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Brent Key has lived the Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate rivalry as a Georgia Tech player, an assistant coach and now a head coach, so he’s as well-versed in what this game means to the state as anybody out there.
He was an offensive lineman for the Yellow Jackets from 1997-2000 and a Georgia Tech assistant from 2019-22 before becoming the interim head coach in that 2022 season. The interim tag was then taken off and it’s been Key’s show for the past 2 seasons, so last year in his first full season he got a taste of what Georgia quarterback Carson Beck could do.
Beck didn’t have spectacular stats in the Bulldogs’ 31-23 victory at Georgia Tech last November, but he did enough to help win the rivalry game and Key remembers. Beck had 175 yards passing, 1 touchdown and 1 interception, and he ran for 24 yards on 4 carries as Georgia took a 31-13 lead after 3 quarters and held off a Georgia Tech rally in the 4th.
Now Key will have to face Beck and the Bulldogs in enemy territory, as the rivals will clash in Athens in a Black Friday primetime showdown at 7:30 p.m. ET on ABC.
“He has a unique talent, a unique skillset,” said Key about Beck this week. “He gets all the credit for the way he throws the ball and the passing offense, but this is a kid I remember coming to camp when he was in high school, he’s a 4.6 (in the 40-yard dash) kid. He can run. He can get out of trouble.”
Georgia Tech took down Miami earlier this month, so the 7-4 Yellow Jackets will hardly be pushovers for Beck and the 9-2 Bulldogs, who are eyeing a College Football Playoff berth and can’t afford to slip up.
Key on Carson Beck: “He has a unique talent, a unique skillset. He gets all the credit for the way he throws the ball and the passing offense, but this is a kid I remember coming to camp when he was in high school, he’s a 4.6 kid. He can run. He can get out of trouble.”
— Chad Bishop (@MrChadBishop) November 27, 2024
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
