ATLANTA- Georgia Tech president Ángel Cabrera and athletic director J Batt introduced Brent Key as the Yellow Jackets' 21st head coach on Monday in front of the media and invited guests inside the Edge Building. Read everything that was said on Monday.
Cabrera's opening remarks
Well, good morning, everyone. This is a very exciting day. You have known since Tuesday, but it's still incredibly exciting to be able to officially introduce our new football head coach, Mr. Brent Key, as the head coach of our football team, I am incredibly excited for a whole number of reasons I have gotten to know our coach over the last few months, I have been so impressed not just by the results, but by his style, by his personality, by his care and his care of our student-athletes in our program. It's been just absolutely fantastic. So I'm very, very excited about the outcome.
I also want to thank J, our athletic director for the time the care that he has invested in this search. He took this very seriously, I realized I did not give you, J much time when we brought you to Georgia Tech. And you have used all that time to do a thorough analysis of the program of what it is that we need to conduct a thorough national search and to look at exactly who is the right person to lead this next new chapter of Georgia Tech. And you concluded that Brent Key is the right person for that chapter. I want to thank you for the incredible amount of time that you have devoted.
I want to thank Danielle and Harper, coach Key's daughter. I have the sense that she's going to be an awesome Yellow Jacket. I see it in you.
I know I know this new adventure drags you into an interesting phase of your lives. And I appreciate and I appreciate everything that you do for this place. And I am also grateful for the coaches, all their family members, and the friends who are with us today. I also want to thank all the fans and alumni who were there for us all the way. And these are the true fans and alumni and donors who support Georgia Tech in good times and bad times.
When we brought in J and coach Key to cover on an interim basis, one of the first things that our new athletic director did was to launch a competitive drive initiative to call on the entire community to say let's all get together and provide the resources that we need to support this program to make sure it's successful. And our community responded. So I am delighted that we announced a goal to raise two and a half million dollars for student-athlete scholarships, which are going to be matched with funds from the Georgia Tech Foundation. And I'm happy to announce that we have met that goal. And I'm even happier fact that the final contribution that helped us get through that milestone came from our new head coach Brent Key himself and his family.
Obviously, one of the many qualities that coach Key has is that he gets this place. He was a student here, he started his career in intercollegiate athletics here. He cares deeply about this place and what it means he cares deeply about the program and he cares deeply about our student-athletes. He knows how hard it is to compete at this level. I would say it is hard enough to just be a student at Georgia Tech and to get a degree from one of the most academically competitive institutions in the nation. And it will be equally challenging for most human beings who would not be able to compete athletically at this level in the ACC conference as well. Now think about doing those two things at once. It's a very small universe of people. Who can accomplish that. I'm incredibly proud of them. We have a coach who gets how special it is for our student-athletes who are able to do that.
So I know that I have learned over the past few months that this gentleman is slightly competitive. He likes to win. More than pretty much anybody I've I've worked with, but even more passionate than he is about winning is about making student-athletes successful. So just want to let you know, Brent, that we're incredibly excited about this new chapter. And that as much as of course, you're now our leader. We're all behind you. We're here to root for you and to do everything that we can to make you and our amazing student-athletes successful. So with that, let me turn things over to our athletic director, Jay bad. Thanks again, Jay for this incredible work you've done.
