In the end, after a five-month odyssey, Georgia Tech football wound up in the same spot it had been at the end of the 2023 season: seven wins, six losses.
How this year’s Yellow Jackets team got there, of course, followed a different path than coach Brent Key’s first team, yet they still go into the offseason looking to find a way to be better than 7-6.
“I think we made a tremendous amount of improvement throughout the course of the year. Excited where this team will continue to go,” Key said Friday after losing 35-27 to Vanderbilt in the Birmingham Bowl at Protective Stadium. “You learn lessons through every experience in your life. A football team learns and grows through experiences.
“Where this team is today compared to where this team was a year ago, I’m extremely proud of where they are, and I’m extremely excited about where we’re going moving forward.”
Tech’s season, really, can be split into two halves.
On Oct. 12, the Jackets sat at 5-2 after a thrilling, 41-34 victory at North Carolina. But that win came with a price as starting quarterback Haynes King injured his shoulder.
King missed the next two games against Notre Dame (Oct. 19) and at Virginia Tech (Oct. 26). The Jackets were beaten soundly by the Fighting Irish (a team still alive in the College Football Playoff) and were inept on offense in a 21-6 defeat in Blacksburg, Virginia. Tech special-teams coordinator Ricky Brumfield also left the program before the trip to Virginia Tech.
Key called a team meeting the night of Oct. 26.
“We knew we needed at that point in a time, a strong voice in front of ‘em. Something had to be said. They had some adversity hit, they had some adversity hit for two weeks in a row,” Key said Thursday in Birmingham. “Really from that point forward you’ve seen a driven team. You’ve seen a team that’s playing for each other, a team that’s playing together, a team that truly buys into the no-scoreboard, play-the-next-play, faceless-opponent (mentality). Because they could have gone one of two ways that night, they really could have.”
The Jackets played only two times over the next four weeks, winning in an upset of No. 4 and undefeated Miami on Nov. 9, and topping North Carolina State 30-29 on Nov. 21 thanks to a last-minute, game-winning drive led by freshman quarterback Aaron Philo.
Tech then went to Athens on Nov. 29 as heavy underdogs against bitter-rival Georgia. It let a two-touchdown lead in the fourth quarter slip away before losing 44-42 in eight overtimes in one of the great games in the history of the rivalry. That result, along with Friday’s, kept Tech from reaching eight wins in a season for the first time since 2016.
All in all, the Jackets lost three of their six games by a total of 13 points. They also won five of their seven games by a total of 26 points.
“You grow in life from the challenges and the obstacles that you overcome. That’s what we’ve continued to do,” Key said Thursday. “But at the same time, as you continue to grow from overcoming those obstacles and those challenges, then you have to grow with understanding how to handle success and have continued success. It’s all part of the journey, it’s all part of the process.
“As much as we want it to happen right now, you have to high sense of urgency daily, but you also have to patience for the long term to build these principles into guys and I’ve been very proud of that on the field.”
Tech loses a considerable amount of talent and experience off the 2024 roster, not only to graduation but already through the transfer portal: cornerback Warren Burrell, wide receivers Abdul Janneh, Chase Lane and Eric Singleton Jr., long snapper Henry Freer, defensive linemen Romello Height, Zeek Biggers, Sylvain Yondjouen, Thomas Gore, Kevin Harris, Joshua Robinson, Makius Scott and Thomas Gore, tight ends Avery Boyd, Jackson Hawes and Ryland Goede, safety LaMiles Brooks, linebacker Trenilyas Tatum, punter David Shanahan and offensive linemen Corey Robinson, Jordan Williams and Weston Franklin.
Many of those names had been with the Jackets, and Key, for multiple seasons and were instrumental in turning the program around from four consecutive losing seasons to back-to-back bowl appearances. They were confident this week the foundation has been set for the Jackets to have continued success.
“I’m very proud. First two seasons didn’t go how we would have liked. Third season you could see the transformation of the mindset of the team, of the program,” Brooks said. “Then, kind of, finishing off the these last two seasons and finishing where we finished, it’s exciting to see. I know that the younger guys in the program will continue to build and that will be exciting to watch in my future.”
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