Brent Key previews Georgia Tech's week two matchup with South Carolina State

Georgia Tech is looking for their first win of the season

Jackson Caudell | Sep 6, 2023

Brent Key previews Georgia Tech's week two matchup with South Carolina State /

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Georgia Tech is coming off of a tough opening game loss to Louisville, but the Yellow Jackets are ready to put it behind them and move on to their week two opponent.

This weekend, Georgia Tech is welcoming South Carolina State, which plays in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference in the FCS and is an HBCU. The Bulldogs are 0-2 to start the season after losses to Jackson State and Charlotte.

While most are chalking this up as an easy win for the Yellow Jackets, you can bet that Georgia Tech head coach Brent Key is not seeing that way and he had a lot of good things to say about South Carolina State, especially their head coach, Oliver "Buddy" Pough:

"It is exciting to play South Carolina State too, I wanted to talk about their head coach. Coach Pough is a legend in his conference and division and his level of football, he is finishing up his 22nd year at his alma mater and be retiring at the end of this season. We were privileged to play them many years ago when I was at UCF and they gave us a dog fight. His teams are well-prepared and they play hard and they have some good players on their team. I just wanted to make sure I noted that and his retirement and it is an honor to be able to coach against him on his final ride as a head coach after 22 seasons at South Carolina State. "

When asked about what stood out to him about the Bulldogs and what challenges they pose for his team, Key highlighted Pough and some of the top playmakers on his team:

"First of all, a legendary coach is always going to have a trick up his sleeve, you can bet that. Offensively, they are going to run the football, they have a couple of quarterbacks that can make plays with their feet, they are going to try and get the ball to the edge with their quarterback. They have two freshmen running backs, both of them are really good football players, one of them is really big and strong back that gets north and south, the other one is a little more compact, but has a way of doing some things and getting loose on those slip screen routes and flaring out of the backfield, some of the things that we have to be aware of.

On the defensive side of the football, I think they were fourth in the FCS in havoc plays, disruption, negative plays. They have two guys on the defensive line, No. 43 and No. 34, they can cause some issues and schematically with their defense, they are a penetrating up the field defense, they are gonna try to get in the backfield and cause havoc. They have a linebacker, No. 11, who has a chance to be an all-conference player for them so there is a skill set there and that we are aware of on both sides of the ball that we are gonna have to address but going out today, it was about us, it was about continuing to on what we had to learn from and correct from the first game because if we can do that, we have a chance to go out and be successful and get the win on Saturday."

Brent Key — Georgia Tech is looking for its first win of the season this week / Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

There were a lot of positives from last week's game for Georgia Tech, but those positives will mean nothing if the Yellow Jackets can't show improvement from week to week. It is a common saying that teams often improve the most from week one to week two and that is exactly what Georgia Tech needs to do:

"The way we have prepared and the way we have trained the entire offseason and then through preseason camp with the same physicality, it shows. It is something that we have to continue to do. We have to continue to understand that preparation is the way you end up playing. We talk about playing disciplined, to go the first game of the season and we had two penalties in the game, two that we can't have, but we have to play and have fun, they were dialed in and locked in and played with discipline.

It is one thing if you go out and you play loose and then all sorts of penalties start flying in, but that is not the case and they understand that there is a certain attitude and demeanor that you have to have to play the game of football and you can't be anxious and uptight, but you have to play with discipline and we accomplished that.

Some of the situational football, if you look statistically, which means nothing, but it means something if you carry it over in the way you are preparing and you want to build on. Third downs defensively, we did a nice job of getting on the field and on offense of staying on the field. Now, some of those middle downs, 1st and 2nd downs, we have to continue to stay on the field and continue to get positive yards. We did not have a lot of negative plays offensively, which was an issue before and when you come out and for the good portion of the game, get drives going, I think we have a quarterback who can make plays with his arms and his feet so that is a positive.

The running backs, we had four guys that ended up getting in there and playing and we found some young guys out there. We had some young guys play meaningful snaps and they will continue to play more and more meaningful snaps.

So those are some of the positives, but it is about building on those, as well as correcting the things that did not allow you to be successful and get the win."

If Georgia Tech can correct their big mistakes from last week (pass rush, tackling, pass blocking), they should roll to a convincing victory and a game that should get out of hand early. While the Yellow Jackets are not going to be judged based on a big win against South Carolina State, this is a chance to make corrections, play a more complete four quarters of football, and give themselves momentum heading into a big road test against Ole Miss.

Georgia Tech hosts South Carolina State at 1:00 p.m. this Saturday at Bobby Dodd Stadium.

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