After a season in which the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets continued to show progress on the field, there was even more encouraging news for their fan base on Wednesday as the program signed one of the top recruiting classes in recent Jackets' history.
The first day of the early signing period was Wednesday, and Georgia Tech officially signed 22 prospects from all over the country but specifically 15 from the state of Georgia (with one more expected to be added to that in-state list). The Jackets addressed areas of need as far as depth and signed several players that are expected to compete for early playing time.
Key said he was proud of the class his staff put together, especially the athletes joining the program from inside the state lines and several that are still competing deep in the high school state playoffs for their team.
"I'm really excited about this class. It's one we've been working on really for several years," said Key. "The way it is now they're two, three years, sometimes in this case four years out as far as recruiting guys, but as of right now, we're 22 signings in. Cool thing about it, 15 of those guys from the state of Georgia, six out of the 15 of those guys are still in the playoffs playing. So that's important to us to be able to have guys that...the pedigree comes from a championship high school, too, in a quality high school program. To have that many of them still playing in the playoffs here in the state of Georgia, which is such high quality high school football, is exciting and really bodes well for their future as far as expectations of what it takes to win."
Georgia Tech's signing class was well-balanced with 13 on the offensive side of the ball (with two more expected to come in) and nine on the defensive side of the ball as the Jackets added depth and talent at almost every position. Specifically, they added five on the offensive line (with one more to come) and five on the defensive line (Carrington Coombs is listed as a linebacker but will likely play edge at Tech).
Key said it's been his philosophy in the past few years to primarily build the team's roster through recruiting high school talent and then supplementing that through the transfer portal rather than the way some other programs do it where the transfer portal is used in excess.
"Really my belief in building a roster is to build it through the high school ranks. You know, supplement through the transfer portal and free agency to really go to foundation for the long-term of the program," said Key. "And at the same time, you might find some really good high school guys and they're not quite ready to play. So you want to supplement it, but also you want to have it dispersed evenly with the amount of seniors, years, juniors, sophomores and freshmen. So that's part of it as well. So with the belief in recruiting the high school ranks, really starting here in Atlanta, working in in the entire state of Georgia. We really recruit the state as two different states, you know, one of Atlanta and the other one, the rest of the state of Georgia, to be able to cover that ground."
Key added that balancing things out across the different sides of the ball and by position group is definitely a priority in recruiting a class like this one as well while building things up for long-term success.
"Yeah, you know, the roster goes to 105, and you have ideal numbers for each position that you have to hit. You might be over one or under one in a certain year, but for the most part, you want to be at those ideal numbers at the same time," said Key. "You don't want to have to totally re-recruit a position each year. You want to have it spread out so that you still can develop guys. If you get into the world of bringing in 20, 25 players one year, well then you're just replacing them again the next year. So you're not really building any continuity and you're not building the culture of the locker room that needs to be built for the long term. And look, there's a lot of examples out there, the good and the bad, both collegiate in high school, collegiate in the pros and some of the NFL teams that we've modeled ourselves after and that I'd like to model ourselves after. You're maybe Year 1, Year 2, not as much success, but then you look into Year 3 and 4, and they really have the right game plan for long-term success and building a foundation for long-term success."
With the signing of five offensive linemen (and one more expected to join in the next couple days) and five defensive players at the point of attack, Georgia Tech offensive line coach Geep Wade and defensive line coaches Jess Simpson and Kyle Pope were among the staff's key recruiters for the 2025 class. Key said those guys have done a great job on the recruiting trail, and there is a clear emphasis on developing the team through the trenches with double-digit staff members being former offensive or defensive linemen.
"So all three of those guys, you don't have to talk about what they've done, you can look and see what they've done, not just in recruiting but on the field," said Key of Wade, Simpson and Pope. "And when you look at the success, the consistency of success that those guys have had, and then we're striving for on both sides of the line of scrimmage, that helps a ton in recruiting. That's the first thing. They're great guys that build great relationships, long-term relationships with high school players. I mean, Jess is a legend in the high school ranks here in the state of Georgia. But the persistent part of it, the building real relationships with everyone around. But then I think the key in offensive and defensive line recruiting is showing a path to development. Showing how you're going to develop somebody, having proof behind you of guys you've developed that are similar to them. Look, we have 13 or 14 former offensive and defensive linemen on staff here, right? And that's, that's not by chance. That's for a reason that we've built the staff that way as well, because I want to continue to build a big, strong physical group on both sides of the ball.
"But I couldn't say enough about those three. You know, Geep's been in the game a long time. You know, Jess having his relationships from high school, and Kyle was the guy that when we were in Alabama and he was just a (grad assistant) at that time, he did as good of a job recruiting as anybody on the staff so I've been really pleased with all of them."
One of the late key additions to the class was defensive back Tae Harris from Cedartown as the four-star (6.0) prospect which is ranked No. 43 nationally, No. 8 in the state of Georgia and No. 4 at his position overall flipped his commitment from Clemson to Georgia Tech on Nov. 23. Key said he is a strong believer in continuing to pursue guys that may have committed to another program and always keeping that door open.
"Stick to the process, believe in the process. Just because someone commits somewhere, it's easy for somebody to say, 'Oh, well, let him go.' We ain't having that here. That's not the type of staff that we have. It's not the type of program that I want to have," said Key. "If you believe in something as strongly as we believe in Georgia Tech and the future of the Georgia Tech football program, you're going to continue to recruit the right players for your school, for your program. (Harris) is a guy that's local that we recruit extremely hard, decided along the way, which a lot of them do, that he comes and goes, but those relationships are big. You know, being able to keep people home is big and showing them a path to success and path to development is big. And that kid's an unbelievable kid now. You talk about a kid that is hungry, that, I mean, the day he commits, he's on the phone texting and calling all the other guys in the position room here on the roster saying, 'I can't wait to be with you guys' and those guys immediately come back to me and they're like 'Coach, that guy's definitely one of us now.' I mean just the way everything about him, they're like 'some of us didn't even meet him on one of his visits here' and they just said 'that guy's one of us.' So he's an alpha and really expect to get good things out of him."
There were a couple Signing Day surprises both for and against the Jackets on Wednesday as offensive line commit Damola Ajidahun (4-star, 5.8) flipped away from Georgia Tech and signed with South Carolina while running back Shane Marshall (3-star, 5.6) flipped from Minnesota to Georgia Tech and signed with the Yellow Jackets.
Highly-ranked offensive lineman Josh Petty (4-star, 5.9) caused a little uneasiness for Jackets' fans as well when his letter of intent wasn't received by Georgia Tech on Wednesday, but the Fellowship Christian product is expected to be officially added on either Thursday or Friday.
One of the key parts of the 2025 class is that a large chunk of the signees (more than half) will be early enrollees and start classes at Georgia Tech in January and be able to compete in spring practice. Key said early enrolling is not something he or his staff pressure any of the recruits to do and makes it completely their choice but that it is definitely a positive to get those kids in the program early for a bit of a head start.
"A lot of the ones that don't (early enroll), you know, usually they're either at school that won't allow it or they're a spring sport guy, you know, track or baseball person that really wants to stay in and continue that," said Key. "It has changed so much man. That's changed so much in the last few years of guys coming in early. And then there's a handful of guys that really just want to continue to enjoy the experience of high school, their spring semester. We don't pressure guys either way to come in, it's a decision. Now, when they make the decision to do it, yeah, we welcome it. But we're not going to pressure them because I don't want them to be upset and miss out on something, but they'll all get a chance to go to their prom."
With early signing day wrapped up, Key and his staff will now turn their attention to preparing for a bowl game for the second straight year as the Jackets are bowl eligible in consecutive years for the first time since the 2013 and 2014 seasons. Efforts have also already started on the 2026 recruiting class and beyond as recruiting never stops in the never-ending cycle of college football.
