By: Kenneth Harrison

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

The 2024 college football regular season is over.

Now we move to bowl season.

Georgia Tech (7-5) will play Vanderbilt (6-6) in the Birmingham Bowl on December 27^th.

Tech head coach Brent Key is from Birmingham and played high school football 20 minutes from Protective Stadium, the site of the bowl game.

“Birmingham’s had a bowl game for as long as I can remember. Probably one of the first football games I ever went to was, ironically enough, the 1985 All-American Bowl (a 17-14 Tech win over Michigan State),” Key said. “Goodness gracious, never would have thought full circle coming back.”

“Birmingham’s a city of grit and toughness. There’s a lot of things about the city of Birmingham that are right in the same parallels as our football team. I know family will be excited; friends will be excited. It’s pretty neat.”

Key went to Tech in 1996 to play football for the Yellow Jackets. He took over the program four games into the 2022 campaign and was named the full-time coach of the Jackets in November of that year.

He’s gone 14-11 in his first two full seasons and he received a five-year contract extension and a raise recently.

“It’s exciting. I think it just shows the leadership here,” Key said of his new deal. “It shows from (Tech) president (Angel) Cabrera to (athletic director) J Batt and then to the coaches, the alignment that takes place here. It also shows the commitment to the future of Georgia Tech athletics. Couldn’t be more excited. Doesn’t change anything about our day-to-day, but very, very appreciative of those people.”

Georgia Tech beat #10 Florida State and #4 Miami this season. They lost to #6 Georgia 44-42 in an eight-overtime thriller. The Jackets lead 27-13 with 3:39 left in the game before UGA came back and tied the game.

Tech’s top receiver Eric Singleton Jr. entered the transfer portal the first day it opened, December 9^th.

The sophomore receiver had 56 receptions for 754 yards and 3 touchdowns. He’s also a member of the Tech track and field team and he’s the fastest player on the football team.

Tech has had three receivers enter the portal in Singleton, Christian Leary and Leo Blackburn, from Westlake High.

Defensive lineman Horace Lockett (also a former Westlake High standout), quarterback Zach Pyron, running back Evan Dickens and offensive linemen Corey Robinson (from Roswell High) and Jordan Brown previously announced their intentions to leave Tech.

The Commodores beat #1 Alabama earlier this season. This is their first bowl game since 2018.

Vandy is led by their transfer QB Diego Pavia. He has 2,133 passing yards, 17 TD’s and 4 interceptions. He is the team’s leading rusher with 716 yards and 4 scores. He only completes 59.2% of his passes.

Yellow Jacket senior quarterback Haynes King played in 10 games this season. He threw for 1,910 yards, 11 scores, 1 pick and completed 72.5% of his passes. He also rushed for 578 yards and 11 touchdowns.

I think Vanderbilt will win this game. Georgia Tech is the better team but I think they lost too many talented players to the transfer portal before the bowl game.