Georgia Tech’s season has reached the point where the conversation is no longer about fixing one game or one unit. It’s about whether Brent Key should make a move now, with three weeks left, or wait until the offseason to clean up a staff that hasn’t delivered.
That debate has only gotten louder around college football in recent days. Michigan fired offensive coordinator Jason Beck just yesterday, and Ohio State, Oklahoma, and Purdue have also made changes in recent weeks. Oklahoma’s move on Ben Arbuckle was followed by a road win at Florida one week later, a reminder that a coordinator shakeup can sometimes jolt a team back to life.
For Georgia Tech, though, the issue goes deeper than one bad stretch. Dating back to last November, the Yellow Jackets are 3-11, and one of those wins came against Mercer, an FBS opponent. By any reasonable measure, they’ve been the weakest Power Four team over that span.
This season has only sharpened that reality. The offseason hires Key made have not worked out.
George Godsey has not matched the success Buster Faulkner had, the running game has vanished, and the offensive line has become a mess. What looked promising at quarterback has fallen apart, too.
Against Louisville on Saturday, Georgia Tech cycled between Alberto Mendoza and Grady Adamson, and it didn’t solve anything.
The defense has been even uglier. Jason Semore’s group has been a disaster, and after nine games the numbers have been as bad as the eye test suggests. It is not an exaggeration to say that Georgia Tech’s defense has not been good at anything this season.
Those hires drew criticism when they were made, and the results have only made that criticism look sharper. Still, Key has not sounded eager to make a midseason change. After the 44-17 loss to Louisville, he stuck to that stance.
"I'm not going to say I can give you the politically correct answer. Timing. is right in that, I don't want to say too many things, the wrong thing or too many things, but look, to be able to work towards putting game plans together, but also working on what this program needs, right, to put your finger on it.
And look, I meet with players all the time. That's part of what we do.
And that's my job. My job is to establish the culture of the team and the accountability in the team, to maintain the discipline of the team, okay?
And then everyone else's job is to follow along with that, right, follow in line."
He was also asked whether he had moved too fast on any decisions this offseason, and his answer pointed back to the same theme: find the real problem before making a change.
"The first thing to work to change something is to dig in and figure out the root problem. Because when things like this occur, it's very easy to say.
The first thing is, root problem. The first thing is, well, why?
Why does this happen? And then to be put on the spot, it's very easy for somebody to just say something.
Well, now that becomes the gospel. To do the due diligence and to do it the right way, you can't succumb to an easy answer.
You've got to dig into this and really find out why. Because when there's a commitment to change something, you've got to get all the information.
Look, I've been meeting with players and staff. nonstop really for a long time to figure out what the issues are. A lot of times they're not just blindly in front of you.
That's why I said I have a pretty good grasp of what the issues are. But that's some of it.
Yeah, definitely. I'm never going to sit up here and make an excuse.
I'm going to take the bullets for all of it. That's my job.
That's what a head coach does. That's what a leader does.
But how do things spin so 180 so quick? There's factors that go into it."
There’s a case to be made either way. On one side, both coordinator units have been so poor that it’s fair to wonder if a change couldn’t at least shake something loose.
On offense, Chris Weinke is already in the building as quarterbacks coach, and he called plays in the bowl game against BYU. On defense, it’s hard to imagine the results getting much worse.
But there’s also the reality of the schedule. Georgia Tech is 2-7, out of bowl contention, and staring at Clemson, Wake Forest, and Georgia. They’ll be heavy underdogs in all three, and it would be a major surprise if they won any of them or even stayed close, regardless of who is calling plays.
That’s why a midseason move feels unlikely to change much. Godsey and Semore have not justified their hires, but with only three games left, the odds of any switch altering the outcomes look slim. Maybe Key sees it differently before Clemson, or maybe he waits until after the season.
Either way, this is shaping up to be a huge offseason for Georgia Tech. Key will have to sort through what went wrong and decide how much of it needs to be torn down and rebuilt. The question now is whether that process starts before the season ends.
In Other News...
Georgia Tech's Season Just Took A Turn Fans Feared
Georgia Techs latest setback arrived in the form of another lopsided loss to Louisville, a result that leaves the Yellow Jackets staring at a finish they have spent much of the season trying to avoid. What had once looked like a path back to postseason relevance has narrowed sharply, and the margin for error is gone with just a few games left to play.
The schedule does not offer much relief from here, either. Clemson already locked up bowl eligibility by beating Syracuse and now turns its attention to Georgia Tech, while Wake Forest and Georgia are still ahead on the calendar as the Yellow Jackets try to salvage something from the final stretch. Around the league, NC States reported plan to hire former quarterback Philip Rivers as head coach adds another layer to a busy week in the ACC, but for Georgia Tech the focus is much simpler: stop the slide before the season slips any further. [Read more 🡒]
Georgia Tech Faces A Huge Defensive Choice Brent Key Can't Miss
Georgia Techs defensive reset is already underway after the program parted ways with Jason Semore, and Brent Key now has a major staffing decision to make as the Yellow Jackets look ahead. The search is expected to draw a range of names, with Iowas Kirk Ferentz, Indianas Kane Wommack and UCLAs Bill Hitschler all discussed as possible fits, each bringing a different kind of background and defensive pedigree to the table.
For now, the immediate task is keeping the unit steady through the rest of the season, with an interim coordinator in place to handle the defense on game day. But the bigger question is what Key wants this next hire to represent, whether that means leaning on a veteran with a long track record, a younger rising coach with recent momentum or someone whose defensive work has already earned respect in another Power Four setting. [Read more 🡒]
Brian Kelly Just Challenged A Georgia Standard Fans Know Well
Brian Kelly took aim at a Georgia standard that has defined the program for years, arguing the Bulldogs no longer have the same ability to put teams away the way past editions did. The former Notre Dame and LSU coach pointed to Georgias recent work against Florida as evidence, a sharp critique of a team that has built its reputation on wearing opponents down and finishing with authority.
Georgias response came in a dominant win at Ole Miss, where the Bulldogs looked sharp on both sides of the ball and reminded everyone how quickly they can flip a narrative. Even so, the season has not been entirely smooth in tight moments, and with Missouri next on the schedule, the question is whether Georgia can keep turning those close-game concerns into the kind of decisive finishes Kelly said have been missing. [Read more 🡒]