Everything From Brent Key After Wednesday's Spring Practice

Key talked with the media after practice ended on Wednesday

Jackson Caudell | Mar 29, 2023

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Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

Georgia Tech finished up another spring practice today and Yellow Jackets head coach Brent Key spoke with the media afterward.

Here is everything he had to say.

Opening Statement:

"I want to address the tragedy that happened in Nashville. I don't want to make any political or religious statements or anything about that and I will not do that. Something has to change. My mom was a third-grade school teacher her whole career, I have a four-year-old daughter, she is about to be five, was at a school play when that happened. I can't even like, the whole rest of the day, my wife cried four or five times during the day. That is magnified my millions across the world. But again, there is nothing political and nothing religious being made about this, but something has to change. I have a chance to stand up here and be in front of a camera. One person hears me say that and agrees and does something to help force a change and something to happen and a thousand other people say something negative about it, I don't care. Because it worked. And if this one thing that I say helps somebody else say something and have the guts to stand up and say something then maybe somebody will have the guts to stand up and do something, then maybe something will happen! But as long as people sit there and bicker and argue, more and more kids are going to die, because it has not changed. Something has to change! Everybody please, do something. Whoever listens to this, send it somewhere else. Send it to somebody, I don't know. Let's all do something together to help. This is the most heartbreaking thing in the world, to think about your daughter, going to school, where she is supposed to be safe and protected. It is. I don't care who tweets at me. I really don't. Maybe that will pick up some steam.

Now back to us. Obviously it is out there now, but I want to address Leo's (Blackburn) situation. He was hurt during Monday's practice, he will be out for the season most likely with the knee. It is unfortunate for Leo, great kid. He has been truly snakebitten with these things for the last three years, but the thing that we talk about everyday with our team is be where your feet are. Control what you can control and just be one day at a time and learn from the past and prepare for the future. He came into my office and I talked to his mom and I talked to him and I said Leo this is great news. Because now, Leo is not only going to get to graduate from Georgia Tech, he is going to get a master's degree from Georgia Tech and he is still going to chase every dream that he had in football and be able to succeed in that. We will be looking for the bright spot in that thing and that truly is a bright spot for that thing and that truly is a bright spot, that Leo is going to be able to do that.

The character, we talk about toughness a lot and who we want to be as a team... Leo Blackburn checks almost every box when it comes to that. Not just a great kid but when you talk about the true qualities of what a tough guy is and what it means to be tough, he checks them all and he will be back stronger than ever and next man up.

We got back to practice on Monday after spring break. It was rusty as was expected after having a week off. It was rusty on Monday, we challenged the guys, we knew it was going to be, you can't get too upset about something that was expected to happen, that is just the nature of the way that spring break fell. So we challenged the kids and challenged the coaches. The kids are going to practice as the coaches come out and prepare them and challenge the guys that way and I thought they came out today and responded with the effort with what we want. Now, is it smart effort all the time, no. We have a long way to go to build a football team. We are just completing day five of spring practice and we have to be able to take these things and we had some, for the first time, live segments and to be able to go out there and see who can tackle, make tackles and make people miss tackling and we have a lot of work to do on both sides of the ball. Sustaining blocks, getting off the blocks, blocking on the perimeter, being able to make one person miss, wrap up and only one person have to tackle him.

Because when it comes down to it, its third and one or third and two and we have a short yardage situation, someone is going to win and someone is going to lose, every single game, someone wins and someone loses and that is life, someone wins and someone loses. And you have to be held accountable when that happens. Yeah you can have nice calls and line up in bear defenses to stop the run but at the end of the day its about who can line up and get their hands inside and get off a block, sustain a block and stop a guy for less than a yard and we have to be able to do that as a football team. And when it is time to get a yard, we have to line up and get a yard. That is what you look at when you want to define toughness and physicality and the way you look on film. Look at how you are when everyone knows they are gonna run it, see how you run when you have to run it and everyone knows you have to and look at how you cover kicks. Those are three things you can turn on the tape and see the type of toughness on a football team.

So we have a long way to go in those aspects, but the great thing about it is you address the team after practice about those things and they are really excited about getting to address and learn those things and learn how to get there. Because for the most part, everyone on the team is hungry and if everyone stays hungry and in that frame of mind of working one day at a time and working to get better that day then worry about the next day tomorrow and that is what we will continue to preach and make sure that we instill in everyone's heads so its always a good day when you get to come out here and play football so we are excited to be out here."

1. On the receiving room after Blackburn's injury...

"We got the guys we have right now and when I talk to the staff and I address the staff, we go into everyday of spring practice as if these are the guys that we are going to play 12 games with. Nothing else. We can't worry about who might come, who might leave. That is the world we live in in college football nowadays. We hire great coaches and we have a great staff to prepare those guys that we have out there and that is the way we look at it. We have to prepare and elevate the play of those guys out there.

With that being said, the receiver position is one that I have been very pleased with in the first five days. As far as getting the ball in space, Buster is doing a great job of designing plays to get the ball working sideline to sideline and getting the ball in their hands. Obviously speed at the receiver position is something that we addressed and we have more guys that will be coming in in the summer that have already signed with us so we are excited to get to work with the guys we have and see them progress."

2. On the chemistry of the new coaches...

"Chemistry comes over time with a coaching staff. To me, if everything is all great all the time, you probably are not in a good place. You want conflict within an organization when you talk about the five dysfunction of a team, about the conflict within organizations and all of the great staffs that I have been on... if you guys could ever have a day in the life of those staff rooms and you have... that is what you want, you want to have alphas, type A personalities, that are smart, that are intelligent, that want to grow together, that want to elevate themselves and want to be the best.

I don't want to be around average people at all, sure not below average. You want to be around those types of people, you want to be in those types of conflicts and when I say conflict I don't mean getting up and fighting. But you want constructive arguments taking place to solve things, but when those doors open up and they walk out, everyone is on the same page, that is how you become better as a coaching staff about your team getting better."

3. The biggest surprise during his first spring...

"The biggest thing... I don't know if there is something that per say I looked at and I did not think was going to happen . I have kind of a tasklist that I use everyday and it is staff notes, administrative notes, compliance, academics, training notes, practice notes, offense, special teams, defense, recap of the day and down in the bottom right corner, there is an oh crap corner and it is highlighted in yellow and it is always empty at the start of the day but by the end of the day, there has not been a day it has not been filled up. The oh crap list is the things that you don't plan for so that is going to happen always and it is about the way you react to those things and the how you... when those things come up and how you manage the day out from a 15-16 hour day and every hour and every minute is accounted for, when those things pop up, you have to handle a lot of them.

I did prioritize things in an A, B, and C, but there is A1, A2 and then you get to B and C and you have to pick which fires to put out. But I think my biggest pet peeve is when I can't be efficient and what is even worse than that is when I feel like I am being efficient and the staff is not so those are the things that I am working to improve upon everyday. The first year you probably have the biggest learning curve in it but that is something that I hope to never stop improving with and I constantly look at to try and make me better every single day."

4. On the early enrollees...

"Fine. They have done a good job, they are out there playing, there are a lot of reps during the day they are able to get and they are only going to improve with more of those. The speed of the game is always going to improve as you come from the high school level to the college level, that is one of the things you look at in the evaluation of a prospect though is the high school program that they come from and the type of competition they play on a week to week basis and the competition they are going against in practice, you shrink that gap a little bit."

5. On the defense...

Missed tackles today. Busting fits. Not setting the edge. Long runs. We have a lot of work to do. A lot of work. Coming out there working to do it. The biggest thing when those things occur. The middle of the defense is where the communication occurs. We have new guys in the middle right now. New guys in the linebacker room. New guys on offense at the center and quarterback and we have a center and a quarterback on offense that have played a lot of football so that communication is there already. On the defensive side, you have different guys in that middle part putting in that backend... you hear LaMiles Brooks, you hear the communication in the back, you have to be able to have that on both ends.

Both sides of the ball we have a lot of work to do. Hidden yardage that we are missing on offense, there is a lot of yardage on defense that we are giving up and consistently working on how to practice the right way on special teams and to have a dominant special teams unit. We have a lot of work to and thank goodness we have a long way to go."

6. On special teams...

"The first thing we do in practice everyday when we get out here is special teams walkthrough and the first thing that we have everyday is a special teams meeting. Special teams walkthrough when we come through and it is incorporated in practice, normally you have individual periods, we have an individual period just for special teams everyday and then we have two more special teams periods within the practice. It is dadgum important."

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