Thanks to our new sponsor Inteleca for helping bring back Q's Take my weekly look at things around GT and college sports from my vantage.
I've said probably since the spring I thought 4-7 wins was the likely landing spot for this Georgia Tech team and that a bowl game would be a very solid first-year achievement for Brent Key as he aims to rebuild the program. For the first time since probably the Gator Bowl in 2016, the Jackets have some momentum going as a program that isn't artificially created like the hype Geoff Collins created after his hire.
Proof of concept getting to a bowl game in year one is a great start. Key said aloud what everyone who is around or has followed the program for the last 40 years thinks after the game.
“We belong in bowl games and that is the expectation at this place every single year and should be, Key said of Georgia Tech football.
The route was certainly not the one we thought it would be on here before the season but I think the lows and the highs made it more interesting. If GT just beat Bowling Green and BC and lost to Miami and UNC I think the excitement level would not be the same as it is.
I know someone will chime in with, "well it could've been a special season if you won those games AND beat UNC and Miami," but that is not how things work. The best example of this is the 2014 season when Tech lost a good Duke team and a bad UNC team. Talking to the players from that team they said that was sort of what galvanized the team and led to the late run and the 11-win season.
Tech could've folded up. Syracuse wanted that game badly and they were playing as hard as they could play last night and talking smack and playing on the edges of the rules if not a little over the line leading to some near brawls at times. That was a hard-fought game against a team doing the thing Tech's defense struggled the most again and they made plays and closed it out.
Key picked up his sixth win in 11 games this season and 10th win in 19 games as head coach overall.
Seeing George O'Leary on the sidelines and in the post-game media session provided a good reminder of the dark days of Bill Lewis and how GOL rebuilt the program. Key even spoke about how this reminded him a lot of the 1997 Georgia Tech team in GOL's third season that went to the Carquest Bowl (now the Pop Tarts Bowl moved from Miami to Orlando) after going 11-11 in 1995 and 1996. Key said that was the turning point for the program. The Jackets knocked off WV 35-30 and followed it up with a 10-2 season and the Gator Bowl win in 1998. That was the team honored last night that Key started on as an offensive lineman.
Whether Key can replicate that is hard to tell at this point. I think expecting 10 wins next year with the schedule and in the portal era is hard to imagine right now, but increasing the win total, winning the Bowling Green/BC/Wake/UVA/Cuse type games most of the time and getting back to bowling where it is not a big deal anymore like it used to be would be a good start.
Seeing J Batt hug Brent Key after his media session and the level of excitement from his former teammates and GOL last night after the game added something special. Hopefully this is the turning point for the Jackets program and we can retire the GC3 talk soon and he will be the next name that shall not be named and a footnote in the history of the program just like B#$# L#$%^.
I've said probably since the spring I thought 4-7 wins was the likely landing spot for this Georgia Tech team and that a bowl game would be a very solid first-year achievement for Brent Key as he aims to rebuild the program. For the first time since probably the Gator Bowl in 2016, the Jackets have some momentum going as a program that isn't artificially created like the hype Geoff Collins created after his hire.
Proof of concept getting to a bowl game in year one is a great start. Key said aloud what everyone who is around or has followed the program for the last 40 years thinks after the game.
“We belong in bowl games and that is the expectation at this place every single year and should be, Key said of Georgia Tech football.
The route was certainly not the one we thought it would be on here before the season but I think the lows and the highs made it more interesting. If GT just beat Bowling Green and BC and lost to Miami and UNC I think the excitement level would not be the same as it is.
I know someone will chime in with, "well it could've been a special season if you won those games AND beat UNC and Miami," but that is not how things work. The best example of this is the 2014 season when Tech lost a good Duke team and a bad UNC team. Talking to the players from that team they said that was sort of what galvanized the team and led to the late run and the 11-win season.
Tech could've folded up. Syracuse wanted that game badly and they were playing as hard as they could play last night and talking smack and playing on the edges of the rules if not a little over the line leading to some near brawls at times. That was a hard-fought game against a team doing the thing Tech's defense struggled the most again and they made plays and closed it out.
Key picked up his sixth win in 11 games this season and 10th win in 19 games as head coach overall.
Seeing George O'Leary on the sidelines and in the post-game media session provided a good reminder of the dark days of Bill Lewis and how GOL rebuilt the program. Key even spoke about how this reminded him a lot of the 1997 Georgia Tech team in GOL's third season that went to the Carquest Bowl (now the Pop Tarts Bowl moved from Miami to Orlando) after going 11-11 in 1995 and 1996. Key said that was the turning point for the program. The Jackets knocked off WV 35-30 and followed it up with a 10-2 season and the Gator Bowl win in 1998. That was the team honored last night that Key started on as an offensive lineman.
Whether Key can replicate that is hard to tell at this point. I think expecting 10 wins next year with the schedule and in the portal era is hard to imagine right now, but increasing the win total, winning the Bowling Green/BC/Wake/UVA/Cuse type games most of the time and getting back to bowling where it is not a big deal anymore like it used to be would be a good start.
Seeing J Batt hug Brent Key after his media session and the level of excitement from his former teammates and GOL last night after the game added something special. Hopefully this is the turning point for the Jackets program and we can retire the GC3 talk soon and he will be the next name that shall not be named and a footnote in the history of the program just like B#$# L#$%^.
