A win for Georgia Tech over No. 6 Georgia would be big for Brent Key in more ways than one.
Key, Tech’s second-year coach, is in line to make a $100,000 bonus for one more victory this season, a bonus not tied to a win over Tech’s most fierce rival but for what be the team’s eighth victory of the regular season. Key already stands to make a $50,000 bonus for the Yellow Jackets (7-4) being bowl eligible.
Currently making an annual base salary of $2.9 million, a salary which will increase to $3 million Jan. 1, Key can also earn bonuses for his team’s academic progress rating (up to $100,000 if that rating reaches 970) or if he is named national coach of the year ($50,000) or ACC coach of the year ($25,000). The 46-year-old missed performance incentives based on making the College Football Playoff, reaching 10 regular-season wins and reaching and/or winning the ACC title game.
Named the program’s 21st coach in program history in November of 2022, after serving as the team’s interim coach for the final eight games of the 2022 season, Key goes into Friday’s matchup with a record of 18-14 and 14-9 in ACC games. In nonconference games, Key is 4-5.
Tech has won recorded an eight-win season since the 2016 team went 9-4. That was also the last Tech team to beat Georgia, as the Jackets have lost six consecutive in the series.
To reach eight wins, Key would have to knock off a top-10 team for the third time this season (Florida State, Aug. 24; Miami, Nov. 9). Tech hasn’t accomplished that feat since beating No. 6 SMU, No. 6 Clemson and No. 8 Tennessee in 1959.
