Everything From Brent Key's Thursday Press Conference Ahead of Matchup With Georgia State

Georgia Tech is two days away from their home opener

Aug 24, 2024; Dublin, IRL; Georgia Tech head coach Brent Key before the game against Florida State at Aviva Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Tom Maher/INPHO via USA TODAY Sports / Tom Maher/INPHO via USA TODAY Sports

Georgia Tech's matchup with Georgia State is now just two days away. The Yellow Jackets are hoping to follow their win over Florida State with a strong showing on Saturday night vs the Panthers in the programs first ever matchup. Ahead of that matchup, Georgia Tech head coach Brent Key met with the media on Thursday for his second press conference of the week and here is everything that he had to say.

Opening Statement...

"It'll be a good environment out there. So, you know, I mean, they said 83 degrees. It'll be a nice Saturday night for football. So, you know, excited to be home, excited to be back at Bobby Dodd and have a chance to play in front of our fans and our crowd expecting a lot of people to be here and show up enthusiastic and you know from our fans and our alumni and the students that's what's exciting to be back in front of the students again just the way we closed out the season last year with with the fans you know another night game here it will be really exciting really exciting atmosphere to play And so, you know, as a football team, we've had another good week of practice. You know, it's been really a, you know, four or five week journey now of these guys, you know, really answering the call every day to come out to work. Understanding that yesterday means nothing about today and every, you know, have good practice one day, you just have to build on it the next. And talked a lot about standards and identities, right? And, you know, long ago, when I first started out, we said that, in the entire organization, you know, everyone's held, and myself, you know, a number one is, you know, we're all held to the same standard. And we want to walk through that door every day and get the absolute best we can possibly be, do the absolute best job we can possibly do, in order to make this football team be able to have opportunities to be successful in the weekend. And, you know, I think we've gotten to the point where we've set a standard. Well, standards don't stay the same. standards every day standards are very emotional.

Identities, though, identities, identities like your name. Like, your name stays with you. Name is who you are. It's not what you do. Well, a standard is what you do. It's what you're known for doing, but an identity becomes actually who you are. And that's our job. We don't have an identity yet, right? That's the next step that we're working towards. It's establishing an identity of the 2024 Georgia Tech football team. And when, you know, you get 12 opportunities guaranteed to put in, you know, we'll put 365 days at work a year in on this, and you get 12 opportunities guaranteed. So we've got a one game season this Saturday that we're really excited about, excited to play a team right down the road that it's, you know, an in -state team. A lot of the players and, you and coaching staffs are familiar with each other, playing back here at Bobby Dodd under the lights. So again, it's a great opportunity for us, but it's just that it's another opportunity. Last week means nothing to do with this week. Next week means nothing to do with this week. This is a one season game for us, and that's what we're going to go about."

1. On the familiarity with the Georgia State coaches and players and how that could help them on Saturday...

"No, it doesn't. I know a lot of people on, you know, for the most part, every staff that we're going to play this year. It doesn't. People, good football coaches, all right, they put together schemes that are personnel driven. They put together schemes and calls and plays and runs and passes and blitzes and coverages. They put those things together for what's best for their team. We don't know their team. We know some of the personnel that was on their team. So like I said on Tuesday, this game is about us being the best version of ourselves at 8 o 'clock on Saturday night. This is about us going into the game and then be able to make adjustments within the game, no different than we had to be done last week. That's what we have to do. We can't get caught up and worrying about what may or may not. Those are all hypotheticals. You sit there and guess on something, and now you're starting over at 8 o 'clock. It's not about that. It's about us being the best we can be. We're exposed to a lot of different things in practice every day. We have been since the beginning of spring ball on both sides of the ball and special teams. So it's about our guys playing fundamentally sound, playing with a great effort, playing for 60 minutes, playing each play one play at a time, come to the sideline, stay in the course, trust in the plan, trust in the preparation, and playing a complete game."

2. On the health of the running back room...

"eah, you know, you never know how a game was going to play out. You know, last week was a 53 play game so it was really only room for two guys in a perfect world you look for three guys in a game to carry the load so the health is good health is really good in the running back room in other places we'll see but the running back room we're full go right now."

3. On how practice has gone this week...

"I'm never satisfied. You ought to know that. There's no satisfaction. All right. There's no satisfaction at all. I mean, that's just to top out to be average, in my opinion, to be satisfied, right? You can always be better. You can always do more, right? You can always be a better version of yourself. You can always be a better person. You can always be kinder. You can always be faster. You can always be tougher. You can always be stronger."

4. On the possibility of playing Georgia State more in the future...

"I'm not, I don't have anything to do with the scheduling. You know, we have small input on those things. We have a conference schedule that we play every year, and then we want to be able to play the best opponents we can possibly play. They create value for Georgia Tech. They create value for our fan base, and they create value for recruiting. And when you play a team in state, yeah, there's cross -over. There's people that have interest in both parties. There's people that have gone to both schools. So, You know, to be able to have a crowd, you know, at this game on Saturday night, I think it's going to be a wonderful thing. And, you know, to play games like this in the future, again, we take every opportunity we can to play another game. I mean, people have asked before about the extended playoffs. I mean, I just said, I mean, we only guarantee 12 times a year to play. We work. I mean, it's only game like that. Baseball, I mean, they're not – they play a lot of games. I mean, not football, and every game is like a different season. You start over again. So, you know, be able to play more games, have an opportunity to play more games. I play people that are close to us, and it's easier on travel. I know it's easier on people having to get on a flight and go somewhere staying hotels, all those things. So the efficiency of it, I think, is good."

5. On capitalizing on the momentum the program has right now...

"You know, like I said on Tuesday, the momentum was really something that's established each week in practice. You know, momentum doesn't carry over internally week to week. Momentum doesn't carry over season to season. Momentum really doesn't carry over day to day. I mean, we all wake up and every day's a new day. The sun comes up to next day, just like you did the day before. So now when you look at the fan base, I don't know if it's momentum or it's more just the energy, it's excitement. And really that starts with President Cabrera. It starts with our athletic director, J. Bat, you know, the alignment they've created really from the top down for our athletic programs to be able to, you know, have a good product, put a good product on the field. But, again, those things go week in and week out. It's always exciting to have the fan support behind you. And when you play at home and you have fans, I mean, our fans, our student section, I mean, they truly are going to be a 12th man in this game. They're going to help us within the game, right? And, you know, game play for 60 minutes, play for four quarters and for us to be able to have our fan base and our students to be there that whole time, right? That's important. It's really important. That's why they call it a home field advantage. And we want to create one of the best ones in the entire country here at Bobby Dodd."

6. On the kicking game...

" I hope our kickers don't kick one through it. It'd be way off if they did. The goalpost are still where they were. They didn't move those. They moved a building, so if it goes through that big gap, we got problems."

7. On preparing for the various different personnel and schemes that Georgia State could bring with all of their transfers...

"Again, those are hypothetical things, right? And this is a game that the more gray you become, the less chance you have for success. The more gray you are as a coach, the more gray it's going to become to the players, way, the ifs way, those way, yeah, you look at film of players, individual players from different places, but now you've got players that are playing in possibly a different scheme. How are they going to play within that scheme? How are they going to play in that environment? Those are all things that we can't worry about those. Do you want to worry about them? Heck yeah. I mean, that's human nature, just to worry about those things. But I'll be darned if the players are going to worry about it. We've got a colossal task at hand at 8 o 'clock on Saturday night. Everyone is aware of that. Everyone knows that. And that task at hand is to go out and be a better version of the Georgia Tech football team this season than we were last week. Bottom line, that is it. All right, we will have to make great adjustments as a staff. I'll have to make great adjustments as the head coach. I'll have to be on my toes of things of the unknowns that could occur. That's why you prepare and we practice the way we do."