Georgia Tech football’s offseason overhaul ongoing

After winning 27 games in his first three-plus seasons at his alma mater, Key forges ahead into a new era of Tech football, one that will be defined by the hires and player acquisitions he has made over the past four weeks.

Key hired George Godsey to be the offensive coordinator, arguably the biggest offseason move for Tech. Godsey fills the role left vacant by Buster Faulkner, who left to be the offensive coordinator at Florida.

Godsey has not been an offensive coordinator since he held that position in 2015 and 2016 with the Houston Texans in the NFL. The former Tech quarterback has never been an OC at the collegiate level and hasn’t coached in college since 2010 at Central Florida.

Key drove home the point this offseason that Tech’s offense likely won’t change much no matter who the team’s offensive coordinator is, saying on 680 The Fan in December, “The next person that comes in, you’re not changing the name of this or that. I don’t care what this formation’s called to one person — there’s 165 people in this building that know it is ‘double’ or ‘train’ or whatever. One person doesn’t bring something in. This is our offense. This is the collective efforts of 3½ years now. And that’s not changing.”

Who will be making plays for Tech’s offense, however, has already changed dramatically.

Backup quarterback Aaron Philo (the presumed starter for the ’26 season), wide receivers Isiah Canion and Bailey Stockton, tight end Luke Harpring and center Harrison Moore are some of the key Jackets who all opted to transfer. Quarterback Haynes King, running back Jamal Haynes, wide receiver Malik Rutherford and guards Keylan Rutledge and Joe Fusile are among the Jackets who graduated.

But Key is bringing in stud running back Justice Haynes, two tight ends from the Ivy League and three Power Four conference offensive linemen. Tech has yet receive a transfer commitment from a quarterback or a wide receiver (although Alabama’s Jaylen Mbakwe can play both offense and defense).

“We build the offense around the personnel we have. I think we have a really, really strong offensive line next year. I think we have a strong stable of running backs. We’re gonna have a strong group of receivers. We have to add to some of the spots at the tight end position. And we’ll have the best quarterback out there that makes sense for us,” Key told 680 The Fan.

“The identity of this football team is not changing. And that doesn’t mean you run it 70 times or throw it 70 times. There’s an identity we worked our asses off to build for the last going on four years now. Somebody’s not gonna come in and bring their own identity in here. That ain’t changing. They’re gonna be the person that fits this and can elevate us schematically, game plan-wise, adjustment-wise during the game, so we can elevate the entire program.”

On defense, Jason Semore has become the program’s fifth defensive coordinator since Key took over the program as the interim coach in 2022. And like Godsey, Semore will have a bevy of new players to try to mold into a much better unit than what his predecessor, Blake Gideon, finished with in 2025.

Safeties Clayton Powell-Lee and Omar Daniels, cornerback Ahmari Harvey, defensive back Rodney Shelley and linemen Jordan van den Berg, Akelo Stone, Ronald Triplette, Jason Moore and Matthew Alexander all exhausted their eligibility. Linebacker Tah’j Butler has been Tech’s biggest defensive loss to the transfer portal.

Key was active in free agency on the defense, though, grabbing Mbakwe, linebackers Taje McCoy (Oklahoma State) and Noah Carter (Alabama) and three defensive linemen.

The 2026 Jackets make their debut Sept. 5 at Bobby Dodd Stadium when they host Colorado in a rematch of the 2025 season opener. With eight months from kickoff, the team is still not a finished product (Key still has to hire a linebackers coach and wide receivers coach, and is expected to add more pieces to the roster), and it may not be a finished product until the team arrives for preseason camp in summer.

Not a problem for Key, he said.

“I enjoy every minute of the build,” Key said. “The architecture of it — whether it be the staff, the program, the roster, the game plan during the week — that’s the most fun. The byproduct that occurs on Saturday, the game, that is a culmination of all those other pieces coming together. We can’t control what the outcome is, but I can control how we build it and how we put it together. That’s what’s fun for me.”

Transfer portal moves

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