By: Kenneth Harrison

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

I believe this is the best time of the year because we’re in the middle of the football season.

Some college teams like Georgia and Miami are contenders. Other teams like Texas, Oregon and Michigan started highly ranked but have been disappointing.

Then, we have teams that are somewhere in the middle. They were not expected to be great but they should at least not have trouble becoming bowl eligible.

We’ve seen coaches at programs like that get fired during the season. Some examples are Mike Norvell (Florida State), Dave Aranda (Baylor), Dave Doeren (NC State) and Mike Locksley (Maryland).

There are a couple of coaches that have gotten themselves off the hot seat with big wins, Shane Beamer (South Carolina) and Lincoln Riley (USC).

The current crop that could lose their jobs are Bill O’Brien (Boston College), Brent Venables (Oklahoma), Matt Rhule (Nebraska), Deion Sanders (Colorado) and the person I want to focus on, Brent Key (Georgia Tech).

Key started as the interim head coach after Geoff Collins was fired early in the 2022 season. He went 4-4 with notable wins against #24 Pitt and #13 North Carolina. He was formally named the head coach after that season.

The Yellow Jackets were 7-6 in 2023 and 2024. In 2023, Tech beat #17 UNC and #17 Miami (not a typo, both were #17). In 2024 they beat #10 Florida State to start the season and upset undefeated #4 Miami.

They were barely above .500 but that was the first back-to-back winning seasons for GT since 2013-2014.

In December of 2024 Georgia Tech extended Key’s contract through 2030.

They got off to a great start in 2025. Unfortunately, they have lost 10 of 13 since starting 8-0 last season. They’re currently 2-6 and would have to win out just to become bowl eligible.

Key has had the worst two weeks out of any other Power Four coach. Boston College ran for 399 yards in Atlanta and won, 49-27. They traveled to Pittsburgh the following week and got a beat down from the Panthers, 34-11.

“The program needs a total top-to-bottom look in,” Key said after the loss.

The question is, who will conduct that review? Jason Semore is Key’s fourth defensive coordinator in four years. Apparently, he continues to hire the wrong guy for the job.

“It’s bad. Bad ball,” Key said. “A correction has to be made based on something and it gets made and it leads to something else. That’s not good. Not good. I don’t want to say right now how it will be fixed. I’ve got a lot of things running through my head right now.”

One question I have is did Haynes King hide Key’s deficiencies? He was the QB from 2023-25 and he’s one of the best in program history. We may have been too focused on him to notice Key might not be a great coach.

Now that King’s gone the team is really struggling. They got Alberto Mendoza (Indiana) out of the transfer portal. He turns the ball over at an alarming rate.

In the game against Pitt he fumbled four times, recovering three. He also only had 81 yards passing. He’s thrown for 10 touchdowns and 6 interceptions for the season.

If Key is fired after the season, GT would owe him an estimated $18.45 million.

The final four games are against Louisville, at Clemson, #14 Wake Forest and at #2 Georgia. They’ll be underdogs in each game.

We will have to see how things will play out for Key.