On Wednesday, at a Georgia Tech Alumni Association event at the Scheller College of Business, Key went into detail about the Yellow Jackets’ 2022 season, a season that saw Geoff Collins fired after the first four games before after Key was promoted to interim coach. Tech went 4-4 in the remaining eight games of the season before Key officially received the reins at his alma mater.
Key called that 10-week period of uncertainty a blur as he recalled how the course of his career (and his life) began to change on Monday, September 26, 2022.
“When I got the call and was ‘called’, as I was walking down the hill back to the office, there was nothing in my head that said, ‘Oh, God, what am I going to do?’ How are we going to do this? Are they going to respond?’ Key said. “It was, ‘Come in and be myself and, look, we have problems. We have problems that we have to fix.’ I didn’t even go back to my office. I went straight up to the second floor and immediately started fixing what was broken.
“I went upstairs, grabbed someone and said, ‘Let’s get our punting gear fixed.’ We have to fix it.’ At that point in the season I think we had four blocked punts. It was just embarrassing. So we went in and tried to put up as many mandates and tiles as we could. That was before I even had a staff meeting to talk to the staff and tell them what had happened. “I immediately went into fix mode and coach mode.”
From there, Key said, he returned to his office, where he had served as Collins’ offensive line coach since 2019, and spent an hour behind closed doors writing scripts and taking notes for both the coaching staff and the team. He knew, he said, that he had a building full of assistant coaches now worried about their careers, futures and families, and a fragile, emotionally charged team.
He met with Tech’s coaching staff and told them that if any of them didn’t want to be a part of the final eight games of the season, they could leave without asking questions.
“I said, ‘If there’s one day and one minute over the next eight games where someone isn’t doing their job to the best of their ability, I’m going to make sure everyone knows that was the case.’ So I was very frank, very direct and very honest with the staff,” Key said. “Then I came in with the team and told them to sit in their chairs and pay attention: ‘The first thing I want you to understand is that I am you, you are me.’ I have walked in the same shoes as you. I know what you go through every day. I know what it’s like to go to Scheller and take an accounting exam.
“You can sit and feel sorry for yourselves and that’s how they will know you. Are you talking about defining a season? You have the opportunity to define who you are individually in this moment. Plain and simple. So do you want to be a group of losers or not? But the first thing we have to think about is what to do is stop losing. You all have zero self-confidence. There is no competitive nature for you. I don’t know how to change it. But we are going to go tomorrow at nine in the morning. “
Key, 45, also asked the team to create a leadership council among themselves and offer suggestions on how to turn losses into victories. Linebackers Ayinde Eley and Keion White showed up at Key’s office and asked their new leader if they could stop wearing suits on road trips and be allowed to wear jewelry again.
“I told them, ‘Guys, to win a football game, I’d get my nose and tongue pierced…’” Key laughed.
Key said the Jackets had been practicing, lightly, twice a week before Collins’ dismissal. But on that first Tuesday of Key’s interim term, Tech worked for 2 1/2 hours in full protection. The Jackets would continue training in a similar manner throughout the week before playing at Pittsburgh’s 24th that Saturday.
Tech won that game 26-21.
“The only thing I cared about was that we had five days to develop some physicality and toughness on our football team, and some discipline,” Key said.
Behind the scenes, as Tech was winning games over Pitt, Duke, Virginia Tech and North Carolina, and losing to Virginia, Florida State, Miami and Georgia, Key was plotting to get serious consideration for being hired as Collins’ replacement. He never admitted it so publicly, he said, wanting to keep the focus on his team and cut down on further distractions, but he explained how he would work daily until midnight on the current team, then stay up until 4 a.m. planning how to possibly lead. future jackets if given the chance.
Key said he lost 50 pounds during the grueling stretch. But he got the opportunity of a lifetime from him.
“I would look at (my wife) Danielle and say, ‘I can do anything for six more weeks. I can do anything for five more weeks. I can do anything for four more weeks. I love this place very much. “I love these kids so much,” Key said. “I was never going to say it publicly. “I wasn’t going to do anything in my day-to-day life to interfere with giving these kids the opportunity to succeed.”
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