Everything from Brent Key's media availability: 8/29
Only three more days until toe meets leather in Atlanta.
Georgia Tech is set to square off with Louisville in Mercedes Benz Stadium on Friday night and both teams are looking to start the year 1-0 under their new head coaches.
Today, Yellow Jackets head coach Brent Key spoke to the media ahead of the game on Friday night and here is everything he had to say today:
Opening Statement:
"It is game week. We finished up a lot of the physical preparation today, still have a lot of the mental preparation for the rest of the week leading up to gametime. The challenge I gave our guys was to just stay in the moment of each day, we still have a lot of improvement we can continue to do from a mental standpoint. Pleased with the team right now, we have made it to this point relatively healthy. We have two more practices left and we will take some of the physical part off of them, we are coming out of a really physical camp we had and we are getting ready to play Friday night in the Benz.
I know the coaches are getting excited and the players are getting excited and we are just tempering that right now. Continue to focus on one day at a time and what we have to do leading up to the game is going to be the big challenge for us and I want the guys to be able to cut loose and go play free and not uptight and have a good time when they do it on Friday night.
We have put a lot of hard work in up to this point and when you put the work in, you get 12 guaranteed opportunities to play in a game, that is fewer than any other sport. All the work that you put in, you wanna be able to understand that it is about going and playing the game and having fun while they are playing the game, but playing it the right way.
We are excited. It is routine for us now. As everyone has heard for years and years now, today is Tuesday, but it is actually Wednesday and the mental gymnastics of that with the installation and what we are doing so I think everyone is confused as to actually what day it is but I just know that we get to play in a football game soon so I am excited about that.
1. On if the team is anxious and amping up ready to play...
Yeah, they are excited. Anxious is not the right word, we try to eliminate any type of anxiety in our players, coaches, anyone on the sidelines and staff. They have to do a lot of things everyday outside of football and those alone, the external things are what provides anxiety in the young kids and young adults as well. So anxious is not the word that we use around here, excited, ready to compete, ready to hit someone else with a different color jersey on, but anxiety is the last thing we want in our players, we don't want them to play tight, we don't want them to go out there and have a fear of making a mistake and have a fear of losing. That is not why you play the game.
The greatest competitors in the history of the world and the athletic arena, it is not that they go out there, they are not scared to lose, it is not the fear of losing that drives them, it is not even the want to to win. It is the opportunity to go get better than you were the previous time and show improvement and like I told our team the very first day of camp, our goal everyday is to show individual improvement and if our players show improvement individually, then collectively, we will improve as an offense, defense, and special teams and see where they are at on Friday night."
2. On the defensive gameplan...
"Stop the run, stop the pass. When you play a first game, it is not about the other opponent as much because there are so many unknowns. It is a different staff, new head coach, new unknowns with the quarterback, but at the end of the day, it is just playing the best that you can be. You can only be as good as your base offense, base defense, base special teams calls and then from there, it is about adjustments. It is about coaches being sharp, sharp with the pencil between a series, sharp at halftime, having a plan, but we don't put that on our players, we want to compete as long as they possibly can and not have pressure."
3. On how much Purdue film he had to watch to prepare for Jeff Brohm and Louisville...
"We watched a lot of film. We looked at Purdue, we looked at Western Kentucky, we looked at Louisville, Louisville personnel... there are 26 transfers on there team so we have looked at 21 different schools and individual players. There is a lot of preparation that goes into that but we don't want our guys to overthink things. It is the first game, it is about what we do, it is about performance and how we execute our base offense, defense, and special teams.
4. On how he views matchups in Mercedes Benz Stadium and what a result would mean...
"It is an exciting time to be able to play in that stadium, had a lot of good memories playing in that stadium personally but as a team to go and play in that arena but at the end of the day there is nothing like playing at Bobby Dodd. We love our home stadium, we love playing at Bobby Dodd but to have the opportunity to have these guys go out and play in the Benz it is a special time.
I am not worried about results. I am not result driven, this team is not result-driven. What we have to do right now is worry about the process that it takes to get those results.
5. On what he is looking for from his team on Friday...
"I do have a good feel for this team and I know what type of team that we have but its... I know what team we have practicing against each other, I know what type of team we have from January and the type of improvement that we have shown from January to now but it is all relative to who we are going against everyday so that is the unknown. How is the team going to respond then against someone else, how are they going to respond to a different venue, how are they going to react when adversity sets in.
We all know what adversity is and at some point in the game, it will occur. You take the things that have occurred over the last 8-9 months and you hope that you have a little bit of a pattern and you think you know what they are going to do. We all as coaches have been in first games of the season and there are a lot of unknowns and things that happen that you would never expect.
I think the biggest question is, when that adverse time hits and adversity comes, what are we going to do to work our way through it, what are we going to play the next play, to leave that play behind and understand that its one play at a time just like it is one game at a time, we are playing this as a season. It is just like in the past when we have 12 one game seasons and this is a season right here.
Are they going to be able to have the focus for the entire rest of the week, are they going to be able to focus on the entire day Friday and throughout the game and then rebound and something happens and the next play and that is where I am excited.
It is not about the nervousness, it is not "I hope this happens" or "I hope this happens", I wanna see how they take those challenges on."
6. On the front seven and the leadership...
"The good thing is that we have depth on the defensive front, we really do, we have a good group of guys and a lot of them are going to play, so you will see a steady wave of guys rolling in and out throughout the game and I hope all of them have their time to shine, I do. There are some that will play more than others, but in a perfect world, I know (defensive line coach) Marco (Coleman) wants to get those guys on the front line playing equal reps and being fresh when they are out there and produce and be productive and stop the run game and also be able to effect the quarterback."
7. On what he wants to see from the offense on Friday...
"I want to see them be efficient, I want to see them move the ball , situational football. We have spent a lot of time on situational football through spring ball and preseason camp and I want to be able to see them get into situations and not, they are not too big for them, it is not something they are nervous about. to be able to play with a cool, calm, and collective demeanor and play physical and play disciplined.
I told our team this week that this is a team I want to see play loose, I want to see them play confident and be extremely disciplined and play with a physicality and toughness that we have demanded from these guys every single day."
8. On his mindset going into this game and if he views this game as the beginning for him...
"That is a good question because I have... I don't feel like it is my first time out, I feel like this is the first game of the season. There is always the butterflies that creep into the first game that has been happening since I was a kid playing football. It is part of it, that is what makes it fun, it is what drives you, you love to get to that point where the butterflies are.
As we are studying a lot of different situations and doing situational prep, you know yesterday, one of our situations was from the Pittsburgh game last year and I saw myself on the sideline and was like, whoa, we have come a long way since then. So, yeah, it is the first game truly out there as a head coach, but having that experience last year, and then actually revisiting it yesterday and seeing those things, I feel in a good place as far as going out there as a head coach and not being the, hey its the first time out, the first time running through with the players, that is all fanfare and part of the pageantry that makes college football great.
Last year, it probably was nerve-wracking those first few games. Now, it is business and we have a job to do and I am excited to go out there with those guys and do it."
9. On the ACC likely expanding...
"I am not going to say that I don't know anything about it because Mike does a good job of updating me because I have been solely focused on the prep for this team and the prep for the Louisville game on Friday.
Look, it is an exciting time for the conference if they are looking to do those things, I have faith in the commissioner, I have faith in the conference, I have been a part of this conference since 1996 and that is why I love this conference. It is such a great mix of academics and athletics and it is an exciting brand of football in the league and if they make the decision to move forward with that, then we would all be behind it and excited for the future."
10. On if he is trying to establish the identity of the program this season...
"I would not say that is Brent Key football, I would say Georgia Tech football. That is what we are aiming to be, that is what we are aiming to do, it is no different than the first day that we got together. I want to see a physically tough and disciplined football team that is trying to stick together and be committed to the process and has the ability to go out there and execute.
Three of those things we have come a long way with. We are a lot more physically tough football team, we are mentally tough and they are committed to each other, I really do. The discipline we have greatly improved and we work on it every day and we have improved so much. When you get out there and the unknowns occur in the first game and that is where you have to hope that they rely on their training.
The execution, that is the thing that you don't know. The execution in practice, you know what happens, you know what occurs there and you know how it has been, but executing against a different opponent, that is the thing that I really want to see."
11. On what he would consider a successful debut for his quarterback Haynes King...
"Today, I hope he washes up in the training room and gets a good lunch and goes to class and gets a good study hall in and then we will deal with that tomorrow."
12. On who the captains will be for the game...
"I know who they will be and I will announce it to the team in the coming days."
13. On making clear that Haynes King does not have to look over his shoulder...
"That is, that is the message that I gave to him as well. As a coach, you don't want someone looking over your shoulder. In the business world, someone looking over your shoulder, you would hate someone constantly looking over your shoulder and thinking that we are going to pull what you write and what you do on TV, that they were constantly getting ready to yank you off the set or pull the pen out of your hand, there is a nervousness when you do that and when you have that feeling, you are constantly thinking about that, whether you are or not, it is in the back of you head.
Haynes is our starting quarterback. Haynes is the guy. Everyone on this football team, myself included, is going to make some sort of mistake in the game, everyone is going to make a mistake today, everyone in this room makes mistakes, it is a part of life. But he understands the confidence that I have in him and the coaching staff has in him that he is the guy."
14. On what Haynes King to separate from the other quarterbacks...
"To me, that is making an impulsive decision, an emotional decision and making one that is not best for the program or the kids. This was a combination of, really from January and I have said it was an extremely close competition and we have some really good quarterbacks on this team and we have quarterbacks that have starting experience in football games and that is going to bode well for us as we go through the season."
15. On the special teams unit...
Ricky (Brumfield) has done a phenomenal job with those guys and to be able to be multiple on our teams that each snap of special teams is an offensive and defensive play and you are not going to go out on a defensive play and run the same play or go out on offense and run the same play so the multiples that he brings the detail and the basic fundamentals that he teaches everyday and the passion that he has is behind it and coaching the teams as well as the players and it is exciting, but it goes with everything else and we will find out on Friday night under the lights because last year is gone, no matter how good you were a year ago, how good an individual was a year ago.
It is a new year and a new season and a new staff and a new program. That is another thing that I am excited to see on Friday night.
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