Everything From Brent Key's Press Conference After Loss to Virginia
Georgia Tech suffered an ugly loss at home to Virginia on Thursday night at home. After starting quarterback Jeff Sims was ruled out, the offense struggled mightily with Zach Gibson at quarterback and could not move the ball to win the game at the end.
The Yellow Jackets now fall to 3-4 for the season and face a very uphill battle to make a bowl game.
Interim head coach Brent Key spoke to the media after the game last night and here is everything that he had to say.
Opening Statement:
"Trying to get a refresh of the game statistically here. Obviously we did not get the outcome that we desired, did not get the outcome that we wanted. We gotta play smarter football at times on the field. We gotta be more productive in areas of the team and I will say nothing different than what I told the team in the locker room. Regardless of who is in the game at what position, that is up to everyone on that side of the ball and up to everyone else on the team to be able to go out and raise their level of play or be able to play at a consistent level, that that does not show up and that person is able to execute the same as everyone else would and I don't think we did that. We have to play better in those phases and there were times in the game where we got a little one dimensional I thought at times and we put ourselves in a poor position as far as, offensively we put ourselves in a poor position with how we were playing and that falls on my shoulders. I take responsibility for that but at the end of the day, we have to play better football moving forward."
"Defensively, I thought they made some big plays and did some good things but also, there were some times where they had some things that did not go there way and some miscommunication on a couple of big plays. We have to play complete team football. That is offense, defense, and special teams and we have to be able to sustain drives, particularly in the second half on offense where the defense is not going back out there every two minutes and having to play because it ends up showing and the wear and tear of the game ends up and an accumulative amount of plays ends up showing so we have to do a better job of playing complementary football in all three phases."
1. On what led to Zach Gibson being sacked seven times...
"I mean when you look at protection for the quarterback, it comes back down to number one, the offensive line. Number two, the running backs if they are involved in protection. Number three, the quarterback making the decisions. In all three phases, I thought we were poor. At different times, all three of those phases or all three of those things ended up being part of the problem. But like I said to start, regardless of who is in the game, everyone else has to be able to elevate and play complementary football."
2. On why they only rushed the ball eight times in the second half with the running backs...
"That is the one thing concerning play calls on either side of the ball that I don't want to say too much about until we have had a chance as a staff and talk about that as a staff together after watching the tape together.
3. On if he is confident if he has to move forward with Zach Gibson as the quarterback...
"Yeah. I told the team in there... we will be in the weight room tomorrow and back on Sunday practicing and with Zach being the quarterback, we have to go back to the drawing board and find what gives him the best chance to run the offense and give us a chance to win. That's something that's... it is not about me being confident, that is only a small part of that. The rest of the team has to be confident. That is the name of the game. The name of the game is everyone on the field and collectively in all three phases having confidence in each other and that is what has to take place. It is those guys that have to have confidence, they have to have confidence that the product that is out on the field and the players that are out on the field doing that, that they are in the best position to go out and have success for everyone else on the team and that is defense, that is special teams, that is everyone else that is playing in the game, that is who has to have confidence."
"Now, it is up to us as coaches to build that confidence Monday through Friday to build that confidence to go and play on Saturday."
4. Update on Jeff Sims...
"Again, I have no clue as far as his status where it goes and he will be in there tonight and here tomorrow and we will get an update on what his status is. Something on his lower body, you know, lower body, foot, toe, ankle, something like that. We will find out though and rest assured, you guys will find out too."
5. On some of the special teams struggles...
"It always comes down to execution. The first two punts, they came out in max block and ran five guys in the front and we were able to get it protected, after the first one protected, it was close and the second time, we made an adjustment on the sideline, we changed up some of the splitting and some of the angles that we were working with on the punt team was able to get it off. We did have the one low line drive down the middle of the field and we have to do a better job of getting the thing directionally kicked one way or the other. Then, we did have the one return with the wall set up to one side where everyone was spread in their lanes, in their coverage lanes and we had one guy get outside, they had the guy get outside of the wall and we had one person late getting back and we have to keep leverage on the ball on the outside but it is just a work in progress, we are working every week on that."
"I thought it was positive when the heat came on that first one that we were still able to get the football off and actually had a couple that were really good kicks when we put them in a bad situation when we put them inside, I think it was the five-yard line, he got it out of there and was able to get the roll on it and really help with the field position."
6. On the last play when Gibson ran out of bounds...
"I have not talked to Zach. I would assume that is the case, if you run out of bounds with zero seconds on the clock, I would think he thought he would have a little more time or he thought that the clock was going slower and we had a chance to save himself for one more play there but that is a part of offensive football is to understand situational football and always to know the time on the clock and to know how much time you have to run around and move around. If it comes last play scenario, you have to take the shot regardless down the field."
7. On if the offense felt the effects of not being able to get the running game going...
"I think the whole team felt the effects. It is a team game and I was very blunt about that with the guys in the locker room. It is all three phases, it is all 85 guys on scholarship and 105 guys on the team that feel the effects of things and we had had some success the last two weeks becoming more efficient and effective running the football. I thought on the first drive tonight we showed some efficiency and showed some runs popping in there, three and four yards pop for six or seven and then as the game went on and you took the dimension of the run threat of Jeff went away, so they were able to play a little bit different defensively too so but anytime you become one dimensional on the offensive side of the football, you are going to feel the stress of it throughout the rest of the game, on the whole team because you become field position oriented too now you know, when you are running, you are working the clock, you are working field position, now it becomes how much field the defense has to defend and it puts more stress on the punt team and the return game of trying to flip the field.
8. On if he felt the team lacked confidence...
"I don't. I thought we lacked execution."
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