Georgia tech and Vanderbilt Prepare To Square Off In 18th Birmingham Bowl
By Steve Irvine
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - December 10, 2024
Travel time won’t be much different for the Georgia Tech and Vanderbilt football teams when they leave home to play in the 18th Birmingham Bowl. However, Georgia Tech head coach Brent Key has a decided hometown advantage over Vanderbilt’s Clark Lea once the teams arrive in Birmingham.
Key, a former Georgia Tech offensive lineman, who is in his second season as the program’s permanent head coach, was born at Birmingham’s Carraway Methodist Medical Center, which closed in 2008, and graduated from Hewitt Trussville High. So, even though he’s never been to a game at Protective Stadium, he will feel at home when the football is kicked off at 2:30 p.m. on Dec. 27.
“I’m quite familiar with that ride on I-20 East, I-20 West,” said the 46-year-old Key, who returned to his alma mater in 2019 and was the program’s interim head for eight games in 2022. “I was telling somebody the other day, who was driving to Birmingham, I tried to count the amount of times since 1996 that I've driven I-20 East and West. I would say it's probably way up in the thousands of times. So, that's a pretty cool thing to be able to go back home (and) play in a bowl game where I grew up. I'm sure there'll be a lot of family and friends whatnot, when we go to the game, but yeah, that's not what it's about. It's about these seniors, it's about this team, it's about the fan base, the alumni. It really takes pride in Georgia Tech football.”
It’s a special way to conclude what has been exciting seasons for both Georgia Tech and Vanderbilt. Georgia Tech (7-5) opened the season with a win over Florida State in Ireland and concluded the regular season with a heartbreaking 44-42 loss to Georgia in eight overtimes. Vanderbilt (6-6) garnered national headlines with a home win over Alabama on Oct. 5, handled Auburn on the road and narrowly lost to Texas in Nashville.
Both teams are led by dynamic playmaking quarterbacks. Diego Pavia, a 6-foot, 207-pound graduate student, spent two years at New Mexico Military Institute and two more at New Mexico State before transferring to Vanderbilt. In his lone season Nashville, Pavia threw for 2,133 yards with 17 touchdowns and four interceptions and rushed for 716 yards and six touchdowns. Georgia Tech’s Haines King, a 6-foot-3, 215-pound redshirt junior, began his college career at Texas A&M. In two seasons at Georgia Tech, King has a combined 4,752 yards passing with 38 touchdowns and 17 interceptions and 1,315 yards rushing with 21 touchdowns. He accounted for 413 yards and five touchdowns in the loss to Georgia.
“It’s exciting to go play any bowl game,” said Key. “It’s another chance to play. We said it a bunch, we’re only guaranteed 12 games a year. It’s the only sport in the world that you work 360-plus days a year for 12 opportunities. We got a chance to get a 13th. That’s awesome in it’s own right. Playing a team from the SEC, a team that had a really good season, really surprised a lot of people. It’s not a surprise to me because I know the amount of work, the amount of passion he’s put into that team.”
Georgia Tech will be playing for first time in the Birmingham Bowl but the Yellow Jackets did beat Michigan State in Birmingham’s All-American Bowl in 1985. Vanderbilt beat Houston, 41-24, in what was then known as the BBVA Compass Bowl at Legion Field in 2014. The Commodores also played in the 1982 Hall of Fame Classic in Birmingham, losing to Air Force at Legion Field.