Georgia Tech Football: Everything From Brent Key's Tuesday Media Availability Ahead of Virginia Tech

Georgia Tech head coach Brent Key spoke with the media on Tuesday ahead of the Yellow Jackets road game vs Virginia Tech

Oct 19, 2024; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets head coach Brent Key on the sideline against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the first quarter at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-Imagn Images / Brett Davis-Imagn Images

Georgia Tech was back on the practice field today ahead of their matchup against Virginia Tech. After practice, Yellow Jackets head coach Brent Key spoke with the media and here is everything that he had to say.

Opening Statement...

"All right, as we get going here, come off the field, just revisiting last week, came up here last week and talked to the press after UNC last week. Yes, after the UNC game, I said that there was a lot of things that occurred in that game that we've got to be realists and understand and really wanted a lot of difference in that game and the Louisville game, except for the outcome of it. And we have to be honest with ourselves. Then after going back and watching the film Notre Dame game, tape showed what I thought it would show. You always want to confirm it, but it showed that. And really, it was a culmination of what I'd said the week before. And there's things that we addressed. We had to clean up. We didn't accomplish that and get them properly cleaned up. He goes, look, It doesn't matter how you practice, how hard you practice, how good you practice, how hard you play. At the end of the day, what matters is winning a football game on Saturday. So it doesn't matter that things are addressed and things are practiced and prepared and working corrected. They're only corrected when you go to the next game and they're truly corrected and they don't occur again. That is what occurred last week, or I should say occurred didn't occur. Last week, and that's on me, that starts with me. It begins and ends with me. So you look at the tape, for most players on the team, there's not an effort issue, there's not a playing hard issue, there's not a competing the whole game issue. It's not that.

So you start to identify, you know, what is the issue? What is it? And it really comes back to the detail within the game and the execution within the game. But there's a level of confidence you have to have going into a game too that, you know, whether you call it a belief to win or an expectation to win, that's got to come every week. It's got to come from the team, the coaching staff, and it goes team, coaching staff, and then into myself. And we've got to put you guys in positions to be able to have that confidence going into the game and to create an expectation. Because you're not winning any game if you're going, you don't believe you're going to win. Now, look, I'm not sitting here saying our team didn't want to go out there and win or didn't play to win. I'm not saying that. I'm talking about a true belief deep down inside, No matter what the score is, what the scoreboard says, or how much time is left in the game, you're playing to win the football game. From start to the end, you're not waiting until maybe the second quarter to settle in, and you'll start to play well, or half time come back out and play better, or that's not the way it works. So this team is going to play hard. This team is going to play physical football.

That's not a compromise. But we've got to flip that switch to consistently be able to go out and execute within the game All right. Well, you got to create the confidence and practice during the week All right, because whether I am making a one-on-one catch whether I'm making a one-on-one tackle in open space all right blocking one-on-one and pass pro running and have a man that I got to make miss Okay, all of those things. No different than y 'all's jobs. You're confident in your ability. You're confident in what you do. That's how you're able to go out and do your job. You have confidence. You build confidence through experiences. You build confidence through repetition of doing the same thing. You run those cameras right there because you're confident to run those cameras because you've done it a bunch. We've got to create confidence in our guys that the expectation comes every week so that we get in a one-on-one situation. We get in an open tackle area We get in a make-a-guy miss, you know one-on-one play on the ball they're expecting to make that play and you know wanting to and expecting to two totally different things and so we've got to continue to drive those principles home and not lose what we're, what we've done. Well look, you look, we've got an identity to play hard, to compete for four quarters, to prepare the right way and practice the right way. To take coaching and try to do it the right way to the best of their ability, okay? What are things we're struggling at? Well, we identify those things on Sunday and talk to the team, things we're struggling with, but then what's our Achilles heel? What are the things, what are the one or two things you can't get out of your way up, okay? We got to continue to do the things you're doing well. You got to continue to do them well, right? You got to correct the things that, and improve on the things that, you know, are kind of back and forth, right? Now the last one, we got to eliminate. It's got to be gone, right? It's got to be fixed. And, you know, addressing it last week, working through it last week, not all that showed up on the game on Saturday is being fixed. And And as I said, a lot of conversations, a lot of things have taken place during this week to make sure that we correct some of the moments that have shown up the last two weeks.

So with that, we're going to go up to Virginia Tech, which is a hard place to play. They got a good fan base. It's going to be loud. And they got a really good football team, who I believe these two teams are very evenly matched in a lot of ways."

1. On Haynes King's status and his thoughts on how Zach Pyron played on Saturday...

""All right, so Haynes is still day-to-day, okay? Mike told me before I came down here, that there's some report that someone had come out with on something or another that said that he's not playing. There's one person in the entire stratosphere that makes that call and that's myself. And there's been zero call made on that. Zero. Okay, he's day-to-day. Are we preparing the other guys to play? Yes. All right. Are we ruling him out? No. You heard it from the horse's mouth right there.

So I thought Zach came to the game. You know, Zach is full of grit, full of toughness. He wills people around him to play that way. Started off hot. Started off really, I thought Buster did a really good job in that game of putting him in a position to get a rhythm and complete passes early on and move us down the field. He's going to do everything he has power to try to win football games. The things he's going to take from it, correct? Yeah, a lot of things we've taken correct from it. But I was very proud of him the way he went in and performed and the way he went in, that's not saying that 72 plays were perfect. I'm not saying that, right? He was not saying that, a lot of things we got to do better. But the guy that made his first start in two years, thought he went in and gave us what he had. And a few plays he'd like to have back with him. But learned from those mistakes and moved on this week. Who was it? It was the manager for the Indians (Guardians) e said, uh, being, like, he had to quote. "Learn the lesson, leave the event".He said it after they got beat the other night. And I thought it really good thing of learning the lessons, all right, and leaving the event behind.

It's really another way of talking about what we say, you know, you learn from the past and you prepare for the future. So that was a very timely thing being said."

2. On the special teams mistakes...

"There's been nothing special. So, yeah, I've probably, you know, I won't even say that. Now, there's been, there's been things done. We have made some adjustments with things because it's unacceptable you know we made massive improvements for a year and four games right and the first four games and second four games are night and day, night and day so to deep dive into that and find out the why make the adjustments necessary and needed. Those are the decisions I have to make."

3. On the biggest things they have to improve on going forward...

"Yeah, I talk a lot about like the in -game execution all right in you know the execution under fire only but I'll tell you what the whole team right number one special teams all aspects. Number two, right the ability to make tackles in space All right and get the guys down and have the other guys swarming around to clean up, lean up afterwards, But it goes to confidence. It's like I said, look, there's not one player that plays that has a one -on -one tackle that has missed a tackle that goes up and says, "Now, I really don't want to make this tackle." I hope that's not the case, and if I find out it is, they won't be on this football team. So you can't play football that way, but there's confidence, right? They've got to continue to build the confidence, and you go against a player who might be a little bit bigger, a little bit faster, a little bit quicker, side to side. Well now you start thinking instead of relying back on your technique and your fundamentals that you've practiced for years. Those are the two things, okay? Are there other things that we've got? Yes, there's a bunch. Our Achilles heel were those two things, right? And we've got to make we've got to make the improvement, all right? And if improvements can't be made, you have to make adjustments."

4. On the team's tackling performance vs Notre Dame...

"I mean, you hope other guys come to the football to clean up if somebody does miss one? I mean, people are going to miss a tackle. I mean, that happens, OK? You don't want it to-- you're not coaching it to happen. But again, I told the football team on Sunday, right? You're either afraid, afraid to get hurt, afraid to hurt the other person, which I don't think that's the case but you miss a tackle, right? You're afraid of contact or you're not confident your ability to do it I mean, they don't go into the game and say I don't want to make a tackle for play you think you're gonna have a one -on -one in space you don't who I'm only gonna give half of it on this one and I'm not gonna try to make it right ability, is ability right, that is DNA right, we coach up ability okay, so you're not changing that but it really comes are you afraid to hurt, are you afraid to miss the tackle you can't be scared right you cannot be scared for it at any point when you play this game and get those one -on -one situations, get those one -on -one situations, you got to have the confidence to do it.

Now do we want other people swarming around? Yes, you hear all the time that here the ten other guys, you know, the ten other guys help clean it up, gang tackle, leverage the football, all right, you know, understanding the keys, responsibility, when you get out all that stuff too, but when it's said and done, you have the courage to go up in the confidence behind behind you to go up and make those plays."

5. On the team's confidence...

"I'm telling you guys right now exactly what I've told this football team. Exactly. It's not a confidence thing, we're not going to go out and win. All right, we don't want to win. It's different. It's a totally different thing. We're talking about confidence in belief in expectation to win. Okay wanting to win, going out and practicing your butt off all week and wanting to win, that has nothing to do with when you got a one-on-one pass block against a good pass rusher, all right? When you have a one-on-one tackle in space, when you have a one-on-one jump ball, you gotta get the ball, all right? When you're running back, you gotta one -on -one in space to make somebody miss. That's not anything to do with wanting to win and going and believing that that's, that comes down to the individual person and having that confidence to make that play, right? So it's, I understand what you're asking, but we go into every game, you know, wanting to win, believing to win, fighting. I mean, you don't play four quarters of football if you're not believing, you know, you're not, as a, as a full team, right?

It's, but if you break it down and you take the five, six plays in a game that make a difference, all right? And you got a chance where it's just you and one other person, right? You got to be able to go, you got to go execute. You got to do it. You do 10,000 times in practice, right? But, but when you win a game and the lights, whether the lights get big or the stages, whatever it is, all that mental jargon that we talked about, it's been countless hours and money on to figure out. End of the day, you've got to go out and do it because no one cares how hard you work. No one cares how hard you play. There's not asterisks for those things. And I think we'll understand that this week."

6. On how hard it is to implement all of that stuff to where it becomes part of the culture and how long it takes...

"I don't know. I don't, I got the, I'll tell you this, I mean it took a couple years as a player. UCF probably took six, seven, five, six years maybe, yeah, probably about five. You have to get that consistent, confident. You're talking totally new groups of guys on the field. All right, but when 30 new guys come in, there's 60 guys that are left in that locker room that they have to share those things. I mean, if you look at last year, okay, by the end of the year, right, that football team, I say that football team, not this football team. That football team, the confidence level and expectation was off the charts. But it took some, you know, some bad things to go through to get there. All right, you know, this year, are we the level of that yet? No. All right, are we better than we were this time last year? Yes. So I wish I had a secret sauce that said how much time it takes and I could accelerate it and wave a magic wand and all right but I know this I got out I got to Tuscaloosa and I think it was year nine, right it was 11 out of 12 games you walk off the bus and games over it's what I mean that was what it was confidence comes through the experiences and confidence comes through the you know going out and doing it and having those things happen but I mean we played a good football team on Saturday, played a good football game and credit to the coaching staff and what they have, I mean it was good players, but they were disciplined, well disciplined. All right, played played a lot of tight man -to -man coverage. They had twitchy guys up front, good linebackers, quarterback did a great job of running the offense, so it was a good football team. They played the game the right way. And when you play those games, the margin is different. Now, you play a game in week nine, 10, it's different than week one, two, and three. People have a book on you, and they have a lot of tape. They see, they know what your strength and weaknesses are. So all of a sudden, what might consider a small thing to some people or something that you got away with in week one and two and and three, maybe a stance, a gateway run pass, those things. But every day, it's a work to establish that all of those things into the culture of the football team in the locker room."

7. On the running game and if he is confident heading into Virginia Tech...

"You know, we weren't consistent, you know, and there's, there's a lot of things that go into it and, you know, you go into a, we ran a couple of plays and, you know, you're hoping to crack, you know, they play man coverage, they follow the receiver in and did a good job in the first, you know, first, first two times running a play and fell off and one -on -one space and made a good tackle, two yards, one yard. Had some other, you know, kind of went the complements to that and we never really were able to establish a consistency because of the way the game flow went with it, which was way different than previously. So, can we play better at certain spots? Yeah. More consistent as a unit, yeah. Can we do a better job of making somebody miss, but there's a lot of times now you get loads of yards rushing the football and Jamal or Chad, I mean they made two people missing space and took it 30 yards so all those things go in, you know, the way they leverage the ball, the transition and the converging on the football, there was less, a lot less space out there on Saturday than there had been in the past of, you know, make somebody miss makes somebody miss, and then on that fourth down there, it makes a guy miss on the little swing and the next guy's there. So, you know, some games might be a 30-yard gain. On Saturday, they were two -yard games, three-yard games. And then the way the game continued to unfold, yeah, we had to throw the ball a bit more the way it was going in the second half. So then we had three runs in the second half based on the way the game was."

8. On the team's response to the loss...

"Yeah, and again, it's not overall confidence in the team. I have high confidence in this football team. I want to make sure I say that I have an extreme high level of confidence in this football team, all right? We got to have that confidence in, like I said, you build it through the week to build a good on Saturday, but when it comes down to making that play on Saturday, All these guys go make it want to make the play The response has been good, response has been good every single week You know so what I say though, how you practice, how you play, do you win? You know, It's how people are judged and no different than when I stand here and take responsibility and say that, well also then when you look at coordinators you look at position coaches. We all have responsibilities and jobs. Everybody's job is to do their job. So everyone else is held accountable as well. And at the end of the day, reasons are just excuses with a little bit above them, all right? It's all they are, 'cause what you see, what you see, what you see when you watch the game is no different than when I turn the tape on, all right? It's not a reason, it's on film, all right? That's what occurred, okay? I I don't know why or how all that. What are we going to do here moving forward to fix it? And those are the conversations that we've had."

9. On other inuury updates, including to Kyle Efford and the play of E.J. Lightsey...

"Boy, he's come through a lot now. He's gone through a lot. It's good to see him out of you know, I'm excited to see the next time he's out there and the improvement he makes from that game to this, because he does some really good things. Particularly as the second half kind of went on, and I thought we played much better in the second half than the first. But Kyle was a practice today. Black jersey on, day to day, we'll see And he's improving, but at the same time, I mean, we're not going to put guys in a jeopardy to be out longer than they should just to play in the game, right? And believe me, there ain't a player on that field that's hurt that ain't begging and chomping at the bit to get in there and play and then do it. But we got to make sure we're smart, too. So, but with E.J., excited to see how he continues to progress. Because he banged up hurt this year early. So been a long time since he's been on the field, he really has, but you have the first, first drive was a good drive, second drive would get a turnover, and then you take that middle part of the game, third, fourth, fifth drive was taken in, and then the first drive after half -time. There's 25 plays. All right, 22 of those 25 plays, all right, I don't know that, I don't know that we've not seen that okay the first two drives and every drive after that one right that's that's the expectation of how you play but for 22 of those 25 plays right that's not acceptable Georgia Tech defensive football it's not, not one bit that means that I do think you know I thought it on Saturday. I thought definitely after watching the game, watching the film, the D -Line played probably as a whole part of played their best football game. 88 consistently, you know, been with Zeke of, just do your job. Don't try to make plays, let the plays come to you. And Saturday they did, and I thought those guys, internally, you see the depth that's been added, really how crucial that is at this point in the season. Those guys still being able to play and improve in each week. So I was happy for those guys."

10. On true freshman quarterback Aaron Philo...

"He's a freshman. He was a luxury being here in the springtime, so he's a little bit ahead of some of the guys. But He's a great kid, awesome. He loves playing football, guys rally around him, guys raise up around him. I think he broke a couple of records in high school. Some records of some players that played in the state of Georgia. He's going to be a good player, really is, and I'm happy with the way he's been developed."