Georgia Tech seniors large part of program’s rebuild

This anecdote from Joe Fusile, Georgia Tech’s starting left guard, encapsulates what Tech’s senior class has grown to become, the mark it has left on the current state of the program.

“I remember being here my first year in the scout locker room (in 2021), losing a game badly and no one cared at all,” Fusile told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution this week. “The fury of that, then to develop into a team that despises losing so much, it’s kind of incredible. It’s a terrific thing we’ve built.”

Fusile will be one of 26 seniors recognized about a half an hour before No. 16 Georgia Tech faces Pittsburgh at 7 p.m. Saturday at Bobby Dodd Stadium. It’s a matchup with massive ramifications: a Tech win puts the Yellow Jackets in the ACC title game next month. A Tech loss and the Jackets’ hopes of playing in that game, and maybe even the College Football Playoff, are all but shattered.

And it’s the Tech seniors, whether it be five-year guys like Fusile, six-year guys like defensive tackle Jason Moore, four-year guys like safety Clayton Powell-Lee, three-year guys like star quarterback Haynes King or one-year guys like tight end J.T. Byrne, who have all been instrumental in turning around what not too long ago was one of the league’s worst teams.

Fourteen of the 26 seniors who will be recognized Saturday have been with coach Brent Key throughout his entire full-time tenure.

“Those guys, they’re such a huge reason why we’ve been able to have the success that we’ve had,” Key said Thursday. “These guys chose to trust into a vision and trust into a plan when there was really no proof of it. Those guys have been outstanding.”

A little more than three years ago — Oct. 1, 2022, to be exact — Tech beat Pitt 26-21 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. That was Key’s first game as the head coach at his alma mater, one of eight games he served as the program’s interim leader before being handed the full-time job after the ’22 season.

Many of the names in the box score from that day are long gone, save for the likes of Moore, Powell-Lee, defensive tackle Akelo Stone (who transferred to Ole Miss and then back to Tech for this season), Fusile, wide receiver Malik Rutherford, cornerback Ahmari Harvey and running backs Jamal Haynes and Daylon Gordon.

Moore said it wasn’t lost on him that Tech’s first game under Key came against Pitt, and now one of its biggest regular-season games in more than a decade is also against the Panthers.

“You see other guys you play high school ball with, like (former Alabama defensive end) Will Anderson, win a (national title) his freshman year while I’m over here, 3-9. And then just kind of next season, more or less the same thing, 3-9,” Moore said. “Then just seeing that transition once the intern stage went through, then Key was hired as a full-time guy, then just the overall progression from year to year, seeing overall consistency, being here while the building blocks of the program was being put in place.

“Seeing it kind of all come to fruition at this point, just been like eye-opening, like everything’s just been amazing. Seeing the lowest of the lows, probably like the worst moment like ever as a Yellow Jacket. I didn’t even play freshman year, just watching (quarterback) Trevor Lawrence just take us through the wringer (in a 73-7 Clemson win at Bobby Dodd Stadium), now we have a chance to play for the ACC championship. It’s just like two totally different ends of the spectrum at this point.”

Added Rutherford: “I’m glad we are at this point in the season where we have a chance to do something that hasn’t been done here in a long time. I’m just happy and I’m excited for our fan base because they’ve been through a lot these past few years, especially my freshman year starting out in 2021. I’m just really happy that we get to go out here and are about to go show out in front of a sold-out crowd.”