As defense reels, Brent Key is trustworthy to have Georgia Tech ready

Nothing to see here — just the biggest game that Georgia Tech has played in 35 years.

That, and the wheels have fallen off the defense.

The Yellow Jackets play Pitt on Saturday at Bobby Dodd Stadium with the season potentially on the line. With a win, they will clinch a spot in the ACC title game, which, if they win that, will earn them their first berth in the College Football Playoff. If they lose, they can still make the league championship game, but they would depend on three other league games to fall their way and their chances of making the CFP with an at-large bid wouldbe severely damaged.

Not since the 1990 national championship season has Tech, ranked No. 15 in the AP poll, played a game with such high stakes this late in the season.

That’s why it’s a most inopportune moment for the Jackets defense to have gone haywire.

It almost couldn’t have been any other way. Nothing comes easily at Tech, neither diplomas nor sporting glory. And so it is that a historic season that has rejuvenated the fan base, won converts across the country and sustained national championship aspirations into the week before Thanksgiving is suddenly a threat to jump the tracks.

“It started with euphoria, and now it’s a roller coaster,” said Jerimiah McClary, a captain of the 1990 team.

It was with particular unease that McClary, an All-ACC defensive tackle, watched Tech nearly lose to one-win Boston College on Saturday by allowing the Eagles to score 34 points (season high against FBS competition in regulation) and 537 yards (season high against FBS competition) and average 8.1 yards per play (the most against FBS competition since 2021).

McClary said he nearly had to turn the television off because he couldn’t bear to see his team lose and ruin its season.

That followed the Jackets’ actual loss at N.C. State, in which the Wolfpack ran roughshod over Tech, also setting season highs for scoring (48 points) and yardage (583 yards) against FBS competition.

“Me being an old defensive guy, I know that the offense can only do so much,” McClary said. “If the defense can’t stop them, that spells trouble.”

McClary predicts a 28-13 win for Tech but acknowledged he’ll be like “a cat in a room full of rocking chairs” on Saturday.

I texted two Tech alumni friends to see how they felt about Saturday. Friend No. 1 described himself as thrilled about the season but also unsettled.

“It’s like we have to hope that the opponent’s defense slips up more than ours,” Friend No. 2 texted.

And the worry over Saturday doesn’t even take into account what comes after that — the Clean Old-Fashioned Hate matchup against a Georgia team that has looked world-beating of late. The potential for the season to take a sharp turn south is unmistakable.

Go, Jackets!

But a question for Tums-popping Tech fans: How much faith do you have in Brent Key?

You’ve seen him have his teams be ready to play big games, evident in his 7-1 mark against top-25 ACC teams. (The first, you may recall, was against the same Pitt Panthers in his first game as an interim coach in 2022 on a rainy night in Pittsburgh.) Or in the Jackets pushing eventual SEC champion Georgia to the absolute brink last November.

The defense does not reach the standards of the offense, which leads FBS in total offense. Even before the recent two-game collapse,the Jackets were ranked 73rd in total defense. (They’re now 103rd.)

But they can be better than they have been the past two games. Key’s history would suggest that they will be.

In his Tuesday media session, he spoke of the team needing to be at its best Saturday, to correct mistakes and improve, starting with him.

“And be ready to play Saturday night when the ball’s kicked off,” he said. “And we will be.”

Among other things, he said there will be tweaks to the defense. Key also said the team had a live tackling session in Tuesday’s practice — not a common occurrence at this late stage of the season but deemed necessary to sharpen defensive coordinator Blake Gideon’s unit.

“We’ve got to shore up some tackling,” Key said, “The only way to do that — I’m not a genius by any means — and the only way I know to get better at something is to do it, so that’s what we did.”

He mentioned another detail of his preparations for the defense that might have been counterintuitive for those accustomed to caveman coaching tactics.

“I looked at the defense and I told them, I said, ‘Y’all need to pick your heads up, get your heads out of your butt, stop acting like you’re not very good and go play like you’re capable of playing,’” Key said.

A tip of the cap to Key — it’s not every coach who can convey confidence and belief with an exhortation to “get your heads out of your butt.”