Brent Key on Georgia Tech football: ‘We got work to do’

“Yeah, I get it, we’re all judged by wins and losses, but when you put everything together the right way, those become a byproduct of having everything in the right place and the kids all believing the same thing and the staff all believing the same thing.”

Tech’s 2025 season will be defined as much by its 8-0 start as it will be by its flame out at the end. Saturday’s loss was the Jackets third in a row (that had never happened with Key as coach) and fourth defeat in the year’s final five games.

Even with nine wins, the program’s most since in a season 2016, the way the last two months unfolded signified Tech is still a long way away from competing for championships.

“We got work to do,” Key said. “We gotta make sure we have the best roster we can possibly have, have the best staff we can possibly have. It’ll be here fast. As quick as this season went, the next one will be here, and we gotta continue with the identity that these guys have built. We’re rolling into the next one and we got a lot of work to do.”

The next eight months will be a period of transition for the Tech program. Offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner has moved on to Florida, running backs coach Norval McKenzie left for Virginia Tech and offensive line coach Geep Wade is now at Nebraska. Backup quarterback Aaron Philo left the team earlier this month and plans to transfer.

Quarterback Haynes King, a three-year starter who finished 10th in Heisman Trophy voting, played his final game Saturday, as did running back Jamal Haynes, wide receiver Malik Rutherford and guards Joe Fusile and Keylan Rutledge.

Defensively, Tech loses safeties Clayton Powell-Lee and Omar Daniels, cornerbacks Ahmari Harvey and Rodney Shelley and defensive tackles Jordan van den Berg and Jason Moore, among many others.

Those players had been major factors in Tech’s turnaround from a program that had four straight losing seasons from 2019-22 and back-to-back 7-6 campaigns before 2025.

“I’ve been here four years, when coach Key first got the interim job, and it’s just been an uphill battle,” Shelley said. “Battling a lot of coaching changes, a lot of things that go into that, a lot of transfers, meeting new guys. I just feel like you have to adapt to it, you have to keep driving, keep pushing and I feel like our team every year has came together and took that into account and did what they had to do.”

The NCAA’s transfer portal officially opens Friday and it’s likely a healthy number of Jackets will enter their names as the first step to playing elsewhere next season. Key and staff, conversely, will be scouring free agency in hopes of strengthening the roster for next season, Key’s fourth as the coach of his alma mater.

Key also has to hire his next offensive coordinator, a decision which will likely be made in the coming days. That decision, coupled with the signing of players who can take Tech football into the next echelon, will dictate if Tech will take the next step in 2026 of making an ACC championship game, or even the College Football Playoff.

“They just have to build,” Shelley said of Tech moving forward. “Keep putting the pieces together and build. Stay consistent. Have that will to come in every day and just do what you need to do.”

Said Rutherford on the program’s future: “The guys, they see how we come in every day and prepare ourselves to come out there and win games. Coach Key, I know he gonna coach them hard” next year.