Brent Key
Fixed Ramblin’ Wreck?
By: Kenneth Harrison
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Georgia Tech’s season begins August 24th against #10 Florida State in Dublin, Ireland.
They come into this season with some expectations because they went 7-6 last year and 5 – 3 in the ACC. Tech beat UCF in the Gasparilla Bowl in Tampa, 30-17.
Brent Key is entering his second full season as head coach in Atlanta. They have less than 10 practices remaining until the season opener. They had a scrimmage to wrap up their second week of preseason camp.
Key pointed out how well wide receivers Christian Leary and Leo Blackburn, tight ends Brett Seither, Jackson Hawes and Luke Harpring and quarterbacks Haynes King and Zach Pyron played. Every Yellow Jacket was able to play in the scrimmage.
“Went into this talking, ‘This isn’t a dress rehearsal. This is game day. Prepare yourself going into it as if it’s game day.’ Then we’ll hit a hard reset (Sunday) and go back into camp preparation, building our football team mode,” Key said.
“I think now is the point in camp where the guys know what to do. It comes down to the details, the techniques, the alignments, getting into the proper stances and alignments before the snap, being able to play whether it was a huddle play or a tempo play or whatever it may be.”
The transfer portal is something that all programs have to deal with. They had 32 players enter the portal ahead of the 2024 season. They have also added some transfer talent.
Some of these new additions are tight end Josh Beetham (Michigan), safety Jayden Davis (Cincinnati), defensive lineman Thomas Gore (Miami), defensive end Romello Height (USC), cornerback Zachary Tobe (Illinois), linebacker E.J. Lightsey (Georgia), corner back Warren Burrell (Tennessee), defensive lineman Ayobami Tifase (Florida State) and defensive lineman Jordan van den Berg (Penn State).
The Yellow Jackets ranked 120th in total defense last season out of 130 FBS teams. They should be better since they have added more talent. It’s also very hard to get worse than that.
Quarterback Haynes King transferred in from Texas A&M. He passed for 2,842 yards, 27 touchdowns and he rushed for 737 yards and 10 TD’s. He did lead the ACC with interceptions so he will need to improve his decision making and cut down on his turnovers. He is one of the best quarterbacks in the conference.
Tech has a total of 17 starters returning, which is tied for 7th with Cal. They have eight on offense and seven on defense.
That includes most of their offensive line, leading rusher Jamal Haynes and top-two receivers Malik Rutherford and Eric Singleton Jr.
Haynes rushed for 931 yards, 7 scores and averaged 6 yards per carry. He had 1,129 all-purpose yards. He should be one of the best backs in the nation this season.
I believe the Yellow Jackets are looking to win six games again to become bowl eligible. They have games against five teams that are ranked in the preseason top 25 Coaches Poll. They will need to win against at least one of those teams to make that happen.
Here is the rest of their schedule:
8/31 vs Georgia State
9/7 @ Syracuse
9/14 vs VMI
9/21 @ Louisville
10/5 vs Duke
10/12 @ North Carolina
10/19 vs #7 Notre Dame at Mercedes-Benz Stadium
10/26 at Virginia Tech
11/9 vs #19 Miami
11/21 vs #22 NC State
11/29 at #1 Georgia
Old Familiar Sting?
By: Kenneth Harrison
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Georgia Tech has a great athletic tradition. When I was growing up they were one of the few programs where the football team went to bowl games and the men’s basketball team made the NCAA tournament consistently.
From 1997 to 2014 there was just one losing season, and even then it was because the 2010 team lost the Independence Bowl. Over the last few years that has completely changed.
The last winning season for the Yellow Jackets was in 2018. That was also Paul Johnson’s final season in Atlanta.
The Geoff Collins era began after that. Collins was flashy and seemed to be more concerned with establishing a social media presence than focusing on coaching. He was fired after the team started the 2022 season 1 – 3. His overall record at Tech was 10 – 28.
Assistant head coach/offensive line coach Brent Key was named the interim head coach. He led them to a 4 – 4 record and the interim tag was taken off on November 29 as Key was named Georgia Tech’s 21st head football coach.
This seems like a perfect fit to lead the program in the right direction. Key played guard at Tech from 1997 – 2000, starting all four years. The team showed significant improvement when he took over and they hope that momentum will carry over into the 2023 season.
Quarterback Jeff Simms transferred to Nebraska. He was the starter for the last three seasons. Haynes King has transferred in from Texas A&M and he is battling Zach Pyron for the starting job. King has a 3 – 4 record as a starter for the Aggies.
Wide receiver Dominick Blaylok has also transferred in from UGA. He’s a former four-star recruit that has battled injuries. He tore his ACL as a freshman in 2019 and later re-injured it in 2020. Last season he caught 15 passes for 227 yards and a touchdown.
This season the Atlantic and Coastal Divisions have been eliminated. With the two-division setup gone, the top two teams will now play for the ACC Championship.
The offense should be better this season. In 2022, the Yellow Jackets had the worst passing offense in the ACC, were dead last in third down conversions, downfield passing, and tackles for loss allowed. The team scored more than 16 points just five times – those were the five wins, by the way.
The offensive line has to step up. They have four starters returning so that experience should help.
Transfer linebackers Braelen Oliver (Minnesota) and Andre White, Jr. (Texas A&M) are hard hitters that played roles for their former teams. They have a chance to be stars this season. Defensive lineman Etinosa Reuben transferred from Clemson and he will bring a physical presence to the D line.
Junior LaMiles Brooks is one of the best safeties in the ACC. Last season he had 52 tackles, three interceptions and he earned third-team all-ACC recognition in his first season as a starter.
Let’s take a look at the schedule and see how this season should play out.
Wins: SC State, Bowling Green, Boston College, at Virginia
Losses: Louisville, at Ole Miss, at Wake Forest, at Miami, North Carolina, at Clemson, Syracuse, Georgia
I picked the games that should be wins for the Yellow Jackets. I think they have a chance against Louisville, Wake Forest and North Carolina. If they can win two of those games they will play in a bowl game.
Spring Buzz
By: Kenneth Harrison
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Georgia Tech played their 2023 Spring Game on April 15.
This was the first spring game for head coach Brent Key. He took over as interim head coach last season after Geoff Collins was fired.
The Yellow Jackets started the 2022 season 1 – 3. Key went 4 – 4, which led to Tech removing the interim tag.
The program has been in disarray since Paul Johnson retired after the 2018 season. That was also the last time they played in a bowl game.
They look to get back on track in 2023. Let’s take a look at the White and Gold Spring Game.
The White and Gold teams were divided with offensive and defensive players on each team, rather than one team with all offense and another with all defensive players. It gave the players a chance to play in a different format than they had in practice.
Key was looking for the players to focus all their energy on themselves and to execute the plays. “I thought we did a good job of that,” Key said.
Freshman quarterback Zach Pyron was the first quarterback on the field. He operated out of the shotgun for much of the drive. There were a lot of two tight end sets and UGA transfer Brett Seither was splitting out wide often.
Pyron got the team down to the eight-yard line and running back Dontae Smith carried it in to give ‘Team Wreck’Em’ an early lead.
After that, Texas A&M transfer Haynes King took the field as QB for ‘Team Swarm’. He is a former four-star recruit and he showed flashes of that. He led the team down to the goal line but the defense stepped up and forced a 4th and goal. King hit Avery Boyd for a touchdown and tied the game.
Pyron finished the game 11 for 16, 153 yards and one touchdown.
King was 4-11 for 94 yards on Team Swarm, 9-11 185 yards and two touchdowns on Team Wreck’Em. Zach Gibson was 5 for 7 with 64 yards.
Junior running back Trey Cooley led all rushers with 59 yards on eight carries. Jamie Felix had seven carries for 29 yards, Smith had five carries for 27 yards, Evan Dickens had six carries for 24 yards.
Malik Rutherford led all receivers with seven catches for 154 yards. D.J. Moore had four catches for 92 yards, Boyd had two catches for 66 yards, Dylan Leonard had four catches for 43 yards, and Christian Leary finished with three catches for 35 yards.
Both Sirad Bryant and Ahmari Harvey finished with six tackles.
Team Wreck ‘Em won the game 42 – 24.
Were there good things in the scrimmage? Key answered that by saying, “yeah there were good things, and we made some plays on both sides of the football.” Key laughingly noted that there were calls that the referees could have made that they missed. “No penalties, that’s huge,” Key said with a smile. “I don’t know how that happened today.”
The offense looked good in the scrimmage. Only time will tell if that will be the case when they play other teams. The season kicks off Friday, September 1st against Louisville.
