Georgia Tech Football: Three biggest takeaways from ACC Media Days

Brent Key and Georgia Tech took the stage at this year's ACC Media Days

Author:
Jackson Caudell
Publish date:
Jul 27, 2023 11:49 AM EDT

In this story:

Today is the final day of the 2023 ACC Media Days and then everything turns to fall camp in the conference.

For Brent Key and Georgia Tech, this was their first media day since he took over as the full-time head coach and he wanted to show and talk about what he wants his program to be.

So what are the biggest takeaways from Georgia Tech's Media Days appearance?

1. Brent Key and the players were not afraid to address the rivalry with Georgia

Georgia Tech has not beaten Georgia since 2016 and every game since then has been uncompetitive. The Yellow Jackets played a solid first half in Athens last year, but the Bulldogs pulled away and won again in a rout. Not only has Georgia Tech not kept this rivalry competitive, but Kirby Smart and Georgia have also won two straight national championships. Some first-year coaches might shy away from saying anything about the rivalry, but that was not Key.

ESPN's David Hale wrote an intriguing piece about how Key wants to change the narrative in the rivalry and Key made some interesting comments:

"Is it annoying? Heck, yeah," Key said Tuesday of the Georgia accolades. "Kirby [Smart] has done a great job -- he has. And I told him, 'We've got to do something about it."

"What pisses me off is to look at lists of the 10 or 20 best rivalries in the country and, not to have [Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate] on there, that's bulls---," Key said. "But at the present time, they're probably right. So we've got to do something about that."

Offensive lineman Jordan Williams also talked about the rivalry:

"It really gets on my nerves," Williams said. "But rivals or not, they're the best. You've got to beat the best, and it's kind of a burn-the-boats mentality, stake everything on it. That's the place we want to be."

Georgia Tech might not be ready to take down Georgia right now, but that is clearly a goal for Key and this program and something he wants to build towards.

2. Key wanted to reiterate the program still has a lot to work on, despite the turnaround from a 1-3 start last year

After Georgia Tech started 1-3 last season and still had to face one of the toughest schedules in the country, the season could have completely gone off the rails and Georgia Tech could have finished with just one or two wins. Key rallied the team to impressive wins over Pitt, Duke, and North Carolina, all who won nine games each. While it was impressive and helped earn Key the job at the end of the season, he was adamant at media days this week that each season is a new season and going 4-4 to end the season is not acceptable at Georgia Tech:

"But there's not one of these guys right here, not one guy on our team that tells you that 4-4 is acceptable. Let's be real. We finished 4-4. That's .500. That doesn't get you anything in this game nowadays. It really doesn't. That's why I'm saying, we have a long way to go. We have a lot to improve on. Was there momentum last year? Yeah. It's a new staff. It's new people. But what I do know is that when I look in that team room and I sit in front of these guys and I look out and I know what they have beneath them, I know the grit that they have, I know they're smart, I know they're intelligent, I know they can do those things. It's our job as coaches, my job as the head coach, to continue to give them the tools to do that."

Can Georgia Tech improve on its record last year and make a bowl game for the first time since 2018? We will find out.

Brent Key spoke about his team at this year's ACC Media Days
Jim Dedmon-USA TODAY Sports

3. Key did not want to put any expectations on his team ahead of 2023

Key talked at length about how he wants his team to play hard-nosed and tough football, but he did not want to put any expectations on this team heading into 2023:

Expectations? I don't even know who the starting quarterback is, so it's hard to put expectations on. My expectation is they go out every single day and do the best they possibly can to improve. That's our expectations. Our expectations is to go play clean football. Our expectation is to go and be disciplined. Our expectation is to be the toughest team on the field every week we play. Our expectation is the next week after we have a game on tape, they turn the film on and say, damn, I don't want to play that team. That's how I want our team to play. That's how I want to cover kicks on special team and stop the run and run the football. That's my expectation. I know who these guys are. I know they're tough. I know they're smart. We have to show it on the field. We have to play collectively. We have to play together. That's my expectations."

Even when talking about specific position groups, Key still did not want to put any expectations on them:

"Another expectation question. Have we not said it. My expectations are not defined by wins and losses and production. My expectations are defined by our guys going out and playing as hard as they possibly can. So expectations are hard. They really are, to say because I don't live in that world because now you put expectations on these guys, and say they don't get one. Now are they a failure? These guys are going to graduate from Georgia Tech, man. They're not failures. Not at all. So undue expectations are different for me in the way that I look at things.

"Now, to talk about the receivers, they're young. They're inexperienced. They're green now. They are. Do they have a chance to make a massive improvement because of some ability and skill sets that we've brought in? Yeah, I think so. But I don't know that. They've been running around without pads on all summer. I mean, yeah, running 10.2 is great. That's world-class. But put pads on; can you still do it? I don't know. I don't. We hope there's improvement there because in college football now, the easiest way to be explosive is through the receiver room. That's the way college football is.

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