Georgia Tech Football: Brent Key Reveals His Message to Quarterback Aaron Philo on Game-Winning Drive vs NC State

Philo led Georgia Tech down the field to defeat NC State in the final minute last night

Nov 21, 2024; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets quarterback Aaron Philo (12) runs the ball for a touchdown against the North Carolina State Wolfpack in the fourth quarter at Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-Imagn Images / Brett Davis-Imagn Images

Georgia Tech was trailing with 1:30 left of their final home game of the season and were going to depend on true freshman quarterback Aaron Philo to lead the down the field to get the win vs the Wolfpack.

While he has his whole career ahead of him, Philo had the signature moment of his young career by leading Georgia Tech on a drive to take the lead with 22 seconds left. NC State got into position to try and win the game with a field goal, but it went wide left and the Yellow Jackets won. They will go into their rivalry game with Georgia on a two-game winning streak and a 7-4 record.

Philo finished the game 19-33 for 265 yards as well as 57 yards rushing.

What was the message to the true freshman on the final drive? Georgia Tech head coach Brent Key went into detail in the post game press conference about what he told his quarterback:

"Let's go play. That's the thing about him. I mean, Aaron has such a, you know, he's a very focused young man. All right, but when it's time to go, we just, All right guys, let's go, let's go have some fun, let's go play. They're playing two man, they turned their backs to the quarterback and he saw it a couple times, was able to take off and pick up two real big plays with his feet there.

I can't remember that. Or I can't say that, one of the two, no. Brought him and he he gave it up on that last run and made plays with his feet in as well."

Just like last game against Miami, Georgia Tech utilized a two quarterback system with Philo and Haynes King and it worked. Key talked about their preparation and how they wanted to utilize the players against NC State:

"Yeah, going into the game, we knew that we were going to last a long time. I mean, that's-- We figured what they would play, and they had all hats on the ball. We tried, especially when Haynes was in there. Even with Aaron, they were still playing a little bit more of an umbrella coverage around it. So we had to get creative. We were trying to get the guys through, trying to get some running backs through, or the quarterback through on a couple of runs just to stay efficient and move the chains. We didn't have a lot of success with it. We really didn't, so we were able to hit a couple of throws, had a couple of drops on some throws where we could have had bigger, some more big plays. But look, a lot of those things at the end of the day, we'll come in and get those corrected, work on them, and then develop a plan for the next game."

Next up for Georgia Tech is going to be a massive test in Athens against in-state rival Georgia, who they have not beaten since 2016. This might be their best chance in quite a while though.