Georgia Tech, BYU coaches bonded by favorite Pop-Tarts, Orlando connections

As serious as Georgia Tech coach Brent Key and BYU coach Kalani Sitake are about football, they take their Pop-Tarts just as seriously, too.

The two coaches will square off in the Pop-Tarts Bowl in Orlando, Florida, on Dec. 27, each looking to guide their respective teams to a win. And afterward, the victorious coach may celebrate with his favorite flavor of the breakfast snack.

“Strawberry,” Key said of his preferred Pop-Tarts. “I like the frosted, the different frosted glazes on the top. I’m a big Pop-Tart guy. Even if I’ve had breakfast, I’ll throw them down.”

Said Sitake: “I haven’t met a Pop-Tart flavor I didn’t like, but I will say this, I am pretty easy. Strawberry is always the one to go to because I think that is the one everybody tried first. I like strawberry. I do like wild berry. I am not against brown sugar and cinnamon. What else can I name? Cherry is good, too. The cookies and cream is a good one, too. I love them all.”

Key said Sunday he has met Sitake only once or twice in person. When the two finally do get a chance to chat later this month in Florida they will be able to discuss not only their shared affinity for strawberry Pop-Tarts, but also their personal and professional connections to Orlando, as well as being coaches currently leading their respective alma maters.

The 47-year-old Key took a position as a graduate assistant on coach George O’Leary’s staff in 2005 at Central Florida. Key would spend the next 10 years with UCF, rising to the rank of assistant head coach and offensive coordinator by 2015.

Key also met his wife, Danielle, in Orlando, and the two were married in the city.

“Orlando is such a huge part of my life. Me as a man, me as a father, a husband, but also as a football coach,” Key said. “That’s where I really learned how to be a football coach. I learned how to handle adversity, setbacks, ups and downs, as far as learning the processes of what it takes to be a head coach.

“Coached a lot of really, really good players. A lot of great memories. Still have great relationships with those players and coaches. Gosh, it’s been almost 10 years ago now, but a lot of great memories, a lot of great friendships.”

Key began his coaching career as a graduate assistant for Tech after his playing career as an offensive lineman. Sitake, like Key, was a graduate assistant at his alma mater of BYU after he had played fullback for the Cougars in the late 1990s.

Sitake also coached at Southern Utah, Utah and Oregon State before returning to Provo, Utah, where he has won 83 games since becoming the BYU coach in 2016.

“I believe a couple of decades ago (Key) was a GA (graduate assistant) at Georgia Tech and I was a GA at BYU,” Sitake said. “You look at us now, we are both leading our teams and get to meet in Orlando.