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

Georgia Tech hosts Georgia State on Saturday night for its 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 was back on the practice field this morning in preparation for their home opener vs Georgia State. The Yellow Jackets are hoping to follow up their upset win over Florida State with a win over the Panthers in the first meeting between the two schools. After practice, Georgia Tech head coach Brent Key spoke with the media, and here is everything that he had to say.

Opening Statement...

"We are already into the Tuesday practice in preparation for Georgia State this week. I think everyone knows my feelings about going back previously, but I will go back and say a couple of things. It was a good win for the Georgia Tech family, for our fanbase for everyone in this school this week. It was on a stage where Georgia Tech got a lot of exposure, a lot of people had a chance to find out things they might not have known about Georgia Tech and I am not just saying Georgia Tech Football, I am saying Georgia Tech in general. So that was a great opportunity for our entire school and for the fan base. But that game's over. We've got a new challenge this week. Anytime that you create opportunity for yourself like that, you create new challenges. And the challenge this week is it's really the same. It's preparing the right way and look that doesn't mean that we didn't enjoy a win so let's don't talk about that we did you know I want those guys to enjoy things but when we got back here on Sunday at 3:09 it was 24 hours and it was time to get to work so and it the being able to have a game move on to the next game we've said it before there's really three phases right now in our growth as a team, you know, learning how not to lose, learning how to win, and now learning how to win consistently. You know, the challenge we have this week, I told the team this on Sunday afternoon, the challenge would have been a lot easier had we lost the game on Saturday night. lot easier. I mean, that's not the way we want it. That's not what we want to do, right? We want to stay in the moment, work day -to -day and live out the week, live out the month, live out the year, hopefully the same way you live out of game, and that's one play at a time, next play mentality. And, you know, success and failure, I said this after the game, success and failure both can be distractions if you let them, if you let them be distractions, right? That's part of the mental makeup that's got to go into being a really good football player and a really good football team, right? And we're not there yet. We've got to continue to strive every day to get to that point. So really, I told him and said, whatever the mindset is, it's got to be, you know, nothing else matters, get better. And so it doesn't matter, get better. It's really our thing this week. And we've got to have to show individual improvement. There's a lot of mistakes that have to be corrected. There's a lot of things that we did well.

There's a lot of things that didn't go well. Are you going to change the way you coach a game off of six feet, off maybe six inches? I mean, It's about six feet to the left, six inches on a ball on the ground from recovering it. So you can't change an entire mindset based on those outcomes. So I know you're probably going to ask about momentum. And was it, momentum is not created by a win. Momentum does not carry over. I said at the beginning of the season, momentum does not carry from last year to this year. Momentum's it one way and that's how we go out and we practice and we prepare and we work when we're given the opportunity to be together and work so I talked to the team after practice again and all of our goals for this season are in front of us and really equated it to when you're driving you know you there's a reason the windshield's a lot bigger than the rearview mirror I mean, if you get distracted and you're looking in the rearview mirror the whole time, you're going to have a wreck. And I've been in a wreck. We've been in a wreck before. That's why we've got to keep our focus and our attention looking forward. That's where our goals are. That's where our opportunities are. And that's where we have to stay right now is being able to prepare ourselves to be able to move forward. Yesterday doesn't do anything for today. So We've got a great opportunity this week to play a school right down the road. We start out the season with goals of winning a state championship and winning a conference championship, right? So you talk about our goals are right in front of us. I think it's a great opportunity for two schools to play each other that are close, that have a lot of guys that know each other, coaches, and players. So I think this would be a really good environment on on Saturday night really encourage everyone to come out we really need the fan support the students I mean the second half of the season last year is the students came more more to the games I mean what an electric atmosphere it was and we're expecting the same thing on Saturday night."

1. On the injuries to Trey Cooley and Horace Lockett...

"Yeah, I'm hopeful. I'm hopeful for a lot of things. I'm hopeful for a brand new Ferrari to show up in that parking lot. I'm hopeful for the building to be completed tomorrow. But, I mean, living hope, and you die in, I won't say the rest. We're banged up. It's a physical football game, right? We have a physical football team, and that's going to happen weekend and week. You know, guys that are able to play on Saturday will play. But, you know, we're not going to force somebody back sooner than they can be. I mean, we're banged up now. You know, a lot of guys that played and finished that football game are kind of walking wounded right now. So there's a lot of time between now and then on Saturday night."

2. On the left tackle battle between Jordan Brown and Corey Robinson...

"I think Jordan Brown, I don't want to say quietly because he is quiet. He didn't, hard to say a word. But I thought he played in the game the same way he's practice. He just can just be steady Eddie now. I mean, just consistent. A lot of things we've got to get better at. And the work started on that on Sunday night. I'd rather have 10 guys play. But we're not going to, this ain'tthe YMCA either. We're going to play guys that have earned the opportunity and they deserve to play, and both those guys deserve to play."

3. On Jordan Williams...

"I mean, you know, playing an offensive line as a true freshman is second only to really quarterback. It's hard. And, you know, it's not necessarily the physical ability or the DNA, the God -given traits that you have. It's the technique. It's the experience. It's the amount of live reps that you can get. But Jordan has. He's played a lot of football. I don't know exactly how many games, but I would guess it's in the 50s that Jordan's played in. But whether it's 50 games or five games or been here for five days, I mean, he's held the same standard as everybody else. We coach him just the same way as everyone else. He's got a lot of things he has to get better at. He was one of the ones that I called out at a team meeting on Sunday as far as asking him to stand up in front of the team and say what was the one thing that he was going to work on individually and improve on this week. Look, if everyone on this team can make the same commitment that I made to them, to get better at one thing. I mean we all hear 100 things throughout the day that we need to improve on. As a player you hear 6, 8, or 10 and now it is compounded into 20, 25 things but if everybody on our football team can take one thing that they have to get better at, right? As a team, we've got to improve in a lot of things, offense, defense, special teams. But if every player can get better at one thing, I'm talking about scout team players, I'm talking about starters, I'm talking about everyone. That's 120 players on the team that have improved over the course of a week. If you do that week in and week out for 12 weeks of the season and, you know, it exponentially becomes a better football team."

4. On teaching the mindset of being able to move forward and not look back to his team...

"I'd be curious to ask y 'all, like, how many of y 'all have that mindset? This isn't something that I talk about once a month or, you know, it's hearsay. This is a way of life. It is truly a way of living your life. And if I don't live that way, I'm nothing more than a hypocrite to these kids and these coaches. Things I say, I have to live and walk it the same way. And I truly do. Do I struggle with it? Yeah, everybody does. But you have to constantly remind yourself you can do nothing about what's going to happen tomorrow you can't do anything about what's already happened you think about it these kids I mean between you know girlfriends and school and are they going to play are they not going to play the the external factors I mean all of those things we talk about focus will focus disability eliminate external distractions right you have all these cool things to say but truly in my every day of them like every part of my life and I think majority not all of our coaches live that way right then it takes a while it takes a long time and as soon as you think you've accomplished something right you better work even harder at it because you ain't going, you don't stay the same, no one does and you're either getting better or worse."

5. On if the focus for the team has been there and how he is sensing the team...

"Just make sure we show up at 8 'o'clock on Saturday night. I think the team, that is a distraction. So, look, no one in this building is blind to what's happened in the past. No one. The focus has to be on what we have to do instead of what we aren't going to do. We can't do this. We're not going to do this. How are you improving anybody? How are you getting people to step forward and make that step forward? When I tell these guys all the time that they have ownership in this team, that I trust them, okay? How can you say that you trust someone and you've given them responsibility? And they've had now since July 24th up until this moment right now to prove that to you every single day. And then all of a sudden, you change script and you don't trust them on something, right? This isn't something that happens and changes. This is a mindset that started on January 4th that works through the whole season. You know, no different than will the last game of the season. This is the biggest game of the year. Hands down, make no bones about it, all right? And practice indicated that. I told you we're banged up we're hurt other guys got to step up they got to play okay next man up."

6. On how challenging it is for a program to buy into that mindset...

"It's great for the university. It's great for the fan base, the alumni. All those things are outstanding. Every time you win a football game, right? People think it gets bigger and bigger and bigger. Well, that's my job is to keep it the exact same. Not that it's small in any means at all, right? But the focus and the preparation, the concentration, the discipline we have to have to go out and play the way we have to practice and prepare in order like I said momentum is created by preparation so all those things that happen you know those those are those are great those are but those are just byproducts right? We're getting ready to play a game, there's 120 young men in that locker room, there's you know 40 50 support staff and coaches at that point when it's ready to go out on that field it's nothing about the, It's not about the fans, the media, the families, and all that. It's about one thing. It's that family that's in that locker room that we're going out there together. And not looking at the past to talk about it, but kind of as a way to see what you can get better at and what you've improved on."

7. On what he learned about his team in Ireland...

"Okay, well, they played for 60 minutes. They played for 60 minutes. They overcame obstacles and adversity that happened in the game, right? They trusted the plan, believed in the plan, and executed the plan. They didn't waver when it came to that. And they stuck together as a family. They won offense, defense, special teams. It was one team. Those are the things that we did well. Now, what do we have to improve on? We have to do those better. Otherwise, you're getting worse. You're not improving. So those are the things that that's the standard, and I didn't do it. Those kids did it out there on the field. They're the ones that now have to uphold that weekend and week out."

8. On how the depth of the team will help them this week...

"It was good today to be able to have guys that have been taking a lot of reps with the twos and the threes and sometimes it is special teams reps, they are taking a lot of reps on special teams and those become game reps. Those help. But, yeah, the depth is important, and we've got to continue to increase our depth. Really, you increase your depth by the acquisition of talent. But then you truly increase your depth by developing those guys. And that's what we've done over the course of the last eight, nine months, for a lot of those guys and really the last."

9. On Haynes King's ability to make the right play...

"Yeah, I mean, I could talk for two hours about that. But I mean, the answer to that really is in what we've already talked about, talked about learning from the past not living in the past but learning from the past you never looked yourself in the mirror right to be honest with yourself is the hardest person in the world to be honest with right and he's understood that he knows that he's and the the maturity that he is shown in the development that he's shown from the beginning of the year in the last year really until now It shows up when it needs to me."

10. On Recruiting...

"Yeah, I mean, we hope to have a packed section on day of recruits from the state of Georgia, from the local area from the state of Georgia and from the surrounding areas. So we want to recruit the absolute best players to be able come and help us win football games and to graduate from Georgia Tech represent our place the way it should be."

11. On how to game plan for Georgia State with all of their new players and coaching staff...

"Yeah, so it's kind of neat. It's like two game ones for us, which I've never been a part of. So really it's no different than it was in the first week. You don't know what they're going to come out with. You don't know what type of thing you think, but you don't know. So it's about us being able to play the best football. We I mean, not over -complicating things, right? Be able to be simple with what we do, it would appear to be complicated with what we do. And then our ability to make adjustments. I mean, the best answer for that is looking between the first series and the second series on the defensive side of the football on Saturday. Cool, calm, collected, came off the field. There was no, you know, yelling at each other, no fussing. I mean, that shows the confidence and the trust they have in Tyler. I mean, Tuch is upstairs, those guys came to the bench, coaches got in front of them, all right? Next play. Next play. And that's what they did. And that's how you have to be in games where there are unknowns and uncertainties. You have to take the unknowns and the uncertainties, all that gray that people want to talk about. And you have to define it. And that's how do you define it? Well, you define it in the improvement in your own team."