ATLANTA — Suddenly, Georgia Tech seems relevant again in college football.
The Yellow Jackets opened the season with a stunning upset of No. 10 Florida State in Dublin, Ireland, and are poised to crack the Associated Press Top 25 for the first time since 2015 if they can beat city rival Georgia State in their home opener Saturday night.
Coach Brent Key now finds himself walking a fine line between relishing a triumph that has energized a long-suffering fan base and keeping his team firmly focused on what's ahead.
“That was a really good win for the Georgia Tech family,” Key said this week. “It was on a stage that allowed Georgia Tech to get a lot of exposure. A lot of people were able to find out things they might not have known about Georgia Tech.
“But,” he quickly added, “that game’s over.”
True enough, but the Yellow Jackets can't help but savor how far they've come since Key took over four games into the 2022 season.
Georgia Tech hit rock bottom under previous coach Geoff Collins, who talked in hokey slogans such as building a 404 culture — a reference to Atlanta's area code — but gave little indication he could produce results on the field.
Finally, after winning just 10 of 38 games, Collins was fired along with athletic director Todd Stansbury. Key took over as coach, going 4-4 the rest of the '22 campaign to restore a bit of respectability to the program and remove the interim from his title.
Georgia Tech went 7-6 a year ago in Key's first full season, earning its first bowl appearance since 2018, and appears poised to take another significant step this season after knocking off the Seminoles.
Key clearly has big goals for his alma mater, raising eyebrows right away when he insisted that the Yellow Jackets were capable of competing with their mighty neighbor right down the road, the top-ranked Georgia Bulldogs.
But the coach is also aware of the pitfalls that come from relishing a massive victory a little too long.
“Anytime you create opportunity for yourself like that, you create new challenges,” Key said. “There’s really three phases right now in our growth as a team: learning how not to lose, learning how to win and now learning how to win consistently.”
Georgia Tech had pockets of success during Paul Johnson's 11-year coaching tenure, including an Atlantic Coast Conference title (which was later vacated by NCAA sanctions), three appearances in the ACC championship game and two trips to the Orange Bowl.
But Johnson's run-oriented offense began to look increasingly outdated in today's college game, and the Yellow Jackets were just 24-25 over his final four seasons.
Johnson retired following the 2018 campaign, handing over the program to Collins.
Instead of turning things around, the brash coach took the Yellow Jackets into the abyss. His attempts to transform Johnson's option offense into a pro-style system flopped miserably. Silly penalties, repeated mistakes, sideline mix-ups and a lack of discipline became hallmarks of the Collins era.
Finally, after giving up four blocked punts in their first four games of the 2022 season, not to mention an embarrassing 42-0 home loss to Mississippi, Collins was sent packing.
Now, the outlook looks much more promising. After struggling for years to fill 52,000-seat Bobby Dodd Stadium, the school announced Thursday that it has sold out its allotment of nearly 6,000 student season tickets, a sign of rising excitement on the inner-city campus.
Key has eschewed gimmicks to instill a bruising, physical style of play that was apparent in the 24-21 victory over Florida State.
After the Seminoles tied the game, Georgia Tech held the ball for the final 6 1/2 minutes to set up Aidan Birr's 44-yard field goal as time expired.
Offensive tackle Jordan Williams described it as “sandpaper, just going out there playing physical, fast, tough, really imposing your will. That's the identity we try to have as an offensive line. We've just got to make sure we keep that consistent.”
It helps to have a versatile quarterback like Haynes King, who can beat a defense with his arm or his legs. He completed 11 of 16 passes for 146 yards against Florida State, to go along with 15 carries for 54 yards.
The challenge, of course, is to keep looking forward. Key likes to say a car's windshield is much bigger than the rearview mirror for a reason. His players insist they're taking that message to heart, with running back Jamal Haynes going so far as to delete his social media accounts.
“Like Coach Key says, a win and a loss can both be distractions. So I'm trying to keep the distractions out (of) the way,” Haynes said. “Just blocking out the nonsense.”
