IMG 0468 scaled e1734131256622 Birmingham Bowl features two coaches with deep ties to the city

This year’s edition of the Birmingham Bowl is already shaping up to be one of the best-attended in the game’s history and is being hailed as one of the most intriguing matchups in this year’s bowl season. It also happens to feature two head coaches with deep ties to the city of Birmingham.

Vanderbilt and Georgia Tech head into the Birmingham Bowl following breakthrough seasons for both programs and both head coaches talked about their Birmingham connections at a joint press conference on Thursday.

Georgia Tech head coach Brent Key

IMG 0483 Birmingham Bowl features two coaches with deep ties to the city — Brent Key (left) and Clark Lea (right) pose with the Birmingham Bowl trophy. (Pat Byington / Bham Now)

Georgia Tech head coach Brent Key said the city of Birmingham played a crucial part of not only his own makeup but the makeup of his team. The 46-year-old Birmingham native grew up in Trussville and began his football career at Hewitt-Trussville High School. Key said the first college football game he ever attended was a bowl game in Birmingham, the 1985 Hall of Fame Classic between Georgia Tech and Michigan State.

“Birmingham is college football, always has been. To play in a bowl game here is pretty special.”
Brent Key, Georgia Tech head coach

Key, who served as an assistant to Nick Saban at Alabama in the 2010s, said that his experiences in Birmingham taught him not only everything he knows about football but about leadership and what it takes to succeed in a competitive environment like college football.

“There’s a lot of professionalism here with the medical industry but ultimately Birmingham is grit, Birmingham is toughness. And that’s what we built our football team on.”
Brent Key, Georgia Tech head coach

Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea

On the opposite sideline, Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea made his name known in the state of Alabama this season after pulling off shocking upset victories against Alabama and Auburn. But Lea’s connections to the state go back much further.

Lea had one of his most formative athletic experiences in Birmingham, just minutes away from Protective Stadium where this year’s Birmingham Bowl will be played. As a freshman in college, Lea was a member of Birmingham Southern’s national championship baseball team in 2001, an experience he says heavily influenced him as a coach and a person.

“Every team you’re a part of, you learn something from it. That was a formative year for me around an excellent coach, an excellent program, and excellent teammates. It set a course for me to reach for success. I look at my time here with great reverence and gratitude.”
Clark Lea, Vanderbilt head coach

Vanderbilt also brings several other connections to the state, with 8 players from the state of Alabama, including three from the Birmingham area.

Lea says even aside from their mutual connections to Birmingham, both teams participating in this year’s Birmingham Bowl have a lot in common.