ATLANTA — Brent Key was irate. Or at least what qualifies as irate for Key, Georgia Tech’s witty and easygoing football coach, who listens to a coffee house music channel in his office. But the sign he saw from his office that cold day in January 2023 made him irate.

Georgia, the team whose name Key refrains from using, had just won its second straight national championship, and “CONGRATS DAWGS” beamed in red letters from the top of an Atlanta skyscraper, easily visible from Georgia Tech’s football offices and stadium. Key called an assistant and ordered his entire team, which had just finished a workout, to walk to the top step of Bobby Dodd Stadium.

“Make them stare at it,” Key remembers instructing. “Soak it in and never forget it.”

His voice dropped to a whisper as he told the story last week.

“This is our town,” he said. “This is our city.”

That, to put it mildly, is very debatable. Georgia is, well, Georgia. And at that point, two years ago, Georgia Tech was slipping into national irrelevancy, a rival to Georgia in name only. And the school had just turned the program over to Key, who was part of the staff that went 14-32 the previous four years, including 10-28 in three-plus seasons under former coach Geoff Collins. Georgia Tech may have a rich football tradition, but the landscape was changing and the program seemed ill-equipped to adapt.

There’s been a slight hang-up in writing the story of the demise of Georgia Tech football: The program’s on the upswing, with two straight winning seasons under Key, including a 10-6 record in league games since the start of the 2023 season. Attendance was up by about 2,000 fans per game in 2024 at Bobby Dodd Stadium (without the benefit of playing Georgia at home). And since Key forced his players to stare at “CONGRATS DAWGS,” the Jackets have played Georgia closer than any Georgia Tech team since 2016, including last year’s eight-overtime thriller that may have been a loss but showed that the program is irrelevant no more.

Which, as the college football world changes, raises the question: Is Georgia Tech getting good again at just the right time?

Dabo Swinney, in an interview with The Athletic this spring, predicted that a college football Super League was coming soon. Swinney clearly wouldn’t mind it, as his Clemson team is in the ACC, not the SEC or Big Ten, but any Super League would almost certainly include Clemson, winner of two national titles in the last decade. Florida State, Miami and North Carolina would seem to be the other programs in the ACC with the brand power to be included in this very hypothetical (or inevitable, if you ask Swinney) league.

Georgia Tech is a trickier story. It may reside in the huge Atlanta market, but Georgia would argue —and many would agree —that Atlanta is its town. Georgia Tech does have tradition: Its players work out next to a fence that heralds national titles in 1917, 1928, 1952 and 1990. John Heisman coached there. More recently, Calvin Johnson played there. It was a very respectable, competitive program for most of the past few decades, but often not much more than that.

Haynes King has played a key role in Georgia Tech’s resurgence. (Lance King / Getty Images)

Current starting quarterback Haynes King grew up in Texas and signed with Texas A&M out of high school. Asked his perception about Georgia Tech, he probably spoke for many in his generation: “I actually didn’t watch them a lot. I know they did the triple option offensively. And it was a prestige college with academics.”

King was asked if there was a culture shock coming to Tech.

“I mean, it’s definitely a difference. In Texas, at Texas A&M, football’s No. 1 over there. That’s what everyone talks about, that’s what everyone cares about. The population doubles, triples on game day, everybody’s going to be there,” said King, who then noted what stuck out to him about his current home: “The people here and, whether they’re in the building working with football or just students, fans, graduates, just the way they love Georgia Tech.”

That includes Key, the man orchestrating the turnaround. But that also applies to a fan base and administration that decided a few years ago it was tired of losing.

This spring, former MLB star Alex Rodriguez was on Georgia Tech’s campus for his podcast, “The Deal,” with co-host Jason Kelly. They interviewed J Batt, the Georgia Tech athletic director, who talked about the things he had done since 2022 to bring Georgia Tech back to national relevance, and how President Angel Cabrera was fully invested in athletics.

“That’s what’s got us positioned so well to go into this new era,” Batt said.

Batt last month left for the same job at Michigan State in the Big Ten. A biting reminder that Georgia Tech, for any momentum, is still not in one of the top two conferences.

Still, Cabrera put out a statement following Batt’s departure reiterating: “We made a clear commitment to athletics, and that commitment remains stronger than ever.” Georgia Tech also put out a story praising the work Batt had done, specifically mentioning fundraising and the hiring of Key and men’s basketball coach Damon Stoudamire. Batt was there for only a few years, but it was a key period in which the school — and the football program — began making key changes.

It wasn’t that Georgia Tech was terrible: From 1995-2014, the Jackets had only two losing seasons. But they went 38-57 in the ensuing eight years, comprising Johnson’s final four seasons and all of Collins’ tenure. A big part of the problem, says school trustee Vance Bell, was a lack of resources and commitment, starting at the presidential level.

“Tech had dropped so far,” said Bell, who played football at Georgia Tech from 1969-73. “A lot of people probably suggested to the president, we’ve got to do something, or if we don’t change some things, it’s going to be hard to get back to the level of success that we want. There were spurts of five or six years of good success, but I’m not sure that alignment from the top in leadership was consistent across that entire period of time. Yes, that affects resources, it affects commitment.”

That began to change when Cabrera was hired in 2019. After navigating the school through the COVID-19 pandemic, Cabrera reaffirmed Georgia Tech’s commitment to athletics, especially football.

“He’s bought in completely. He’s leading that charge,” Bell said.

Batt, hired in 2022, began a fundraising campaign that yielded $78 million last year, breaking the athletic department’s record by 43 percent. Batt is gone, but the process continues under his top assistant, interim AD Jon Palumbo.

“There’s great momentum here,” Palumbo said. “But we still have work to do to get to where we want to go.”

Batt had worked at Alabama, like Key, and saw firsthand what a football program needed to compete at the highest level. Following Key’s promotion to head coach — after he went 4-4 as the interim to end the 2022 season — spending increased on facilities, staff, nutrition and strength and conditioning. Key pointed to the new athletic facility being built next to his office and said that the school is giving him the resources necessary for the hiring and retention of staff.

“Everything it takes to win,” he said.

Key isn’t just an alum. He played at Georgia Tech during the heyday of the George O’Leary era, from 1997 through 2000, and was on the team that shared the ACC championship in 1998. Key was a four-year starter at guard, then went into coaching, serving first under O’Leary at UCF, then for Nick Saban at Alabama. He won a national championship in 2017 and worked in the offensive room with Lane Kiffin, Steve Sarkisian and others.

He also beat Georgia twice in three seasons with the Crimson Tide. But that was nothing new for Key, who went 3-1 vs. the Bulldogs as a player, the only defeat coming at home during his freshman year. Back then, it was an intense, even-handed rivalry.

The Yellow Jackets have beaten Georgia only three times since, a fact that has grated on Key, and he wants to make Georgia Tech’s performance against the Dawgs a cornerstone of each season.

“Our expectations are to go to the playoffs. And our expectations are to beat that team every day,” Key said, refraining from saying Georgia. “Why are you focusing on that one team? Well, if the best team you play all year long is the last game of the season, then you are preparing every day to beat the best team, then you are preparing to win every game. Pretty simple, right?”

And they came so achingly close last year. A two-touchdown lead late in the fourth quarter. A targeting non-call against Georgia that could have iced the game in regulation. Then the eight overtimes. Key and Kirby Smart, a pair of alums leading their programs, had a long embrace afterwards. Georgia Tech players still look at it as one of their best nights.

“Even though we lost,” receiver Malik Rutherford said. “We knew we could play with the best teams in the country, but that game solidified it for us.”

Key, however, practically snarls.

“The number one thing they talk about this football team is a f—ing loss,” he said. “You getting your butt kissed for a loss? I don’t understand that. It was a loss.”

But it was still the most memorable game of the year, Key was told.

“It was a loss,” he said.

OK, but it was Friday night after Thanksgiving, a national television audience saw it hang with one of the best teams in the country, and …

“A hundred and 57 more days,” Key interrupted, with a smile.

Yes, he knows every day how many days until they play again. There’s also a countdown in their locker room.

Head coaches are often compared to their predecessors. In Key’s case, it was his former boss. Collins came to Georgia Tech in 2019 seeking to change the perception of the program — he scrapped the triple-option run by Paul Johnson — and turn it into a modern recruiting machine. But the on-field product wasn’t good, and Collins’ salesman approach wore thin.

Key hasn’t adopted that style. He isn’t active on social media. In conversation, he’s direct, loose and self-deprecating.

“I ain’t real smart, just a redneck from Alabama,” Key said. “Just a dumb redneck from Alabama, so I try to make things simple so I remember.”

Key is from the same town, Pelham, Ala., as Swinney, and they both became head coaches after interim stints when their boss was fired midseason. A comparison that Georgia Tech fans hope means something.

Key is asked what his program can achieve.

“Champions.”

Champions of the conference? National?

“State. Conference. National. Our expectations are playoffs. I’m not as big of a goal person. I’m not a big momentum person. Those have endpoints.”

That sounds like Saban.

“Damn right,” said Key, who also dropped a “rat poison” reference at one point.

This synergy in his background — Georgia Tech alum, Saban assistant, same hometown as Swinney — could make Key the guy to bring Georgia Tech back. Which he has already started doing. The 2025 team will have 27 seniors, including King at quarterback, and could get preseason Top 25 votes and be a CFP contender.

But going forward, there’s also the reality of talent procurement. There’s an entire generation of players who didn’t grow up viewing Georgia Tech as an elite program. Still, Key has recruited well, signing the nation’s 21st-ranked class in 2025, according to the 247Sports Composite, showing the chops he learned from Saban: Evaluate players early and often, and always be recruiting.

As for the portal, the Jackets have gained some and lost some. This past offseason, they lost their best receiver in Eric Singleton Jr., who went to Auburn, but then signed one of the best receivers available, Eric Rivers from FIU. And their quarterback, King, could have commanded a very healthy payday on the open market but chose to return for his third season with the program. So Tech clearly has the ability to play the game, too.

But this remains a program that wants to do things by the book.

On one hand, there is hope that revenue sharing plus rigid NIL enforcement will level the playing field and help teams like Georgia Tech. Key pointed to the number of Fortune 500 companies within walking distance of his campus, the hope being his players can easily bank so-called legitimate NIL deals in ways other schools can’t.

On the other hand, Key seems to understand the skepticism about the system working as intended. So he’s taking a worry-about-ourselves approach to it.

“NIL’s been around for 50 years,” Key said, laughing. “It’s just public NIL now, I guess you could say. But that was not part of the fabric of this place. This place is going to take pride in doing things the right way.”

Georgia Tech being a Playoff team, whether this fall or in the near future, is no crazy notion. SMU made the CFP last year. So did Indiana. In the expanded system, a program can sneak into the CFP and use it as a springboard to sustained success. That’s why it’s so important for Georgia Tech to maintain its momentum from consecutive winning seasons.

“It is key. Yes, it is key,” he said. “We can’t control what people think about us. All that we can control is what we put on the field for three-and-a-half hours every Saturday. That’s it. All I can control is the product in the field. I can control our players going to class and doing what they’re supposed to be doing, not getting in trouble. If we do all of those things right, people can view us the way they want to view us.”

(Top photo: Todd Kirkland / Getty Images)