Everything From Head Coach Brent Key After Georgia Tech's Second Spring Scrimmage

Jackson Caudell | Apr 6, 2024

Sep 16, 2023; Oxford, Mississippi, USA; Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets head coach Brent Key walks along / Petre Thomas-USA TODAY Sports

Georgia Tech capped off another week of spring football with their second scrimmage today and the next time they scrimmage this spring, it will be the Annual White and Gold Spring Game. After the scrimmage today, Yellow Jackets head coach Brent Key met with the media to recap today's scrimmage, and here is everything that he had to say.

Opening Statement:

"I was pleased with some of the improvements we made over the course of a week, and that's really what we're looking at right now. We're not looking at the course of over all the spring. We're not looking at where we're gonna be in the fall. We're looking at are we improving each day and every week. And it was really... can sit down and assess every Monday morning, where we were the past week, did we improve individually? Did we improve collectively? I was able to watch the tape and assess everything, but I felt it was a good effort by the defense out there. A lot more people tackling around the ball. A lot more guys showing up. We had some guys back out there today, playing some plays that hadn't been. And we started scrimmage we basically played a half of football, played the first quarter, the second quarter on the clock, true clock running, clock management, finished that off with a two -minute thing we got with 13 drives in in that first half with each group. I'm sorry, total. And of the 13 series that we ran, we had two touchdowns, three field goals, an interception and seven punts. So it shows you the strides of the defense, I think, made this week in the preparation and they're cleaning up things from the previous week. So a lot of things we have to clean up as far as run fits. To me penalties I thought today that extended some drives for the offense. We had two defensive holding penalties which you don't want those but when you're in spring practice and guys are playing the right way and they're playing you know you know guarding guys and and you've got good receivers on the other side of the football.

Those are going to show up and really it usually happens when guys are playing harder, they're playing with more confidence in what they're doing, so now we can clean those things up. We had two defensive holding penalties that ended up extending some drives, otherwise, you're looking at a really really solid half a football for the defense we had there. We ended it with two minutes before the half where the defense ended up holding them to a field goal, which was a good thing. Then, like we did last week, we did some situational things. Second down, played in the thirds. Ended up getting some short-yardage situations there. And, you know, again, I saw some of the young guys showing up on defense. New guys showing up and making some plays and getting some good stops. Then, you know, from there, went to the red area and played series, two series from the 35, from the 30, from the 25, 20, how to move ourselves in there that we had. Let me see, six, three series there, three total series with each group. So six total and three touchdowns, two field goals, and an interception a really big interception there. So then we did some two minutes at the end. put some real stressful situations to start really working a lot of that stuff, you know, the mechanics of it, and those were really shadow mechanics and more three steps up front. But some of the things that showed up today, you know, the defense was getting more, there would be more pressure on the quarterback.

27 showed up today, Josh Robinson. He's had a really, really good spring so far. Really good to see his. growth and really, you look at a guy that's been around the program a long time and really taking all the coaching right now, playing in the scheme and we talk about doing your job. He's somebody that he doesn't say a lot, comes to work every day and truly does his job every play and he's been very consistent throughout the entire spring. Really pleased that we're 27 is right now in his development for us. And it shows too, you don't have to be a young guy to develop in a program. I mean, you can be a four-year -fifth-year guy and still have ways to go. And he's taken that and he's really run with it and he's doing a great job. Offensively again, six showed up again. Anthony (Carrie) had some really big runs, some really good runs. Showed really good vision and balance, made some good cuts. He's getting more and more confident every day he's been out here running the football We still got to work pass protection on the running backs with blitzes and those things, but I thought six and I thought Trey Cooley did some good things out there today. He'd had a tooth, root canal or something last week. So kind of hard to play football when you just had a root canal. But he did some good things today, and made some good tough hard runs. And then the guy that really was banged up a little bit early, came back, played a full day today, did a couple of good things last week. But then today really showed up as a big target that's hard to bring down is Jackson Hawes, the Yale transfer.

He's a big target to see over the middle, especially when you get down in the red area, part of the game. Defensively, Ahmari Harvey, he's playing with a lot of confidence right now. There's things in his game we're working on, and we've had a lot of individual kind of one-on-ones with me and him of being able to focus off his energy on playing the game. Not always the emotional part between the plays, and he did a really good job of that today, and he showed the way he played, being able to get his hands on a lot of balls out there. Thought 21 showed up. Omar (Daniels), today was to make some good plays. You know, talked about No. 27, No. 35 Jacob Cruz, we've moved down to the rush spot. He's been there for about a week now, and he's starting to, starting to flash. Starting to make some, make some plays, showing his length and his speed. I think he's going to be, be a big help for us. But No. 2 (E.J. Lightsey), man, it's good to see him out there. He's a big, imposing, looking guy that can run and bring people down kind of in their tracks. So all in all, it was a lot of good work today. Like I said, the penalties showed up. We had crowd noise or loud noise and we got into the red area to really stress the communication and working with the helmet-to-helmet communication, stressing that and that's when some of the penalties showed up. We had a couple series where we put some young guys in with the first group across the front and those were times when you know all of a sudden one call comes out a little bit late and you know it's those guys you've got to get those reps you know if you're gonna be backups because it's got to be a seamless transition when those guys go in. You know and we got to continue to work on the explosives on the defensive side of the football where I mean we had a lot less than we did. And when you don't give up the explosives, that's when you can play good football, play good defense, and get the offense in long third downs. The third longs, being able to pressure the quarterback and do different things on the defensive side. But all it takes is 10 guys can be doing their job and takes one guy that misfits a run or has a misassignment on that side of football and can lead to a big play, especially with some of the things that people do offensively that are hard to defend, just from an eye candy standpoint on the back with the running backs and the receivers and the different motions and things. So, you know, that's kind of the growing pains you're going to go through. That's why those guys are out there playing. That's why we practice in spring. That's why we go through scrimmages in the spring.

We had 120 plays today, which was the point we wanted to hit. I'm not sure what it was exactlywith the one's, with the first group, and the second group. But we had 120 total, and that's what we were aiming for. Guys will go rest up, rest up, we'll come in on Monday and really assess it, dig into it, and make sure everybody takes their guards down and is able to be critical of themselves and what we've got to do to get better. And you have one more week of spring ball. So we've got to make the most of it. We'll practice Tuesday, Wednesday this week. Friday we'll have a walk through in the afternoon for the White and Gold game and then we'll play next Saturday. So got a lot of work to do, long way to go, but we are making improvements and that's what we're looking at. Like I said, you know, a week to week basis. I thought we accomplished that task this week and we've got another week. We've got to work through the same thing."

1. On the early chemistry between Kyle Pope and Jess Simspon and what he sees from the defensive line...

"A lot of improvement. A lot of improvement. I mean, we've got some guys up front. They're really good football players and they're playing with good technique. They're playing within the scheme, not doing their own thing. They're understanding the big picture. understanding is important. What they do is, what the offense is trying to do, what the offense is trying to do in understanding different tweaks that we have within each call on the defensive side. But they really respect those two men. They respect those two men as not just coaches, but with relationships they have with them. They're able to have that fun together. Uh, but, you know, when you know somebody has that type of relationship, you can coach them hard and they do. They coach them hard on that side and in there, the response has been exactly what we wanted with this scrimmage."

2. On how the offensive line and quarterbacks handled the blitzing today...

"Well, there's only one, really one series that, I'm sorry, they might have been two series out of what, 20 in a day that we did that. But, 'cause we did, we wanna be able to get chemistry and you wanna be able to get, we had some series where Zach took some with the first group behind the first offensive line. You know, got the young guys in there some with the second group, you know, had the series with, and then we put Tana (Alo-Tupuola) and Harrison (Moore) in there for one series. And I'll say this, they're gonna be fine football players and we're really good. You know, Jameson (Riggs) already a young guy playing the left tackle spot with the ones. And, you know, just 'cause you're gonna be a good football player and you're doing practice and you get there with a lot of bullets going, you can definitely tell a difference. You know, it's hard to replace the experience. that Weston and Jordan have out there playing the game, the chemistry those guys have together, playing next to each other. So all of a sudden you make one movement like that, that's why we do it now. Because that very well could happen in a football game. And that's why we do it. But I'll just say that the success of the offense was not as great. And it's just the chemistry of those guys playing together. And that's what happens when you have five guys that have played a lot of football together."

3. His assessment of the secondary...

"Uh, so we've got some guys banged up. You know, we brought some guys in. I think Warren (Burrell) is obviously a really, really good football player. He's six foot, 195, you know, maybe over six foot, but he's what you want in a cornerback. You know, true cover corner. You know, some of those guys have been banged up a little bit, so it gives me a chance for some. some of the other guys to come in there and play. DJ Moore has had a really, really good camp so far, got banged up out there at one point. I think Clayton (Powell-Lee), Clayton has, Clayton's improvement from the start to now has been probably as good as anybody on the back end. I was really impressed with the tackles he made today, some of the tackles in space he made, some of the ones behind the line of scrimmage some of the different calls we had. Then, I've already talked about Ahmari. I thought Ahmari did some good things.

Syeed showed up on a couple today. But to me, the secondary is very similar to the offensive line. You've got two tackles. You've got two corners. You've got two guards. You have two safeties. You have a nickel. And you have a center. But they're all five guys that have to work cohesively and work together. Because if one of them's out of position-- or out of place, it misses a call. You're not going to have success in that individual play. So it's the cohesiveness that we're trying to get with those guys. It's the individual play, number one, obviously. But then the cohesiveness within the calls that we've got to get different guys in different spots because we're creating the versatility and the ability for more than one group. I've said it before, I think our first 11, you know, they were pretty good football players. And I think they were pretty good football players. But we've got to be able to develop the rest of the guys depth-wise. We've got to be able to address a couple of the needs here coming up in the next couple of weeks. We've got some spots we need to fill, and we'll do that as well. So that's what spring is, though. It gives you really good assessment of where you are as a football team, and I think we make progress on that end."

4. On the running back depth...

"Pretty good. I mean, you've got five guys that have gone in there. Some guys get banged up. That's the nature of that position. So I mean, I think you've got to have three guys game ready. And you've got to have five on the roster that can play, because of helmet and ankle, also the third guys are starting to go out And he's got to be in there in critical situations. And it's not just the ability to take the ball and run with it, which most people see how they do with the ball. the ball in their hand is what they do with the ball not in their hand. The precision of the routes they run, the detail in pass protection, the physicality in the pass protection, they're disciplined to be able to sit in there and go through their progression in the pass pro. And that's where there's only so many reps between now and the first game. And we've got to utilize all of them to be able to continue to get those guys prepared. But Jamal played very few plays out there. out there today. Jamal's fine. Jamal's not banged up one bit, but I know what Jamal Haynes can do. And we've got some other guys we've got to get live reps and live bullets thrown at. And that was a good day for those for that to happen with those guys."

5. On Kyle Efford and his progress...

"Yeah, you know, Kyle's a leader. Not just the linebackers, but he's a leader on the football team. You know, he goes about his business the right way. Football means a lot to him. He's one of the ones that, when he wakes up in the morning, when the alarm clock goes off, he's thinking about ball. And when he lays his head down at night, he's thinking about ball. That's who you love having played in linebacker. That's who you'd love to have been. guys out there today that we wanted to see, especially with EJ coming back full go now. So Kyle took a lot of plays early, but then as the scrimmage went on, we wanted to sit him and allow some other guys to get some reps. So I think we're starting to build some depth there. Yeah, here's five guys that have all been able to. to get in mixed at some point in time with the first group, you know, between Kyle, Tren, Jackson, Tah'j, and now EJ out there."

6. On Jackson Long and other injuries...

"Yeah. You know, Jackson, we got confirmed last week, Jackson, you know, unfortunately tore his ACL. Yeah. Okay. so Jackson will be down. Just a freak thing that happened out there. Nothing, you know, that you can prevent. Just, you know, I hate it for him. He was having a good camp. He's been banged up, you know, a lot since he's been here, but he's got a smile on his face. He's working to be ready to come back. You know, all other guys, I don't offthe top of my head the list in front of me. but, you know, the other guys are all in good states. Like I said, a lot of the guys are starting to work their way back in. And then the ones that have been out for the spring are, you know, out for the spring and they'll be back, you know, since we come back off of after May break. So it was good to see us this week coming out of the scrimmage last week being banged up and then really progress this week and starting to get healthy. And we held some guys today that... if it was a game they probably could have gone. But I wanted to see other guys out there as well.

7. On the new additions to the staff as senior football advisors, Tim Salem and Allen Mogridge...

"Yeah. Yeah, you can't replace experience. We just talked about experience on the offensive line, experience in the back end. I mean, you can't replace experience as coaches. And those guys are both the one, they're good men. They're good men. They're good husbands, good fathers. I kid Tim now, he's a good grandfather. So it's also good to get a little gray hair around. It's that wisdom that you can't be-- it's non -replaceable. Uh, but-- But, you know, they're good, they're really good coaches. They understand the big picture of the game. You know, they're tremendous recruiters, both of them. You know, just, they're people. They have the ability to affect kids. And that's something that I, every single day, ask from everybody in the entire building is, you have to have the ability to positively affect these kids every single day. And if you're not doing that, you're not building those relationships with the people. you know our current guys on the current team with guys in recruiting with families with families in recruiting and really in this day and age of college football you know if you can't do those things there's really probably not gonna be a place for you and on college football staff so feel to bring those guys in have experience and the wealth of knowledge they have and be able to help us in a lot of ways as the season gets near.

8. On how he feels about the teams hunger and motivation...

"Yeah, that's the one thing that if I stand up here and I hadn't felt that in a day, you'll notice it in my face. I promise you that. They're a fun group to coach. They really are. Yeah, they are. It's a good group of guys that we practice hard, we practice long. It's not something that we want to go out every single day. I mean, in human nature, people don't want to go out every day and bang around and run and yell at to run faster and bang around harder. So it's, but these guys come out every day with the right. frame of mind. I think it might have been one day where, you know, it was a little bit slower between the play and between transitions and that and whatnot that we expected and did not expect. And that was addressed when they came back and it was the way it was supposed to. But I thought this week on Tuesday was a little sluggish when they came out. But Thursday, Friday, and then today were good. good and the energy's good. And they're fun to coach. It's a fun group to coach. It's fun to come and be around. It's a fun group of coaches to see them, the way they work, the way they work at the game, the way they work at building relationships with the kids, the way they work at recruiting, as a leader, as the head coach. To be able to say something to the staff in the staff meeting and know that. you don't have to circle back around the next day on it to know that it's been carried out. Not just in the moment, but the next day, whether it's through the meetings with the guys, being carried out throughout the entire practice and then built upon later on. That's when you have a good staff of men around you that all are on the same page. So I've really enjoyed this group so far. We've got a long way to go in our quest for what we want to help this year. And that's what this time is, though, is building the football team. Football teams are built. You started in January through February, then you roll in the spring practice. You start to see some of the things. You start to see the true character of the guys. You start to see truly who has a championship mindset and a winning attitude all the time, then a little time away. And then they'll come back together through nine, ten weeks of the summer. And then really, you'll move on. the summer part's not just conditioning and strength and football part. I mean, it's a true mental conditioning time as well. We spend a lot of time on the mental conditioning and the mindset of our team. Getting to really know each other inside and out breaking them down and then building it back up, rolling into camp. So we got a lot of work to do between now and then. I think if we can continue you know with with the the right mindset coming out each day with the ability to have each day these guys come out wanting to get better I think we'll have a chance to do some good things especially when June gets here and we'll have a complete team"