Editor’s note: Saturday Road’s annual Crystal Ball prediction series continues today with Georgia Tech. Next up, we’ll preview Louisville.

Previously: Boston College | Clemson | Duke | FSU

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Georgia Tech earned more wins in Brent Key’s 8 games as interim coach last season than his predecessor Geoff Collins did in any of his 3 full seasons with the Yellow Jackets.

The 4-4 finish, which included road upsets of ranked opponents North Carolina and Pittsburgh, was good enough to earn the former Tech offensive lineman a 5-year, $15 million contract to stay on as his alma mater’s full-time coach.

But Key isn’t getting carried away with his success.

In fact, as far as he’s concerned, what he and his Yellow Jackets accomplished in 2022 wasn’t even a success at all.

“We had some times that we were successful,” he said. “But I don’t know that it was a large success because there are so many things we have to improve on and get better. Each season is a season of its own. Every game is a game of its own.”

True, but Tech was significantly better after Key took over than it was in the 4 games that preceded his elevation.

That, said junior safety LaMiles Brooks, isn’t an accident.

Key immediately won over his players with his passion, his professionalism and a genuine understanding of the challenges that come with being a football player at Georgia Tech  – having gone through the experience himself as a 4-year starter in the late 1990s.

Most of all, though, they came to respect his attention to detail. 

It’s a trait he learned to value during his time as Nick Saban’s offensive line coach at Alabama. And something that was often lacking under Collins.

“The margin of error that you can make and get away with in football is very slim,” said Brooks, who led the Yellow Jackets with 3 interceptions and is the team’s top returning tackler with 52 stops in 2022. 

“We made too many mistakes and it affected the games. We lost games to a blocked punt, mental errors and small things like that. Coach Brent made it apparent that these were our issues and that made us as a team more conscious of the mistakes – blocked punts, jumping offside, pass interference. Things like that.”

Fixing those fundamental mistakes and the optimism last year’s strong finish helped create are major steps forward for a program now 5 years removed from its most recent winning season.

It’s only a first step. 

But the road to success has to start somewhere.

Three’s a crowd

Depth is always a valuable commodity, especially at the most important position on the field. And the Yellow Jackets’ quarterback room is fully stocked with 3 veterans who have college starting experience.

At some point between now and the season opener against Louisville on Sept. 3, Key, offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner and quarterbacks coach Chris Weinke will have to decide on a pecking order between Texas A&M transfer Haynes King and holdovers Zach Pyron and Zach Gibson.

With less than 2 weeks left in preseason camp, Faulkner doesn’t appear in any hurry to name a starter.

“As far as the race, we are going to have all 3 guys getting reps,” Faulkner told the assembled media after a practice last week. “All 3 are getting an opportunity to play and whoever comes out on top, you guys will know when we know. Or maybe even the first play of the game.”

King, a former 4-star recruit who started the Aggies’ opener last season, appeared to be the frontrunner coming out of spring practice. He completed 56% of his passes for a team-leading 1,220 yards and 7 touchdowns before being replaced after seeing action in 6 games.

Pyron is also a 4-star talent who led an exhilarating 4th-quarter comeback to beat Virginia Tech in his first career start before suffering a season-ending injury the following week at Miami while Gibson, a transfer from Akron, was the starter that engineered a late-season upset of Coastal Division champion North Carolina.

“We have a great battle between 3 guys that have college experience, college game experience, big-time game experience,” Key said. “We are as fortunate as any team in the country in terms of the depth we have at that position.”

The next Keion White?

Keion White came to Tech as an unheralded 2-star recruit who started his college career at Old Dominion as a tight end. Last season, the converted DL led Tech with 7.5 sacks and became the 2nd-round draft pick of the NFL’s New England Patriots.

It’s the same kind of progression Key and his staff are hoping to see in White’s replacement, the equally unheralded Sylvain Yondjouen.

While Yondjouen is still in the process of developing the natural instincts to become an elite pass rusher, he already possesses the size at 6-4, 248 pounds and the athleticism to follow in White’s footsteps and become an equally disruptive force in opposing backfields.

“It gives me a lot of motivation to keep working hard because I saw Keion at the beginning of the season or even when he transferred (in 2021),” Yondjouen said. “At first he didn’t really play a lot and then he played way more last year. 

“Just seeing him work every day, he would come in, get treatment, get in the hot tub, get stretched before everybody, after everybody, stayed longer after workouts. It just shows that if you put your mind to it and you keep working for it, it will pay off. That’s what I’m trying to do just like him.”

A native of Belgium who was discovered after being named MVP in an international game against Spain in 2016, Yondjouen has made incremental progress in each of his 4 seasons with the Yellow Jackets.

He recorded career highs of 32 tackles, 2.5 sacks and 5 tackles for loss as a junior last year and is being counted on to be even more productive this season as part of a defense that also has to find replacements for linebackers Ayinde Eley and Charlie Thomas, the team’s 2 leading tacklers in 2022.

He’s been there, done that

Becoming a college head coach for the first time was an important milestone for Key. Having it happen at his alma mater has made it even more special.

Having played for the Yellow Jackets, the 44-year-old Alabama native doesn’t just understand and value the traditions of the school that employs him. He’s actually lived them.

And because he’s experienced the challenges associated with juggling football with Tech’s rigid academic requirements, he has a better understanding of what his players are going through than someone from the outside.

“We’re a morning practice team and there might be a guy who’s tired that morning,” Key said. “Let’s not be so quick to jump on him because you think he was up playing video games all night. Maybe he was up to 2 or 3 studying. You understand that there’s other factors that go into these kids’ lives.

“There’s an amount of shared adversity that takes place in any locker room and I feel like at Georgia Tech, there’s a little bit different type of shared adversity.”

While coaching for the place at which you played has its rewards, the flipside is that there’s more pressure to succeed and not to let your school down.

“All of us as college football coaches put so much pressure on ourselves regardless of where we are,” the former Yellow Jackets offensive guard said. “I don’t think there’s any added pressure. There’s added people around you. People you know. That’s the people that have expectations toward you.”

Game-by-game predictions

Week 1: vs. Louisville at Mercedes-Benz Stadium (L)

The Cardinals are playing their first game under new coach Jeff Brohm, but their quarterback Jack Plummer is well-versed in his Air Raid offense, having run it with Brohm at Purdue. A bigger factor, however, is the aggressive defense the new Louisville coach inherited from his predecessor Scott Satterfield.

Week 2: vs. South Carolina State (W)

The Bulldogs are an HBCU team that finished 3-8 last season and has a history of getting waxed by FBS teams in guarantee games. They lost 55-10 to UCF and 50-10 to South Carolina last season. In other words, they’re just the kind of opponent the Yellow Jackets need to start building some confidence.

Week 3: at Ole Miss (L)

The Rebels are the opposite SC State and not an ideal opponent for a building program to face. Especially on the road. They shut out Tech 42-0 last September in a game Lane Kiffin did everything in the 2nd half to keep from running up the score. Tech isn’t going to win this game. But how it performs will serve as a measuring stick for how far it has come since this time last year.

Week 4: at Wake Forest (L)

The Deacons’ Dave Clawson has built the kind of program Key aspires to build at Tech. These things don’t happen overnight, though.

Week 5: vs. Bowling Green (W)

The last time these teams met, the Yellow Jackets hung 63 points in a win in 2017. Although Bowling Green was a bowl team a year ago after going 6-6 during the regular season, it returns a defense that allowed 32 points and 419 yards per game.

Week 6: at Miami (L) 

The Hurricanes were a mess last season, but they still beat Key and the Yellow Jackets 35-14. They’ll be better and healthier this year. And the game is in Miami.

Week 7: Open

Week 8: vs. Boston College (W)

Both teams are coming off open dates and both are in need of a victory to build some positive momentum for the 2nd half of the season. Tech needs it more. 

Week 9: vs. North Carolina (L)

The Yellow Jackets stunned the Tar Heels in Chapel Hill last season. They did it by holding ACC Player of the Year Drake Maye to a season-low 202 passing yards and became 1 of only 2 defenses to keep him from throwing a touchdown pass. You can bet the Heisman Trophy candidate has been waiting all year to exact some revenge.

Week 10: at Virginia (W)

Tech failed to score an offensive touchdown and managed only 202 total yards in a game that saw the Cavaliers record 8 sacks and do just enough to win 16-9 in an ugly Thursday night affair. The Yellow Jackets’ quarterback situation should be solidified by this time and UVA is still offensively challenged.

Week 11: at Clemson (L) 

The Yellow Jackets have lost 8 straight to the Tigers and have been outscored 322-101 during that stretch. They haven’t won at Death Valley since 2008. They’re due to win 1 at some point. Just now now.

Week 12: vs. Syracuse (W)

There aren’t many 50-50 games on Tech’s brutal schedule, but this is 1 of them. And the Yellow Jackets take advantage of it by pulling out a victory against a disappointing Orange team to equal their win total from the previous year and keep alive their slim postseason hopes.

Week 13: vs. Georgia (L)

Those bowl hopes are slim because they hinge on beating the 2-time defending champions. Good luck. Count on Georgia delivering its 6th consecutive clean, old-fashioned whuppin’ in the rivalry game.

2023 projection: 5-7 (3-5)

#4The404

Key inherited a mess when it took over for Collins 4 games into last season. He did an admirable enough job of stabilizing a bad situation that he was rewarded with a contract to stick around and continue the job of fixing his alma mater’s broken program.

It’s a rebuilding job that isn’t going to happen overnight, though.

While there is room for improvement in the won-loss column – even with a difficult schedule, uncertainty at quarterback and with large holes to fill on defense – Key’s measure of success in his first full season is different from those looking at his program from the outside.

“There’s only one way to go and that’s up. That’s the way you have to trend,” he said. “Our goal is to win games. That’s our job. (But) how am I going to sit here and say we’re going to put a number count on the amount of wins we have? 

“I don’t operate that way. I don’t want these guys to operate that way. Our job is to go out and do as good as we can possibly do at all times. Every part of the program is working to improve.”