Brent Key Brings the "Hate" Back to Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate

The Georgia Tech head coach made his feelings clear on the narrow loss to Georgia last year.

Head coach Brent Key addresses the team during the 2024 Spring Game on April 13. / Georgia Tech Athletics

At a Georgia Tech Alumni Association event on Wednesday, head football coach Brent Key was directly asked about his thoughts on the 31-23 loss to No. 1 Georgia during the 2023 season.

To be clear, this game happened five months ago amidst an extremely successful season for Georgia Tech. Going over .500 and making - let alone winning - a bowl game is a far cry from where the program has been over the past few years. Therefore, it would have been extremely easy for Key to praise the competitive effort of both teams and answer the question in coach-speak.

He went in a different direction when discussing Georgia football. “There’s nothing I hate more.... It’s probably the only thing I actually hate,” Key said. “When I say hate, like, truly despise everything about it. I really do.”

It is clear the pain of losing that November game have not subsided for the second-year head coach. "Three minutes and 31 seconds with three timeouts left, we’re down by eight,” Key said. “Muff the onside kick, get (Georgia) to third-and-3, they run a toss sweep...two inches away from making that tackle. I think about it every day...We talk about it every day."

For some perspective, it is worth comparing the answer Key gave to the one his predecessor, Geoff Collins, gave when asked about the rivalry prior to his first game against them in November of 2019. “We’re completely focused on ourselves,” Collins said at the time. “We understand the program that we’re going against — great players, great coaches and a great venue — but it’s all about us and getting ourselves wired and ready to go." Under Collins, there was an urgency to get the Georgia matchup "back on the national stage".

Georgia Tech ended up losing by scores of 7-52 and 0-45.

Key's messaging is of a different tone. Ahead of his first game against Georgia as a head coach, he was very frank about his feelings on the matchup. He put the onus on his team to change the narrative. "Is it annoying? Heck, yeah," Key said about the Georgia accolades. "Kirby [Smart] has done a great job -- he has. And I told him, 'We've got to do something about it."

Georgia Tech Athletics

"What pisses me off is to look at lists of the 10 or 20 best rivalries in the country and, not to have [Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate] on there, that's bulls---," Key continued. "But at the present time, they're probably right. So we've got to do something about that."

So far, it appears that Key's teams have gotten that message in a way that Collins was never able to capture. Although Georgia Tech has still not snapped their six-game losing streak against Georgia, losing 14-37 to the eventual national champions and 23-31 to a team that nearly made the College Football Playoffs last year shows signs of progress. Even in that 14-37 loss, Georgia Tech was only down 10-7 at half.

It is statements like the one that he gave on Wednesday that have played a big role in the buy-in Brent Key seems to have achieved. He comes across as the four-year starting guard who went 3-2 against Georgia because that is who he is. No, it does not mean that success is guaranteed. Georgia Tech is projected to have one of the toughest schedules in the country. Last year's meltdowns against Bowling Green and Boston College are proof enough that Key has work to do. However, he is fully cogniscient of the type of team he needs to build in order to see growth in 2024.

“Our goal as a team is to, every game, line up and dominate our opponent and make them quit. To absolutely make them quit,” he said. “When you can do that....there’s not a more fulfilling feeling in the entire world.”

To be a team that forces others to quit, there has to be very little quit in the team itself. That starts with the coach - and based on his comments, Brent Key certainly is not going to quit bringing his passion and hatred for Georgia into his efforts as the head coach.