Everything From Brent Key After Georgia Tech's 36-34 Win Over Boston College

Whew, that was a close call for Georgia Tech.

The Yellow Jackets trailed Boston College 28-17 in the second half, but found a way to come away with a win on the road vs the Eagles and move to 9-1 this season and put themselves one win away from a spot in the ACC Championship.

After the game, Georgia Tech head coach Brent Key met with the media and here is everything that he had to say:

Opening Statement...

"Good to come out with a win, as always. I'm always happy to get a win, regardless of how the win occurs or who it's against. We made that commitment at the beginning of season. We're going to enjoy it when we win. But I'm also not going to blow smoke up people's butts either. And I was disappointed in some things in the game. Obviously, I'm excited we won, but there's also some things disappointed about that we've got to continue to improve.

But we're 9-1, 6-1 in the conference, and we have a chance next week to play for a championship, right? To play and win the game and be in, and that's all you can ask for, right? Anybody ask the beginning of the season if you'd be sitting here, and yes, we would be right if we'd have that opportunity to be what nine and one going into the last two games of the season, but at the same time, right we got things we got to, we got to correct and fix.

We come off the bye week, I expected us to play better in certain areas of the team, but we didn't on the second half of the game, we came out and we were a little bit better at times, and we gave a couple, still give some explosives right, but we got a couple stops, you get guys in 3rd and 19, you got to be able to get off the field, so you know thought the offense moved the ball, moved the ball you know as the game went on we had a couple times early on you put the ball on the ground which is unacceptable and you had a couple of punts, Marshall did a nice job and you know pinned them back all right, so Haynes, obviously, you know, did a heck of a job. And Malachi ran the ball well, did some really good things there.

So, look, there's a lot of things we've got to work on, a lot of things we've got to improve on. But the one thing coming out of this is we got the win, right? And Let's win, and I'm not going to say move on, right? We've got to win. We've got to continue to learn, continue to grow, and be ready to play next Saturday."

1. On the timeout right before the field goal attempt to win the game...

"They marked, wjhere they marked the far side of the field, marked it as a first down all right so they mark it as a first down I'm getting ready you know we're on the left hash right, bang, the timeout, center it all right use our last time out and kick the field goal with no time on the clock well you know then they come back and say it's fourth and all that so yeah I mean there's you're looking at them they say first down and then, then and then after we called the timeout to have the next play, I went and asked them, and they said it had been cleared."

2. On the defensive performance...

"I'll look at the tape and let you know. Yeah, middle of the field, middle field passing game. You know, the C -Gap area in the run game kind of, you know, we had a couple times that we had explosive runs, one of them on a fourth and one. We had two guys fit outside as opposed to, you know, fit in the puller the right way. The one early in the game, E .J., you've got to get off a block, and, you know, the guy grabs him, and he's got to work through that and fit through it.

So, you know, I saw a lot of them what they work, but in the middle of the, the middle of the passing game. We've got to really continue we've got to work on."

3. On how discouraging the performance was on defense...

"Yeah, as I said, after the game, I'm happy for the win."

4. On getting the win against a scrappy team...

"I mean, if you're a competitor, right, it doesn't matter who you win, or who you beat, who you get beat by. I mean, end of the day, you got issues, and then my job is to, you know, get us to fix those issues. I mean, that's a critical thing we look at all the time. So we've had two performances in a row where we did not do a good job in certain areas. But this one, we got a win out of it, and we've got to take the good, just like every game, we're going to take the good, we've got to take the bad, we've got to continue to do things well that we're doing well and improve the things we're not good at."

5. On what the message was heading into the fourth quarter...

"No, you know, halftime was a, come to Jesus meeting, and then, you know, we still gave a couple of plays there. But, you know, I don't think I could say anything else after I said it, what I said at halftime. I mean, I think that's why I sound like Kermit right now."

6. On being able to get defensive stops in the 4th quarter...

"Yeah, I mean, every win is special. They're harder, you know, it's hard to win games. But when you see the resiliency and the confidence and the preparation, that's the thing, I mean, I can sit here and tell you, I'm going to look at the tape, I want to see the technical things and, you know, how we got beat or this and that.

I'll tell you guys all right now what I said at halftime. We need to stop waiting around for things to happen. We need to stop waiting around, and we need to go make plays. There was a totally different energy in the second half on our sideline than there was in the first half. And you cannot play college football these days, right, and be like that. You can't do it. So the energy on the sideline is contagious into the team and it shows the focus that everyone has in the team. And then, you know, when you sit back and either, you know, try not to mess things up, you're going to get beat, right?

When you sit back and try to play, let me feel my way through it, you're going to get beat, okay? And then when you sit back and just wait to see what I mean, we've got to go attack. This is an attacking game, right? And we've got to do a better job of that in certain phases of attacking, of not waiting to, we've got to play better in certain areas. We've got to continue to play well in the things we're playing well in."

7. On Jordan Allen...

"Yeah, he's real fast. He scores touchdowns when he gets the ball in his hand, so it makes a big chunk yardage. Now, we've known he's a really dynamic player. It was good to see Malik come back out there tonight and make some plays. But Jordan's, Jordan's going to be tremendous football player for us. And, you know, his role is increasing every week. And that's the beauty of seeing these young kids start to develop and then get out there on the field."

8. On slow starts in away games...

"No, no. You know, like I said a few weeks ago, you know, I think of my, the cattle prod might come back out. The electric probe is more like a sledgehammer or something, you know, put your hand down, just a sledgehammer in your hand. You feel the electricity go through your body."

9. On continuing to fight through the game despite trailing...

"I mean you know a lot of those things things the mentality of your team that that's all created so far in the offseason through you know from January on you know resiliency and being able to you put the last play behind and move on you know I say all the time putting the last play behind you and be able to play the next play I need to re -emphasize the learning from the play previously because you know like I said I'll look at the tape can see, you know, with the repetitive mistakes of the same thing. You know, it looked like a lot of times it was different individuals doing some of the same things."

10. On the game against Pittsburgh next week...

"Yeah, it's a home game for us, so I would expect to be a really good atmosphere. We love playing at home. You love the fans. I can't wait to see the fans and the students and everyone there. But I did do one thing different in the locker room just told the team I said I'm not waiting until tomorrow, I'm not waiting until tomorrow to talk, so maybe I did change the routine a little bit right I told them I said one week from now, right, we're in a play-in in all right, so from this moment forward everything is geared towards us playing the best football we can possibly play as a football team next Saturday so we're not waiting, there ain't no sit around 24 hour rule."