Brent Key: No better place for combo of athletics, academics than Georgia Tech

CHARLOTTE — Georgia Tech coach Brent Key is quite the ambassador for his alma mater.

During his media availability last week at ACC Kickoff, one reporter asked Key about “winning at a place like” Tech. Key was immediately perplexed by the question, only for the reporter to clarify he was referring to Tech being a place with lofty academic standards.

Key then delivered a passionate endorsement for coming to The Flats.

“Georgia Tech is, in my opinion, the greatest place in the entire country to get the combination of both (athletics and academics),” he said. “You have to find the right fit, to answer your question. You have to have people in your program that understand that football is going to come to an end. There’s a life after football. Not life when you graduate because I want every one of these guys to play in the NFL for a long time, to reach all their dreams. But you got to have the right fit, the right person. That’s a culture that was established in our locker room three years ago, 3½ years ago, that they’ll tell us.

“That doesn’t mean everything is rosy the day everybody walks in the door. The roster turns over 30, 35% every January on every team. To find the right fit to come into your locker room — I know every coach comes up here and talks about the fit, the fit, the fit. The fit is unique to each individual program in school. It’s unique to where you are.”

Key continued, explaining he and his evaluators understand it takes a certain type of person to excel in their program.

“There’s kids that don’t want to go to college in a major city,” he said. “Guess what, we’re not moving the school. That’s not a fit. OK, but the ones that understand that there’s a life after football that want to be developed and coached hard, all right, held accountable, high expectations on the field and in the classroom, and then be able to build the relationships that it takes to have successful life afterwards.

“I don’t say it lightly when I say I want guys to come to Georgia Tech to be a first-round pick and a CEO. I say that, and I mean that.”

Key then cited guard Keylan Rutledge, a Tech standout who graduated from the school and became a first-round pick by the Texans. “A first-round pick and a college graduate from Georgia Tech who is going to have success, and that’s what I want for all of our guys,” he said.