Brent Key says Georgia Tech is ‘near rebuilding’ after 1-3 start

Brent Key spent the first eight months of this year building the 2026 version of the Georgia Tech football team.

He hired two new coordinators. Brought in nearly 20 transfer players, including starting quarterback Alberto Mendoza and other key pieces.

But before the end of September, Key said he’s essentially starting over after the Yellow Jackets lost three of their first four games.

“This bye week is being used to not improve as a football team, but I really look at it as damn near rebuilding a football team,” Key said. “That’s what’s taking place.”

Growing pains were expected entering this season.

The Jackets had to replace star quarterback Haynes King, now with the Carolina Panthers. Former coordinator Buster Faulkner left for Florida, where he now guides the No. 8 Gators offense and former Tech quarterback Aaron Philo.

The schedule was never going to be easy. Tech had 11 Power 4 opponents on the slate, with nonconference matchups against Colorado, Tennessee and Georgia mixed in with its usual ACC foes.

Yet Key publicly expressed confidence in the team he had assembled and the plans he had put in place to keep Tech nationally relevant after nine wins last season.

The results haven’t backed that up.

“I’m a massive Georgia Tech fan,” Key, the former Jackets offensive lineman, said. “Even if I wasn’t the coach, I’d be pissed as hell at the head coach if I was out there in the stands. I’d be pissed off. I’d wonder what the hell is going on.”

After the 14-13 season-opening loss to Colorado, Key said his team was “poorly prepared, poorly coached, poor disciplined, soft.”

The 45-24 loss to Tennessee, in which the Volunteers rushed for 299 yards, left Tech 0-2 for the first time since 1989.

Even in victory against FCS Mercer, Key compared his halftime speech to “nuclear explosions” after the Jackets got off to a sluggish start.

In last Saturday’s ACC opener at Stanford, Tech blew a double-digit halftime lead, gave up 396 yards passing and lost 34-27.

“I acknowledge where we’re at,” Key said. “Where we’re at as a program, what our record is.

“There’s things that have been adjusted, corrected, changed, fixed. All those things.”

The bye week, Key said, cannot simply be about moving forward and preparing for Duke (4-0, 1-0) on Oct. 10.

Key said some changes will come through schematics and personnel on the field. Others will involve the “big picture” areas of the program, including organization, practice plans and game-day structure.

“People aren’t burying their head in the sand,” Key said. “That’s the worst thing that can happen.”

The changes do not, at least for now, include a change at coordinator.

Key said he remains confident in offensive coordinator George Godsey and defensive coordinator Jason Semore, the two he hired before the season.

“You look at the first four games and say look at success and you’re like, ‘Are you crazy?’” Key said. “But we’ll make necessary adjustments throughout the next two weeks to help put them in better position to be able to call the game and execute the game plan.

“But I still have confidence. I do.”

The rebuilding will, however, include a reexamination of the roster.

Key said playing time will be up for grabs at every position, including for younger players who have seen limited action through the first four games.

“We’ll find out real fast who the competitors are and who wants to compete,” Key said.

Key challenged players who believe they should be on the field to make their case, complete with film clips, and bring it to their position coaches. If they cannot resolve the issue there, Key said he will hear them out himself.

“All jobs are being competed, and I want guys to compete,” he said.

Attrition has complicated Key’s efforts to reassess the roster.

Four of Tech’s five starting offensive linemen have missed significant time because of injuries over the past three games.

By the end of the Stanford game, Tech’s defense was without its top four cornerbacks, two of its top three safeties and two captains, defensive end Jordan Walker and linebacker Kyle Efford.

Key has often said injuries will not be an excuse. But he acknowledged that the constant shuffling has prevented the Jackets from establishing something he considers essential to winning.

“I don’t feel like we’ve dictated anything this year. Not one thing. We’ve been reactive to everything, and that starts out as a mindset.”

The losing, the injuries and the attempts to do too much to overcome all of it have compounded into what Key sees as a team playing as a collection of individuals.

“I feel like at times we have 11 independent contractors on the field at all times.