Everything From Brent Key's Thursday Media Availability Ahead of Matchup With VMI

Brent Key spoke with the media on Thursday ahead of the team's matchup with VMI

Aug 31, 2024; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets head coach Brent Key on the field before a game against Georgia State Panthers at Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-Imagn Images / Brett Davis-Imagn Images

Georgia Tech is back at home this weekend against VMI and the Yellow Jackets are hoping to to bonce back from their loss to Syracuse on Saturday and move to 3-1 for the season. Ahead of the game on Saturday, Brent Key spoke to the media on Thursday and here is everything that he had to say.

Opening Statement...

"So, I failed to mention this last week, the last couple of weeks, just doing student athletes of the week, every week, scout players of the week. I'm going to tell you guys, they'll announce that on Thursday every week. Student athletes of the week, Makius Scott on the defensive side and Bailey Stockton on offense. Then, you know, scouts of the week, special teams was Troy Stevenson, who's been doing a really, really good job, not just on special teams, but defense as well. Really developing as a young player on the back end of the defense. On the offensive field, Daylon Gordon and he proves that when you are selfless and no matter what age, freshman, sophomore, junior, senior, it does not matter, you are going to do what is best for the team to win and he did a really good job this week, took a lot of reps and then defensively on the offensive field, Cedric Franklin, who last week was Special Team Scout of the Week, and now this week being defense. So it's good to see these young guys. You know, really starting to settle into college, not be overwhelmed by every single thing they do, but then also being able to develop and become better players. On Thursdays, we go out early, and it's just developmental guys out there in pads and practice. So today was the fourth week of doing that with those guys and getting an extra 40 minutes of working with them. And so all the young guys, and there's older guys in there too. But just like last year, we started off doing these, and some of those guys end up being contributors. Some of them end up being guys that really help you as the season goes on. And that's what we're trying to do is develop the depth on the football team, have more guys that can help us.

Now, we are moving on to the weekend, glad to be back home again, the environment that we have created here at Bobby Dodd as far as the fan support and the students has been amazing really the last two years, excited to get back in front of them and give them a good product on the field and be able to go out and compete on Saturday and look, as a football team, we have a lot of decisions to make and for the next three days give us the time to make those decisions and those decisions come down to really, you know, who's going to compete, right? Who's going to compete for 60 minutes? Right. Who's all in? Who's a big one for me? Who loves playing football and who just love being a football player? So, you know, as you go on in the season, stakes become higher. And then the results become higher, right? The results of your actions, the results of not doing your job to make it pretty clear. So, you know, that's what I challenge everybody in the entire organization. And when I challenge people, I say that starts with myself, number one, is the head coach, the coordinators, assistant coaches, staff members, players, everybody, Everybody, we're all in, we're all in, and we're all in it together, every one of us. So we're talking about the decisions and we've got to make those decisions. So looking forward to being out there again on Saturday afternoon and looking for a good game versus a good opponent."

1. On injury updates...

"Most of the guys will be game time decisions."

2. On the potential for bad weather on Saturday...

"You know, we track that starting on Monday and what the weather's going to be. Whether it's wet, whether it's wind. We have plans for that. We prepare for that during the week. You know, we're always going to go an extra step to make sure we are prepared to be able to simulate it as close as possible. You know, you do wetball drills. You do different things to simulate the disadvantage that might occur with weather. But, you know, when you look at weather, when you play a football game, it's the same, it's the same external factor that affects both teams. So it's not an excuse. There's never an excuse when it comes to that because both teams are playing in it. Whether it's good weather or bad weather, hot, cold."

3. On the team's preparation throughout the week...

"I think we need to continue to make personal decisions across the board and increase our sense of urgency. And when it's all said and done, it doesn't matter what type of week it is, the whole week of practice is to shrink the gap between practice in the games. And that's what we try to do as coaches. That's what, when you have players understand that and buy into it, you know, that becomes a growth in the program."

4. On what to expect from VMI with their backup quarterback...

"You have to plan and be able to make adjustments, we have some things in mind that we think we might see with the other quarterback playing but we won't know until 3:30 on Saturday."

5. On the team's effort and possibly expanding who gets to play...

"I decide who plays. They determine if they're ready. You know, there's not sitting somewhere where you wait your turn or wait around. You create your own opportunity. And you create your own opportunity by the way you, the way you go out and prepare, the way you practice, the way you develop, the way you improve. You know, a big thing, you know, you get a chance, you know, opportunity of guys that might be on a scout team or 50 % scout team. You got to go there and you got to give everything you have, right? You got to play it like it's a game I mean that's what I was talking about was shrinking that gap so I've never I've never said I'm not pleased with effort though I've never said those exact words."

6. On Zach Pyron...

"Prepares as a starter and that is the challenge that everyone who is a backup on paper, who is in a backup role where they may or may not go in a game whether it is a true backup or an injury situation or if he is a backup on paper and someone else might merely go in. When you get to the point where all of those guys are preparing the same as if they are a starter You have a chance to improve your overall on your football team because they're going to push the other guys. They're going to, you know, if they improve themselves. Look, we're going to play the best 11 on offense and the best 11 on defense every week. So as those guys continue to elevate and improve themselves, they're either going to bypass the guy in front of them or they're going to improve, make that guy in front of them improve."

7. On freshman running back Trelain Maddox...

"We'll see. We'll see. Again, we're never going to put a kid in a position to do something that they're not ready to do, whether it be physically limited."

8. On if they need to develop more safety depth...

"Yeah it's one of them it's one of the positions uh you know having depth and then developing that depth to be ready to play i think really two separate things where to have the bodies there that are good abilities, good athletes, good traits is different than being ready to play in a game. One thing we have been able to do is get a lot of young guys in on special teams who have made impacts and that is what we strive every week. We meet on special teams every night and go over depth charts of who are these guys, I am not looking at the best player today, who is going to be the best player in week six? Week eight? That is how you have to look at playing guys because there has never been a player who has played this game who has gone in their first game and not made a mistake ou know everyone is going to you're going to learn but you learn by doing you don't learn by sitting there and watching people you learn by doing so and you And when you're getting live game reps on special teams, now you've shrunk that gap that first time they do get on the field. So for whatever reason, I mean, they're involved in special teams, and they're more attentive than the offense and defense, and they become more locked in, more engaged. You know, they feel what it's like to be on the field and how much fun and exhilarating it is and the energy. So they work harder offense and defense than to get in the mix. And We have a lot of those guys now. I mean, you know, I don't want to miss one of them. I mean, last week, I mean, Harp has been on the field. Jayden, Mentioned Jayden, Amontrae, That's some really big plays the last couple weeks on special teams. Jordan Boyd, I mean, he's a big old dude that can run now. And you have to watch him run down and kick off. You know, Christian Pritchett. I mean, he's another one that's, you know, Scooter is another one that's a young guy that's getting in there and playing. I don't want to miss one of them, but we've got a good handful of young guys that we're getting on that special teams in hopes that continue to develop those guys and get on the field too. Long answer to a short question."

9. On LaMiles Brooks...

"Yeah, you know, Miles is, Miles. Miles, yeah. You know, I hate it for him at times because he has had a really, I don't even say an injury bug. He's just been banged up, you know, for a while. It's just about the time he starts to come back to full speed, you know, something else happens. I know Miles Brooks since he was in ninth grade and started recruiting him when I was in Tuscaloosa him and him and his teammate and they came up to a summer camp that summer I think I still I showed it to him recently it was a he was like six foot tall he was like 138 pounds coming out in ninth grade him and his buddy that came with him they were both like right at six they're right six foot tall six Both like a just shade under 140 pounds. So both of them, and both of them ran like 4.6's in ninth grade. So then to be able to really, you know, he's been here almost every step of the way that I've been here. And relationships with players go so much deeper than on the field, right? You know, do I wish he was able to be able to sustain and have that consistent run that I know he wants. Yeah, I do. I love him. I love his family. But when the guy is banged up, to see him still be like a coach on the field and take up younger guys, not getting the, you know, a pouty mood and be to himself. I mean, he's, whenever those things happen, he's still out there encouraging guys, coaching guys, being a positive person, you know, learning how to be a leader sometimes is the hardest thing in leadership and I think over the course of the last two years you know really to see his maturity and how he's grown and off the football field he's he can be successful in whatever avenue he choose you look back 10 15 years from now and Miles Brooks, he's still Miles on my phone so but the miles he's gonna be successful one where everyone ends."

10. On the offensive line depth and if he has any pause about putting inexperienced players in...

"You have heard me say before, this ain't the YMCA, not everyone goes out and plays. Just to touch on what I was saying earlier, they earn that right to go out and play with five o-lineman and you go out there and hold on to it and hope nobody gets banged up or hurt, which hardly ever happens at that position. There are years you thought you had six or seven and then you go into the season and lose three so we have played eight guys and have been able to consistently play eight guys through the year so it really depends on when those guys become ready and you don't want to put them in there just to see how they are going to do, you're going against everything we talk about when it comes to preparation to win. You put guys out there when you know they are ready to make mistakes and learn from them. Difference to going out and getting beat or making a mistake, and then all of a sudden it's just a mistake. You don't know what you did wrong. But when you've mentally gotten to the point where, look, you know someone's going to go out there. You know they're going to have a bad play. You don't know when that play is going to be. But you know that next time that that situation comes up, they're going to be able to execute the way they're supposed to. And lines different in a lot of ways because it's so much of maturity, strength. There's some guys that just aren't strong enough yet. So they're not going to be in that mix to go out and see how they go out and play. But the guys that have the strength, they have the size, they have the ability, they have the knowledge. Now they just need to go out and do it. I think there's really two different buckets you put those guys in. But with all that being said, we've got some guys that are really close to be able to get in and contribute. We do. I'm excited. Whenever that time comes and we meet on Friday night every week and talk about who's going to play and how we're going to play the guys and really set off of how they've done not just that week, but also a culmination of the whole team."