When Georgia Tech safety LaMiles Brooks walks across campus these days, the interaction is different than what it was less than a month ago.
Fellow students congratulate him for the team’s wins over Pittsburgh and Duke. Some may want a photo. Professors also have shared in the excitement over the Yellow Jackets winning two games in a row since the firing of coach Geoff Collins and the promotion of interim coach Brent Key.
“That’s big,” Brooks said Monday. “That’s all you could ever ask for as a college athlete.”
Within the Tech fan base, excitement appears to have reached a height not scaled at least since 2018, former coach Paul Johnson’s final season. After the 10-28 tenure of Collins, the strong start spurred by Key has generated hope and enthusiasm for the rest of the season, including Thursday night’s matchup at Bobby Dodd Stadium against Virginia (7:30 p.m., ESPN).
“It brings some of the pride back,” Tech alumnus Karl Paul said. “That’s a big piece of it.”
Paul held season tickets for 51 consecutive years before deciding not to renew before this season because of his disenchantment with the state of the team under Collins’ leadership. Even before Collins’ dismissal, he was a fervid supporter of Key and is thrilled for the early results. Like most Tech fans, he appreciates that Key is a Tech grad whose love for his alma mater is unwavering. Paul noted, for instance, that Key incorporates the phrase “Go Jackets” into his news conferences.
“We kind of lost that the last three years, well, because we were embarrassed,” Paul said.
Tight end Dylan Leonard has felt the surge in enthusiasm.
“It’s great for us as players, but it’s also cool to see the fan base and getting wins for the students,” he said. “You just hear different conversations in the classroom, and there’s a little more hype. It’s really cool walking around campus seeing people be excited for us.”
Key made a plea to fans last week to show up at Bobby Dodd Stadium on Thursday night. He spoke Monday of the excitement that the team and the coaching staff have felt since the change in leadership. He spoke with reverence for the experience that is a Thursday night game on Grant Field, games he had played in as an offensive lineman for coach George O’Leary from 1997-2000. His final home game at Tech, in fact, was a Thursday night home game against the same Cavaliers, won 35-0 by the Jackets.
“The vivid image of being on the sideline on the west sideline and being able to see across and to see the skyline of Atlanta and the lights and the sounds – I’m getting chill bumps right now talking about it,” Key said. “It’s a special setting.”
Ticket sales appear to be quickening. Since Tech’s win over Duke on Oct. 8, per-day ticket sales through StubHub have increased by 265%, according to the ticket resale platform. Likewise, the volume of tickets sold on a per-day basis has quadrupled compared to the average prior to the Duke game.
It is a game of meaning for the Jackets. With a win, Tech can improve to 4-3 overall and 3-1 in the ACC, taking another step toward bowl eligibility and maintaining control of its path to a possible ACC Coastal title.
It will be Key’s first opportunity to audition directly for his new boss, athletic director J Batt, who will be in attendance Thursday night.
Roddy Jones, an ACC Network analyst and a former Tech captain, said there is an onus on Tech fans to respond to the team’s resurgence.
“If Tech fans want to be serious about football, you’ve got to back it,” Jones said. “They clamored for Geoff Collins to be gone, they want a great new coach. On Thursday night against Virginia, you’ve got to show up.”
For Tech fans wanting for Batt to hire Key, they can make their feelings known via a message far more tangible than a tweet and hashtag – a purchased ticket. After Tech’s upset win over Pitt on Oct. 1, the initial response was something less than emphatic. On an ideal afternoon on homecoming weekend, the attendance for Tech’s overtime win over Duke was 32,041. It was the second smallest crowd since November 1989 and the smallest attendance for a homecoming game since 1983.
“If you want Brent, show up,” Jones said. “If you want another coach, every coach in the country is going to be watching that game, including the prospective ones that may take the job. If the one game that he’s able to sit down on a Thursday night and really watch of the school, and it’s a packed house, what effect can that have, even if it’s not Brent?”
A lot is on the line Thursday night, which hasn’t been the case much lately.
“I’m excited, especially for the fan base, just to give them something to be excited about,” Leonard said. “So it’s been really cool.”
