THE FLATS – Georgia Tech head coach Brent Key has been named the American Football Coaches Association Region 1 Coach of the Year.
The AFCA’s five regional coaches of the year comprise the finalists for the 2025 AFCA National Coach of the Year, which will be announced on Dec. 15. Joining Key on the list of finalists are Vanderbilt’s Clark Lea (Region 2), Indiana’s Curt Cignetti (Region 3), Texas Tech’s Joey McGuire (Region 4) and Hawai’i’s Timmy Chang (Region 5).
In his third full season as head coach at his alma mater, Key has led No. 23/19 Georgia Tech to a 9-2 record, which is its most regular-season wins since 2014, and one of only 15 times in the program’s 133-season football history that it has won at least nine of its first 11 games.
The Yellow Jackets are 27-18 since Key took the reins as interim head coach four games into the 2022 season and 23-14 in his three full seasons at the helm. The only coaches that have won as many games as Key’s 23 in their first three full seasons at Georgia Tech are all in the College Football Hall of Fame – Paul Johnson (25 wins – 2009-11), Bobby Dodd (23 wins – 1945-47) and William Alexander (23 – 1920-22).
Key is just the third AFCA Regional Coach of the Year in Georgia Tech history, joining Bobby Ross (1990) and George O’Leary (1998). Key was the Yellow Jackets’ starting right guard as a sophomore under O’Leary in 1998.
Key and the Yellow Jackets close the regular season on Friday versus archrival and No. 4-ranked Georgia. The 119th edition of Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate kicks off at 3:30 p.m. at Mercedes-Benz Stadium and the showdown will be televised live on ABC.
Full Steam Ahead
Full Steam Ahead is a $500 million fundraising initiative to achieve Georgia Tech athletics’ goal of competing for championships at the highest level in the next era of intercollegiate athletics. The initiative will fund transformative projects for Tech athletics, including renovations of Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field (the historic home of Georgia Tech football), the Zelnak Basketball Center (the practice and training facility for Tech basketball) and O’Keefe Gymnasium (the venerable home of Yellow Jackets volleyball), as well as additional projects and initiatives to further advance Georgia Tech athletics through program wide-operational support. All members of the Georgia Tech community are invited to visit atfund.org/FullSteamAhead for full details and renderings of the renovation projects, as well as to learn about opportunities to contribute online.
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