Brent Key backs Jason Semore as Georgia Tech slides to 2-6

Key sat at the podium Tuesday and started with the most damning number of the season, one he says he may never have seen in his whole career.

Kelly Quinlan

@Kelly_Quinlan

Brent Key said that everything comes down to winning one-on-one competitions, and they aren't winning enough of those in games. He said they've had a blatant disregard for the football: 15 fumbles this season. He said he isn't sure they've had that many in his entire career.

Fifteen fumbles through 8 games is how you go 2-6. The Jackets just got run over 34-11 at Pitt, with Pitt freshman running back Damon Ferguson going for 185 yards and a touchdown. A week earlier Boston College gashed the same defense on the ground. This is a team that went 9-4 last year, and Key now sits at 29-26 overall at his alma mater.

Key didn't duck any of it. He put the blame on himself first and made a pointed admission about what the school has put into the program.

Kelly Quinlan

@Kelly_Quinlan

Brent Key said it starts and ends with him in terms of accountability. The entire university has worked hard to put the team in a position to be successful (in terms of support and finances), and they haven't, as a team, held up their end of the bargain on that.

That's the part Tech fans will chew on. The school paid up, and the football team hasn't paid it back. It's already costing Key money: the AJC reported that his contract had an automatic extension tied to an 8-win season, which would have added a year through December 2031 and $250,000 a year in supplemental pay. At 2-6 that can't happen anymore. His current deal still runs through December 2030 at $6.15 million a year, and the buyout is about $18.45 million, so nobody is getting fired over the extension. But the vibe has flipped fast.

Then came the question everybody wanted asked: what happens to Jason Semore? Key moved Semore up to run the defense this season, years after he coached linebackers and helped revamp special teams on the 2022 staff. The run defense has been a disaster. Key's answer was basically that Semore is the DC and nobody better is walking through the door in November.

Kelly Quinlan

@Kelly_Quinlan

Key said that Jason Semore is the DC, and he spent weeks evaluating everything, and he sees what is going on. His job is to put the job in the best position this year to succeed. He said if there were different options involved, there would be different conversations.

Read between the lines and "if there were different options involved, there would be different conversations" is about as lukewarm as a vote of confidence gets. That's not a guy promising Semore is safe. He's saying a mid-season swap doesn't make the team better. After the Pitt loss Key also said the program needs "a total top-to-bottom look," so the evaluation is happening. It's just not happening out loud this week.

Kelly Quinlan

@Kelly_Quinlan

Key said there are 105 players and tons of fans who live and die with Georgia Tech football, but he isn't going to make an emotional decision on staff. He has to make the right decisions.

Key also said no formal decisions have been made, while admitting he knows National Signing Day and the portal window are coming. He planted one more flag before he left: a 1,000 APR, a first for the program. In his words, the team "isn't functioning worth a damn on the field right now, but it isn't broken." Fair enough on the classroom stuff. Nobody in Atlanta is going to feel better about 15 fumbles because of an APR score, though.

Next up is Louisville at Bobby Dodd on Saturday night, 7:30 on ACC Network. If Semore's defense gets pushed around on the ground again, the different conversation Key keeps hinting at is coming sooner than December.