Coaches love to talk about how much the players have changed. Brent Key wanted to flip the mirror around at ACC Kickoff in Charlotte this week.
Georgia Tech's head coach walked into ACC media days coming off the best season the program has had in more than a decade. The Yellow Jackets went 9-4 in 2025, started 8-0 for the first time since 1966, finished second in the ACC at 6-2, and climbed as high as #7 in the polls. Quarterback Haynes King was named ACC Player of the Year. That kind of run usually buys a coach a week of softball questions and a victory lap.
Instead, Key used part of his time to say something a little more pointed about the people running the sport.
Asked about the constant churn of rules and structure in college football, the roster caps, the revenue sharing, the portal windows that seem to move every year, Key didn't pretend he had leverage over any of it.
"What else am I going to do? Seriously. Am I going to object to it? No, I don't want to do that. I don't have a say in it. We could walk out of here and have three different rules or a change in something. You have to be adaptable. You have to be able to change."
Then he had a message for the adults in college football, many of which love to complain about the current state of the game.
"People say, oh, you know, kids are different now. Well, so are the adults. We are too. We're the ones that set the example, but the same guys that want to complain about a lot of the things in college football need to look themselves in the mirror. They're the ones jumping jobs every two years too. Let's be real. The adults in the room sometimes end up being the bigger problem."
It's a fair point, and one an alma-mater guy like Key can make with a straight face. He played on the offensive line at Georgia Tech, took over as interim head coach in 2022, earned the full-time job, and has stayed put and built something. The extension he signed makes clear the school wants him there for the long haul. When he talks about coaches bouncing every two years, he isn't one of them.
Key also laid out how he runs his building, and it's the same philosophy that has kept the roster steady while a lot of programs bleed talent to the portal every offseason.
"I'm very transparent with my team about that. We talk very real in terms of that. Look, we're co-workers. This is no dictatorship at Georgia Tech. I'm the head coach, I'm the leader, yes, but we have to work together, and they understand that. It's about the players at Georgia Tech. Always has been and always will be as long as I'm the head football coach there."
For coaches trying to hold a locker room together in an era where players have more options and more information than ever, there's something worth chewing on with Key's approach. The players are watching how the we - the adults - handle change too.
Stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.