The 21st head coach of the Georgia Tech football program was formally introduced on Monday morning. Brent Key is a familiar face to many around the program, having been a player on The Flats from 1997-2000 and as the interim head coach for the last eight weeks of the 2022 season.
Having such experience on the résumé makes Key uniquely qualified for the position, but it also makes one thing for certain: he knows who this team wants to beat every year. If anyone doubted that fact, he made sure that perfectly clear in his opening comments.
Lofty goals indeed.
Dukes & Bell welcomed the new head football onto the show on Tuesday to discuss those comments, and what he expects from his program moving forward. Key was certain to double down on his well-to-do mindset.
"If you want to be a champion, [working 365 days a year to dominate] has to be your mindset," Key explained on Tuesday afternoon. "That's what you have to wake up thinking about, and not just thinking about it, but waking up, jumping out of bed, and getting your butt ready to go and work towards that goal. You can't just think about it, you can't just say it, you have to do it. And we're in a result-driven profession and a result-driven business. You have to think that way every single day of your life and then you have to work at it, you have to work for it."
The Georgia Tech football program certainly has its work cut out for it. Going back to the days after Key graduated from the Institute, they have struggled mightily with their in-state rival. The Yellow Jackets have only won Clean Old-Fashioned Hate three times since he left in 2000, matching their total from when Key was taking snaps on the offensive line.
But he knows that this is something that will take time, and he's calling on everybody involved in the organization to make it happen.
"That message was for the team, it was for our fan base, for our alumni because it's going to take everybody," he said. "It's going to take all of us together to be able to do this. There are twelve teams on our schedule and one of them happens to be in our state. So, what I said is exactly what I mean. That's our goal: to be a team that dominates our opponent."
Key went on to credit the work that Kirby Smart had done at his rival school, and it's nearly impossible not to. The Georgia Bulldogs are defending national champions and playing in their second consecutive College Football Playoff this year.
For as long as football is played in this state, the neighbors in Athens are a topic that needs to be addressed.
"You have to understand that they are on our schedule every year," he finished. "So, with the purpose that we have, with what we're doing, you have to wake up and understand that if that's not your goal every single day when you wake up, then there's going to continue to be a gap [between the programs]."
That's a gap that the new Georgia Tech head coach will be working 365 days per year to close.
