Georgia Tech fires head football coach Geoff Collins, AD Todd Stansbury

Georgia Tech on Monday fired football coach Geoff Collins and the person who hired him in 2018, AD Todd Stansbury.

The school announced that associate head coach Brent Key will take over as interim head football coach, and that Frank Neville, a senior vice president in the athletics director, will serve as interim AD.

The moves come as the Yellow Jackets were out to a 1-3 start that had them losing in blowout fashion in each of their three games with FBS foes.

The move had been expected, though the timing is curious, since Georgia Tech has a game this weekend at ACC Coastal Division leader Pitt.

The team’s bye week is Oct. 15.

The midseason firing of both is a means for the school to get out ahead of the coaching market in its search for a new coach, and now also with the sacking of Stansbury, a new AD.

Collins, 51, had been a reach as a hire when Stansbury tapped him after long-time coach Paul Johnson stepped down following the 2018 season.

The Athletic lists among the top early candidates for the job Deion Sanders, the former Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta Braves star now at Jackson State, Army’s Jeff Monken, Coastal Carolina’s Jamey Chadwell, Marshall’s Charles Huff, and Kent State’s Sean Lewis.

Collins had taken over for Matt Rhule, who would go on to coach at Baylor and is now the head coach of the NFL’s Carolina Panthers, at Temple and gone 15-10 in two seasons there.

Stansbury had to authorize a $2.5 million buyout of Collins’ Temple deal, then gave the new coach a seven-year deal with no buyout, meaning Georgia Tech is on the hook for the more than $10 million owed to him under that deal.

The seven-year deal was a condition of the nature of the rebuild at Georgia Tech, which under Johnson had run an option attack on offense that Stansbury wanted to get away from.

Collins never won more than three games in any of his three full seasons in Atlanta, and will finish with a 10-28 record at Georgia Tech, just 7-19 in ACC play.