In all the bowls in all the land, Georgia Tech’s wheel of destiny landed on the one that affords Brent Key to lead his alma mater into a stadium 20 minutes from where he played high school ball.

Key, Tech’s second-year coach, and the Yellow Jackets were chosen Sunday to play in the Birmingham Bowl at 3:30 p.m. on Dec. 27. It’s there they’ll face the Commodores of Vanderbilt.

“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 left Birmingham in 1996 to play football at Tech and said he’s driven the route I-20 route to and from Birmingham and Atlanta thousands of times since. The offensive lineman coached at his alma mater for a couple seasons as a graduate assistant then returned as a position coach in 2019. 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.

On Friday, Key received a five-year contract extension and raise after going 14-11 in his first two full seasons.

“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.”

Key’s 2024 team goes into the Birmingham Bowl having won 2 of 3, beating Miami and North Carolina State before falling to rival Georgia 44-42 in an eight-overtime epic in Athens. A win over the Commodores (6-6) would give Tech eight wins in a season for the first time since 2016 and back-to-back bowl victories for the first time since 2003 and 2004.

Vandy is in the postseason for the first time since 2018 and hasn’t won a bowl game since 2014 when it beat Houston in the Compass Bowl — played at Legion Field in Birmingham.

Coach Clark Lea’s team began the season by beating Virginia Tech in overtime and was 2-0 when it lost at Georgia State on Sept. 14 in Atlanta. But the Dores rebounded to beat Alabama on Oct. 5 for one of the biggest wins in program history and then became bowl eligible Nov. 2 with a 17-7 victory at Auburn.

Vanderbilt hasn’t won since, dropping its final three games of the regular season.

Tech goes into the matchup having lost 10 games in a row to teams from the SEC.

“Playing Vanderbilt’s a great challenge, a great opportunity,” Key said. “Got a lot of respect for Clark Lea and the job he’s done at Vanderbilt, at his alma mater. I understand what he goes through every day, I understand the passion and the pressure that comes along with that job. Just a phenomenal job that he’s done in turning this.

“He’s very confident in himself and very confident in his team. He speaks those things. We saw this year from the very first game of the season all the way through. They had some big upsets and some big wins. I think two very evenly-matched teams.”

Key said the Jackets are scheduled to practice Monday, Tuesday and Friday this week. They will work on base fundamentals, Key said, and the team’s younger players will get the majority of the reps during team drills.

Tech is allotted 15 practices ahead of Dec. 27, an invaluable amount of extra work for a program that continues to build.

“It’s another spring practice. That’s the way I look at,” Key said. “But, also, this is a reward for these players. I want these players to enjoy their last time as the 2024 Georgia Tech football team. There’s something about that I think is special.”