Everything From Brent Key After Loss to Georgia
Georgia Tech's season officially came to an end yesterday with the loss in Athens to rival Georgia. The loss dropped the Yellow Jackets to 5-7 and for the fourth straight season, they will not be going to a bowl game.
Brent Key finishes the year with a 4-4 record as the head coach at Georgia Tech
Georgia Tech played the game tougher than most thought, leading 7-3 after the first quarter, but a series of crucial mistakes in the third quarter blew the game open for the Bulldogs and they won 37-14.
After the game, interim head coach Brent Key spoke with the media, and here is everything he had to say.
Opening Statement:
"Start off, credit to Kirby and his staff and his players. They are a good football team and are well-coached. They did a good job down the stretch, especially in the second half and we made some mistakes in the second half and could not sustain drives. We ended up flipping the game early on and able to keep the field position tipped in our favor . With the game and the time of possession as well. It was all part of playing the game and we were able to do that in the first half but as the second part came along you know we had a couple of mistakes on some drives, drops or a special teams mistake and we can't have those in big games like that. We knew it was going to be a field position game and they have an explosive offense. We knew possessions were going to be very critical for us and we knew that being able to get the defense off the field at times was going to be very critical.
Early on, I thought offensively we were able to move the ball and found nice spots in their coverages to throw it early on and ran it and they kinda shrunk it down a little bit in their run lanes. When we got to the second and third quarters, we were not able to get those efficient first-down gains that were taking place early on and that is what the game is about, especially in a game like this, you have to be able to get those third and maneagables. We had the big fourth down conversion in the first quarter that was able to put us in position to score and then defensively, I thought we did an outstanding job of early in the game working to take away the explosives, take away explosive pass from them and then as the game went on, we started to wear down a little bit and had some gap issues on a couple of plays and got caught in a sim blitz coverage one-on-one, but I thought Thack did a really good job of preparing those guys for the football game.
Give credit to Georgia and their football team. I didn't see any quit in those guys out there, our guys played their tails off and the clock hit zero and that is something to build off of going into the offseason."
1. On if Georgia did anything different defensively in the second half...
"I mean they had a couple more single-dog pressures to really single people up front and constricting... I noticed they had some issues kind of on the edge of the defense where we took advantage of early on and then they really shored it up in the second half so give credit to them for making the adjustments and we have to continue to work on those areas in all four quarters of the game."
2. On how the team kept fighting and his expectations going into the game...
"My expectation was to win. That is what our expectations are in the game we play. You play the game to win, you don't play to come in second. You play the game to win and that is what we prepare for and we prepared to come and win this football game and there is no other outcome that is acceptable and that is the way we approach the football game. Did we play hard? Yes we did, we played really hard. We wanted our guys dialed in and to have a good plan of attack. Yes, we had a good overall plan. Were we able to come out on top in the end? No.
3. On if he has done enough to be the head coach of the program moving forward...
"I will talk nothing about that right now. This is 100% about the kids in the locker room and how they persevered this season and how they have played. I respect your question, but this is solely about the kids in that locker room and the coaches that worked so hard this season."
4. On the play of the secondary...
"Yeah you know, with K.J. (Wallace) out today... as much 12 personnel as they ran on offense, we were able to play more 4-3 defense and we got a lot of snaps in there so that took a little bit of the stress off of those guys in the back end of having to play so much snaps with K.J. being out and Rodney... and preparing Rodney for those last couple of weeks in that spot and Rodney went in there early on and played well for a freshman getting his first burn and he was kinda spinning all over the place but I mean, he settled down pretty quickly and he is going to be a good football player and he got a lot of snaps in the nickel spot when they went into 11 personnel subgrouping and overall... the secondary from the preparation during the week in anticipation of what is going to come from formation tendencies or motion tendencies and being able to anticipate what the offense is going to do and their communication on the back end and being able to communicate with each other and get everyone on the same page, they did a really nice job."
5. On how the mistakes affected them...
"Yeah I mean, it reduced the field position and that was the critical part of it. I mean, you look at that play call on the second down, we were able to expose something in that coverage and now you are in third and long and third and 10 and then two plays later with the snap and they were able to take advantage of it. The defense was put in a bad position a couple of times and had their backs against the wall and really came through and we were able to hold them to a field goal a couple of times in those instances and just a credit to those guys of regardless of where they were on the field of going out and playing the next play and that is what we ask those guys to do is play to the next play and they did. Then we ended up fumbling the next drive, so, you're looking at two consecutive series there of being able to move the ball and never being able to cross the 30 so we were playing with one hand tied behind our back."
6. One the opening offensive script of the game...
"You play the hand you are dealt and there was no reason to sit around and complain about it and I said it last week, the more time you spend complaining about it, the less time you have to find a solution for it and the collective of the staff has rallied together, really for the last 9-10 weeks and it worked putting the best plan together. I thought we really had a fine plan together and were able to take advantage of some things formationally and personnel-wise within that but also it played to the strengths of those quarterbacks and you have to play to the strengths of your players and put your players in position to make plays regardless of who is out there."
7. On how the experience has been for him...
"I mean... I have gotten a chance to be the head coach at my alma mater for the last eight games. It was very special and it was very special to coach with kids like that. I mean, to do what those kids have done and to play as hard as they played and the clock hit zero today and it is such a credit to the kids and the leadership of that locker room and the leadership throughout the week that they gave to each other. You talk about ownership and really owning this and players have ownership and the responsibility and accountability with it and they bought into it 100%. They bought into every part of it and when you have ownership on your own team as a player, it really is an empowering thing so yeah it has been a real joy and an outstanding time to be able to coach these kids."
8. On if there was a good feeling moving forward, regardless of coming off of a loss...
" Yeah, I am sorry, but I have never had a good feeling coming off of a loss. 22 years ago, I walked off that field after a loss and the next time I come here that's... it's like every game you come to win and that is the 100% goal we have as a football team.
9. On if he could share what Kirby Smart said to him after the game...
"No. I have known him a long time and played against each other on that field and recruited against each other, coached against each other for a long time so we go way back."
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