Georgia Tech Football: Everything From Head Coach Brent Key After the Yellow Jackets Loss to Virginia Tech

Georgia Tech went on the road and lost to Virginia Tech today. After the game, Yellow Jackets head coach Brent Key spoke with the media

Oct 19, 2024; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets head coach Brent Key on the field before the game against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-Imagn Images / Dale Zanine-Imagn Images

Georgia Tech went on the road today and lost to Virginia Tech 21-6. Their defense and special teams played well in this game, but the Yellow Jackets offense could not muster up enough to win the game. After the game, Georgia Tech head coach Brent Key spoke with the media and here is everything that he had to say.

Opening Statement...

"You know, you always want to, you know, not talk about, you know, the emotional part of it, right when you come off the field, you're able to watch everything and see it, see it through. But when you come off the field and when it's said and done, you know, the Georgia Tech football team didn't play well enough collectively to win the football game. And, you know, within that, I thought that we had some, we had to make some, make some plays on offense, right? We had a couple of several opportunities. Third down throws that we could have gotten the first down. Got to pull those things in. Got to be able to make those plays. Defensively, I thought defensively, it was as good a football as it played this year. Got hit on the Y -high to cross and then the tackle overplay down in the red area for two bigger plays. but Outside of those, again, I don't have the stats in front of me right now to look at it, but they were getting off the field. They were forcing the run to bounce. There was a couple of times we needed to have a better edge on the defense.

We didn't set the edge and have the guy feel from the middle. Some of those balls that split outside, but they were clogging up the middle in the run game. I thought we affected the quarterback. We were able to get in the backfield and, and cause some errant throws there. Third down did a nice job on third down with him. Did have that was two of 14 or something, whatever. Third down, but then he flipped it on the other side offensively, we didn't do a well enough job in fourth down. And some of those were on third down, And then some of those, by the-- you're in there in fourth down and have to go for it there. So all in you know, we got to go into this bye week and we got to get healthy as we leave. There was some situations in there where you start running out of guys and, you know, so, but we got to get healthy, we got to get the offense on track with those things and continue to make improvement defensively."

1. On if he thought about making a quarterback change sooner...

"Yeah, we always considered when things aren't going, the way you want them to, from a production standpoint. There was a couple situations in there, and then one of them was backed up. There was minus 10, 8, 12 -somewhere in there. And look, you put the freshman in, you want to make sure that you have a chance to go out there and get a good start. So, yeah, but yes, we had several talks within there, but also, you know, not everything's on Zach. I mean, not everything in the first half, there's some plays out there that, you know, we got to step up and make plays around, around him too."

2. On the dropped passes...

"Yeah I mean it is and that's not something that is characteristic. I said in the opening statement you know we've got to be able to execute make those plays Yeah, it's all the same thing everyone else did. You got to get the job done and the balls. They weren't tip throws, they weren't bad throws. Then you got to be able to get that done. Yes, it was uncharacteristic. And you can't play winning football on the road doing that."

3. On what is ailing the offense right now...

"Yeah, well, you get out of rhythm offensively. And that goes production first down, P and 10s, first and 10s. You're able to get manageable second down plays. So you've got a little more in the arsenal, you're not playing behind the sticks. Like I said, we gotta do that and we gotta continue to get everybody healthy and move forward. Right."

4. On the defense's performance in the second half...

"It was, as I said, it was all defense play, but it was as good of a complete game as they had."

5. On the status of special teams/cornerbacks coach Ricky Brumfield...

"Yeah, he didn't make the trip and that's all that's all the information I have."

6. On if Brumfield is still on the staff...

"Like I said, he didn't make the trip and that's all the information I have."

7. On his evaluation of Tim Salem and the special teams unit today...

"The game was over 15 minutes ago. I mean, I'll sit down and evaluate everything. But field goal wise, we had the two field goals early. There were spots I thought that, you know, I thought it was a lot of confidence. I thought that Aidan, you know, we put those two in early, kept us within a one score game. They're coming in at half. David had some good kicks. I mean, you know, some field position that, you know, Rodney has got to continue to make better decisions. Whether there's a poor decision on one of them getting underneath it or whatnot."

8. On Sylvain Youndjouen...

"Yeah, he's playing... early on, he was a year you know removed from the injury, it was like he was almost like it was new to him again, but he's really settled in and his speed looks, you know, speed and change of direction, you know, looks better than it was early on. Yeah, he's doing a good job. He's getting some one -on -ones and able to win those one -on -ones."

9. On how the penalties affected them and their field position...

"Yeah, anytime you're you know first 15 seconds 15, you know, that's you know That's that's the home field advantage is and you get the crowd noise of it you know, there was a cadence issue the first one of hearing you know, hearing what I went to a silent and but now that there's you know, so you say you hear, don't hear I mean we can't have the penalties what I wish I could see I mean it was the two false starts and then the holding on the kickoff return that was one that I thought it was you know the one that you know brought us back and ended up we had a return out to you know 35 in that area there so that had been a positive you know field position game there they ended up about seven back."

10. On the ball spot on the Kyron Drones sneak in the first half...

"So look with the whole challenge thing does like, they come over the headset and say it's clear, they say whether it's clear or not clear once they clear it from, from the office or from the truck, right? They're telling you it's a waste, that they're not gonna overturn it, it's been cleared from outside of that, it's been cleared from replay. So once you get told that it's cleared, that you're not, there's no point in making a timeout and challenging it. So they've already looked at it through the replay and the replay officials said that it's good, they're cleared to go."

11. On some of the momentum calls going against them this year...

"No, you can't look at the calls, you can't look at the, you know, you're talking about a matter of, you know, 12 inches or 18 inches, you know, on spots and you don't want to be in a position now to rely on those but, you know, it was like the one on the, before the field, well, I'm sorry, the PAT, right, You know, we went up and wanted to make sure to see if it was a two passes or a handout on how it was and, you know, had the information from upstairs and then they come through and they say after you use it that it's cleared, so they still go and look at it, but then it's, once it's cleared, it's cleared. So, but now we can't put ourselves in position to be, you know, for that to impact the game."

12. On the status of Haynes King and Kyle Efford

"No, like I said, we got to get healthy on this bye week. We got to get these guys back when it was two weeks before we play. So we really hope that those guys are back when it was two weeks before we play. So we really hope that those guys are able to make it back with them."

13. On if Haynes does not play...

"Yeah, exactly, I don't know. We'll see, see where we're we are at the injury board tomorrow through the week this week and make those decisions so we get back on the field."

14. On Zach Pyron...

"Yeah, there's no question. No one wants to be able to go out there and get the and win, and move the offense more than he does, and know what works as hard as he does to get it done. And unfortunately, we weren't able to move the ball productively the early part of the game."