use a run- first offense, and an attacking defense plus stellar special teams to win.

Instead, we have a 1-3 team that seems rudderless. After each loss Key has mentioned, with obvious frustration, the need for improvement, from players and coaches alike. But so far, results have not shown any significant change.

This week, Key himself said if he was a fan, he would be ".... pissed as hell" about Tech's performance.

Hard to disagree with that stance. And that's a shame too, since the school has gone to some lengths to re-engage the fan base, producing several sell-outs.

But Tech fans are savvy enough to grow frustrated with plans for improvement that bear no fruit. "Pissed as hell", might be extreme, but these STEM types will grow impatient with proclaimed changes that fail to bring a better result. They will find other avenues for entertainment if things don't improve soon– meaning winning some games.

So what can be done in the 13 days between the loss to Stanford and the kickoff with Duke on October 10 ?

That's not much time. Key says he will offer competition at every position, and he will reward effort and focus with playing time- without regard to seniority, reputation or standing.

That approach sounds appealing. The two new coordinators, Godsey on offense and Semore on defense, will be tasked with simplifying play calls and responsibilities ,with the expectation that better results will follow.

Only time will tell how much rebuilding can happen in two weeks. If he is successful in his efforts, Key and crew can still make a mark in the conference. They have seven ACC games to go. Obviously there is still time to take another positive step for this program.

But the rebuild will need to be thorough and expeditious. Either of those two challenges is difficult. Together they may be daunting. But that's not to say impossible.

Brent Key has surprised people in the not so distant past.

Patrick Conarro

RamblinSports.com