Brent Key Describes What a Road Win Against Clemson Would Mean For Georgia Tech
Things have changed since Georgia Tech last beat Clemson in 2014.
Clemson has won several ACC titles and two national titles along with a number of playoff births. There has only been one game between these two teams that has been decided by fewer than double-digits since Georgia Tech last won so it's safe to say that no matter Clemson's record this year, a win over the Tigers would be huge for Georgia Tech.
Yellow Jackets head coach Brent Key was asked about what a win over Clemson would mean during his media availability today:
"You want me to say the politically correct thing? It would be great for 24 hours, we would enjoy it and then onto the next game. We play one season, each week is a season, there is no tomorrow after Saturday as far as we are concerned. There is nothing... we are going to lay it all on the line. We are going to take the punches, throw the punches and when I say take the punches, I mean take our punches, in football you are always going to take a few punches. If anyone had seen our team last week, the excitement, how excited they were, it is another team that we have the opportunity to play football against.
Now what would it mean to beat them? They are the standard of the conference. What they have done the last 12 years, what Dabo has been able to accomplish there, it is a truly remarkable job and it is one of the only teams in the last 12 years to do what they have been able to do. So, would it be big? Yeah, it would be big, dadgum right it would be big but we are not going to make it more than it is because that is when the anxiety and the emotional starts to kick in.
When the game is over, I will let these guys, like we have every week, choose how to let their emotions go."
Georgia Tech has not beaten Clemson since 2014
Key talked about his respect for the program that Swinney has built and what it will take for Georgia Tech to win on Saturday:
"The first thing is focus on ourselves and prepare the right way, be the best version of ourselves this week, that is myself, coaches, everyone, have the best plan, the best plan of attack, the players believe in the plan, play fast. Going in there, it is a stadium, it has two end zones, two sidelines, 120 total yards, there is a big hill that people roll down on, kind of like last week, a grassy area, similar to last week, similar to Wake Forest, similar to the grassy area in the end zone, it gets loud. I think the only difference you will see is that we will prepare for crowd noise this week. Not just later in the week but every day we will have crowd noise, prepare for that to go into the game.
They are a good football team, a really good football team. I don't look at records, I look at film. There are things that Dabo is doing now to play to the strengths of his team. Don't forget who Dabo's college football coach was, he played for Coach Stallings if I am not mistaken. He knows how to win games that way too and their defense is... you want to talk about a standard, there defense is as good as anybody that you see in the country collectively.
They have good players and they have good players that are older and experienced and collectively and also have good players that are younger. Offensively, I think they are finding themselves an identity right now that is leading to success for them and led them to success last week."
Key has a reputation for playing well as an underdog, especially on the road in ACC games. Georgia Tech currently finds itself as 14.5 point underdog going into Death Valley on Saturday. This feels like the best chance that Georgia Tech has had to beat Clemson in quite some time and we will see what happens on Saturday.
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