
Brent Key
Brent Key went 29–24 as a head coach, 2022–2026, at Georgia Tech. Wikipedia’s season articles record one season differently (2026, 2–3); by them his record is 29–23. Share
- Record
- 29–24 career
- Seasons
- 5
- Schools
- 1
- Final AP top 10
- 0 seasons
- Born
- Aug 1, 1978
- Alma mater
- Georgia Tech 2001
- Best season
- 2025 9–4
Season by season
| Season | School | Record | Conference finish | Bowl | AP final | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Georgia Tech interim, remainder of season | 4–4 | 11th | |||
| 2023 | Georgia Tech | 7–6 | T–4th | Gasparilla Bowl W | ||
| 2024 | Georgia Tech | 7–6 | 6th | Birmingham Bowl L | ||
| 2025 | Georgia Tech | 9–4 | 6th | Pop-Tarts Bowl L | 24 | |
| 2026 | Georgia Tech | 2–4 (Wikipedia: 2–3) |
Each season links to the team’s season page; bowls and playoff games link to the game. Conference finishes from the Wikipedia article’s record table.
Players he coached
Keylan RutledgeNo. 26 pick, 2026
Every player from his seasons with a Heisman top-five finish, a national award, consensus All-America honors or a first-round pick.
How his teams did
| Kind of game | Games | Record | Won |
|---|---|---|---|
| Against ranked teams | 16 | 7–9 | 44% |
| Against top-10 teams | 6 | 2–4 | 33% |
| Against rivals | 16 | 7–9 | 44% |
| Conference games | 34 | 21–13 | 62% |
| Bowls and playoffs | 3 | 1–2 | 33% |
| Decided by 8 points or fewer | 25 | 15–10 | 60% |
| At home | 24 | 16–8 | 67% |
| On the road | 22 | 11–11 | 50% |
| At neutral sites | 7 | 2–5 | 29% |
| As our Elo’s favorite | 24 | 14–10 | 58% |
| As our Elo’s underdog | 29 | 15–14 | 52% |
His own 53 games on file, 2022–2026, as played (vacated wins counted, ties as half a win). Ranks are the AP poll going into the game; rivals are the ones either program’s Wikipedia article names; favorite and underdog by our own Elo rating, which reads only scores.
Against other head coaches
| Coach | Record | Their schools | Games | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kirby Smart 2022–2025 | 0–4 | Georgia | 4 | |
| Mack Brown 2022–2024 | 3–0 | North Carolina | 3 | |
| Manny Diaz 2024–2026 | 3–0 | Duke | 3 | |
| Mario Cristobal 2022–2024 | 2–1 | Miami | 3 |
Brent Key’s record against the head coaches he met three or more times, from the games on file, as played.
Most-faced opponents
| Opponent | Games | Record |
|---|---|---|
| Dukeseries | 4 | 4–0 |
| Virginia Techseries | 4 | 2–2 |
| Georgiaseries | 4 | 0–4 |
| North Carolinaseries | 3 | 3–0 |
| Syracuseseries | 3 | 2–1 |
| Miamiseries | 3 | 2–1 |
| Wake Forestseries | 2 | 2–0 |
| Coloradoseries | 2 | 1–1 |
National title staffs
Every title staff- Won a national title on Alabama’s 2017 staff (offensive line) · the staff · source
The champions’ staffs from 1990 on, as the schools listed them that season: Staff lists: Drew Hoover’s how-many-rings (MIT), from the schools’ media guides and staff pages. Roles as the source words them.
How he was hired
- Hired by Georgia Tech for the 2022 season from Georgia Tech, where he was assistant head coach. He had a prior connection to the school.
Power-conference head-coaching hires since 2010, with each coach’s previous job and ties to the school as collected by hand from Wikipedia: Hiring facts: M. Schuckers, cfb_coach_analytics.
Career
| Years | Team | Job | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001–02 | Georgia Tech | Graduate assistant | |
| 2004 | Western Carolina | Running backs and tight ends coach | |
| 2005 | UCF | Graduate assistant | |
| 2006–07 | UCF | Tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator | |
| 2008 | UCF | Special teams and tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator | |
| 2009–11 | UCF | Offensive line coach and recruiting coordinator | |
| 2012–13 | UCF | Assistant head coach, offensive line coach and recruiting coordinator | |
| 2014–15 | UCF | Assistant head coach, offensive coordinator, offensive line coach and recruiting coordinator | |
| 2016–18 | Alabama | Offensive line coach | |
| 2019–22 | Georgia Tech | Assistant head coach, offensive line coach and running game coordinator | |
| 2022 | Georgia Tech | Interim head coach | |
| 2023–present | Georgia Tech | Head coach |
Every job as the infobox of his Wikipedia article lists it (CC BY-SA), assistant jobs included.
Coaching tree
Worked under
- Mac McWhorterGeorgia Tech
- George O’LearyGeorgia Tech, UCF
- Chan GaileyGeorgia Tech
- Kent BriggsWestern Carolina
- Danny BarrettUCF
- Nick SabanAlabama
- Geoff CollinsGeorgia Tech
Assistants who became head coaches
- Jim ChaneyTennessee
- Brian BohannonKennesaw State
Worked under (7)
| Head coach | Team | Years | His job | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mac McWhorter | Georgia Tech | 2001 | Graduate assistant | |
| George O’Leary | Georgia Tech | 2001 | Graduate assistant | |
| Chan Gailey | Georgia Tech | 2002 | Graduate assistant | |
| Kent Briggs | Western Carolina | 2004 | Running backs and tight ends coach | |
| George O’Leary | UCF | 2005–15 | 2005: graduate assistant; 2006–07: tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator; 2008: special teams and tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator; 2009–11: offensive line coach and recruiting coordinator; 2012–13: assistant head coach, offensive line coach and recruiting coordinator; 2014–15: assistant head coach, offensive coordinator, offensive line coach and recruiting coordinator | |
| Danny Barrett | UCF | 2015 | Assistant head coach, offensive coordinator, offensive line coach and recruiting coordinator | |
| Nick Saban | Alabama | 2016–18 | Offensive line coach | |
| Geoff Collins | Georgia Tech | 2019–22 | Assistant head coach, offensive line coach and running game coordinator |
Coached under him, later head coaches (2)
| Coach | With him | Head coach at | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jim Chaney | Georgia Tech, 2022: offensive analyst | Tennessee | |
| Brian Bohannon | Georgia Tech, 2025–26: assistant coach | Kennesaw State |
Other assistants under him (11)
| Coach | With him | |
|---|---|---|
| Andrew Thacker | Georgia Tech, 2022–23: defensive coordinator; 2023: safeties coach | |
| Chip Long | Georgia Tech, 2022: offensive coordinator and tight ends coach | |
| Chris Weinke | Georgia Tech, 2022: quarterbacks coach; 2023: co–OC and quarterbacks coach; 2024–26: assistant head coach, co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| Jason Semore | Georgia Tech, 2022: linebackers coach; 2026: defensive coordinator | |
| Brian Baker | Georgia Tech, 2023: senior defensive analyst | |
| Buster Faulkner | Georgia Tech, 2023–25: offensive coordinator and tight ends coach | |
| Kevin Sherrer | Georgia Tech, 2023: co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach | |
| Tyler Santucci | Georgia Tech, 2024: defensive coordinator and linebackers coach | |
| Blake Gideon | Georgia Tech, 2025: defensive coordinator | |
| George Godsey | Georgia Tech, 2026: offensive coordinator | |
| Vinnie Sunseri | Georgia Tech, 2026: defensive backs coach |
From coaches’ Wikipedia infoboxes (CC BY-SA) and each season’s article for its coordinators: an assistant’s seasons at a school count under its head coach in our records; jobs in the NFL and elsewhere, under the head coach whose own article lists the job that year. Names without a page here link to their Wikipedia articles.
Pay
| Year | School | Job | Contract pay | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | UCF | offensive coordinatorbonuses up to $28,381 | $1,040,568 USA Today | |
| 2014 | UCF | offensive coordinatorbonuses up to $25,029 | $302,850 USA Today |
USA Today’s coaches salary database (2014–17, from public-records requests to the schools; Rachel Ehlers’ copy): the season’s contract pay, school pay plus outside money, before bonuses.
Pay of public employees in their public job only: head coaches, and assistants in the seasons our records name them a coordinator, at public universities.
How he coached
Key’s teams went for it on 24% of fourth downs and on 47% of those where the model said go for it, passed on 48% of plays and took 25.6 seconds a play, 2023–2026.
| Season | Went for it on fourth | When the model said go | Pass rate | Seconds a play | EPA a play | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 11 g | 17 of 74 23% | 56% | 45% | 24.8 | +0.09 | |
| 2024 13 g | 27 of 95 28% | 49% | 46% | 26.1 | +0.12 | |
| 2025 12 g | 14 of 72 19% | 34% | 47% | 25.7 | +0.19 | |
| 2026 6 g | 10 of 42 24% | 50% | 56% | 25.6 | +0.08 | |
| All 42 g | 68 of 283 24% | 47% | 48% | 25.6 | +0.13 |
His seasons as a head coach from 2004 on, from ESPN’s play by play: fourth downs where he went for it out of every fourth-down decision; how often he went when SportsDataverse’s fourth-down model said going for it was the better call; the share of his offense’s plays that were passes; seconds of game clock per offensive play (lower is faster); and expected points added per offensive play (EPA, a measure of how much each play moved the offense toward points). The season in progress counts its games so far. SportsDataverse’s coach tendencies, from ESPN’s play by play; the EPA and the fourth-down model are SportsDataverse’s.