Brent Key on the North Carolina Offense: "It goes through Drake, it's very obvious"
Georgia Tech is preparing for its showdown with No. 17 North Carolina this weekend and when the Tar Heels come to town, they are going to bring one of the best offenses in the ACC.
UNC had an off-game in their loss to Virginia last Saturday, but this is an offense that is loaded with weapons. Quarterback Drake Maye is going to be one of the first quarterbacks off the board in the NFL Draft and Tez Walker is an explosive receiver. Running back Omarion Hampton is one of the ACC's best running backs and all of these players are going to be a challenge for the Yellow Jackets.
While all of these players are going to be a challenge, Georgia Tech head coach Brent Key knows who the offenses revolves around:
"Their quarterback. They have good skill players, they added a skill player a couple of weeks ago that is a dynamic and explosive player that added a lot to it. They are able to get their running backs going but it goes through Drake (Maye), it is pretty obvious. They have a lot of experience up front on their offensive line, their coordinator and play caller is doing a good job of doing stuff that Drake is comfortable with and playing through or calling the game through his eyes. They are a well rounded team and the quarterback is what makes it go and his ability to get the ball out and get it to his playmakers."
North Carolina quarterback Drake Maye is one of the best quarterbacks in the country
For the Georgia Tech defense, they are hoping to resolve some of the substitution issues that they had against Boston College, where they only ended up with 10 guys on the field:
"It can be attributed to a combination of both. That is the first team we have played this year that had the sort of substitutions that they did. So you are talking from going to three wide receivers and one tight end to seven or eight offensive linemen and one receiver then two back and six offensive linemen so the matchups were different there and to line up in a 4-2 nickel defense that you would play in a three wide receiver, 11 personnel team and now all of a sudden there are seven offensive linemen and two tight ends in the game, you are not going to do that so that is something that is unique in the team that we played, it was not like it was something that we were practicing for the last six, seven, or eight months. That is something weekly that you have going in and when you go to a jumbo or hippo type of package, you are not putting in smaller bodies, you are putting in bigger bodies.
Say one person tweaks an ankle or one person is a sub and he is out and does not hear it... there is just a lot of moving parts there where we have to do a better job of during the week of creating those situations to be exactly like they are during the game. Bottom line. It is not like it caught you off guard, it was something they did, we knew that they did it and we had the right plan for it, but when you get caught off guard there, it goes back to the week of preparation and that goes back to how we practice them and replicate them in real-time during the week."
Against this offense, the defense for Georgia Tech is going to have to be crisper than it was against Boston College or Maye, and this offense will have a field day in Atlanta.
Georgia Tech vs North Carolina kicks off this Saturday at 8:00 p.m. on the ACC Network.
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