Everything From Brent Key After Georgia Tech's First Day Of Spring Practice

Georgia Tech opened up spring practice today and Brent Key's third season as the head coach of the Yellow Jackets is underway. After practice today, Key spoke with the media and here is everything that he had to say.

Opening Statement

"Let me get here and say the normal thing. Great to be back out there for the first time. We had a bunch of new, it's master of the obvious, right? And it was first practice for the 2025 football team, so that's great to be back out there. We've got 31 new guys out there today. And I've said this before, win the past, in years past. You know, really summertime would get there to get here, and you'd be ready to put everybody, you know, the final part of the team together, And we go through summer practice and training camp. Everybody have name tags on their helmets, who's who? We get out there Thursday, and we'll have the name tags on their helmets now. Because when you combine 31 new people, which is the standard, really in college football, across the board now, plus all the daggum number changes, I mean, their name tags just see what numbers they're wearing now. So I've got nothing to do with the numbers at all. As long as they're eligible, if they have to be eligible. So don't get in that world.

But look, it must make no bones about it, what the mission and the goal is for this year and that's to improve as a football team. All right, in order for us to take that next step, we've got to understand what it is to be consistent and the way we prepare, the way we practice, the effort and the strain that we and how we go about just every day having a laser sharp focus on the job we have to get done you know you want to chase consistency and avoid complacency and ask the team after practice you know what's another word for complacency and you know there's a lot of them, it's, it's not lazy or tired, you know, complacency is it's it's, it's overconfident, it's ego, it's self -centered. All those words that come out, and that's what happens when people get that frame of mind. I'm not saying that's who we are, but we're going to be very transparent the way we address things and how we want to prepare for the football season. So we want to be a consistent football team, consistent players. We want to be competitive. We want to love to compete. You really want to be a competitor as opposed to a player. You want to be somebody that seeks out the discomfort and the pain of preparation and doing the things that necessarily the normal person doesn't just want to do in order to be a championship football team or to be an elite football player.

You've got to do those uncomfortable things. So, you know, every day that we go out there, all right, should be our ceiling. Okay. And that's something I've talked a lot about this offseason about floors and ceilings. All right, if we have a good day, that's not as good as we can do. That's not the standard. All right, that should become the floor now of what we're competing towards. So everybody make a commitment to each other that we come out tomorrow or when we come in tomorrow and have meetings and walkthroughs and what not. Tomorrow has to be better than Monday, right? And we have to make the commitment that Thursday has to be better than Tuesday. I mean, that's the way you continue to raise that, right? We don't want to look at this in terms of our, the ceiling and how good you can be. I mean, those ceilings need to become our floors if we want to elevate and take the next step. And that's what we've been preaching for the last two months of this football team. So that was the challenge to them. It'll be the challenge to them every day. The same message will come through every day to them, that we've got to continue to improve each day. Because this is our journey for the 2025 football season. We're well in the middle of it.

1. On the hire of Blake Gideon to be the new defensive coordinator...

"Yeah, I mean, vetted through a lot of different people. Brought several people in and had some really good candidates out there. I think when (Tyler Santucci) told the staff, first of all, I wanna thank Tyler for the job he did this past year. There was zero ill feelings to someone that accomplishes what their dreams are, whatever it is. And he told the staff on Saturday night, started making calls to people. And about 11:30 that night, I called Blake. And one thing we hung up about a little after 1 in the morning. So as people know, I'd love to talk on the phone. I mean, when I can't stand it. And you end up talking for an hour and a half to somebody. You'll be like-minded in everything around the game. Didn't get into a lot of X's and O's. Just got into a lot of beliefs and how it was brought up and what he believes in, and it was a carbon copy. But it was a very specific thing we were looking for in a D-Coordinator. And we wanted to continue to play, and I made very, very clear that I wanted to continue to be able to play our front the way we've played our front and develop our guys up front and stop the run. All right, that's what it's got to continue to progress. All right, and then have combinations on the back ends, coordinators back end driven that can be a be a walk -around coordinator and have his hands in all facets. I think Cory Peoples has developed on the staff over the last year as much as any coach we have and really been proud of Cory and happy for him and to see his progression over the last year as a coach and a recruiter, but then to have someone else that's calling from back end and be able to play the same style of front, right? You could then tweak the back end coverages, you know, make it simple for guys, make it a great teacher, someone that has a presence, can walk in a room, players can respect them, and Blake checked all those boxes."

2. On replacing multiple members of the offensive line...

"Yeah, we don't have a lot of experience, but a lot of talent. I'll take talent over experience any day. That's on us as coaches to coach those guys up and put them in a position to be able to help us this year. And there's only so many reps between now and the first game. And those guys got to get all of them. Everything you see is something different, something new. The speed of the game, when you got the ball in your hand and you're the first thing that happens offensively. But we got some super talented guys there. We really do. It's going to be a really good competition, like every position. My job is to be the head football coach, just put the best 11 guys out there on offense, defense, special teams. And that's what we'll do. The competition you have in every room is what drives improvement. That's what drives improvement in individual players, in the positions and on the football team. All right, so we've got a lot of competition there. We've got a lot of depth across the board on the O-line. There's some really talented young players. And maybe how many reps we can get in and get these guys exposed to over the next, really, what, five months? I don't know, five, six months before we start playing. But I'm happy with the talent. I know we've got really, really good coaches, coaching those guys, I believe in Geep and the staff he has around him with the O-Line. How about that? His O-Line staff. Just seeing those guys today and seeing the coaches out there coach and teach and a lot of guys moving around, a lot of guys coaching, a lot of guys coaching on special teams and it was good to see."

3. On replacing a lot of experience on the defensive line...

"Yeah, you know, Mike showed me some stats, you know, returning production or whatnot, and had like 33 % of our total sacks was returning. And I said, "Oh, great, we got one coming back." So, we can always improve there. I mean, it went like it was like 10 coming back out of 33 or something, you know? So, So, I've been pleased with the guys we brought in, I've been pleased with the development of some of the young guys. I think the D -line is very similar to like the offensive line is. You have talented guys, and just not a ton of experience. The only way to get experience is to play the game. I mean, you can only do so many walkthroughs to understand what to do, but, you know, get in the trenches and putting pads on. I mean, today we don't, I mean, we got helmets on, really not a contact day by any means. You know, once we start putting going to start thudding things up and see if you can strain and finish and play with discipline and keep their hands inside and get off blocks and sustain blocks. I mean, rush the passer to create a pocket on the offensive line. I mean, that's when things start sorting themselves out."

4. On how he has seen Haynes King and Aaron Philo grow...

"Well, I mean, I've said this and I'm not afraid to say this publicly. I mean, I do believe we have the best quarterback in the country. I mean, with all guys returning, the competition that they have day to day. I mean, it's great from the quarterback room to the offensive meetings, the offensive unit rooms, all of the, really across the board. I mean, look, you don't do some of the things Haynes did last year. You don't have Aaron Philo in there competing. And you're not able to come in if you're Aaron Philo and compete the way he did last year if it wasn't for the other guys and for Haynes and for Graham Knowles. And when you talk to somebody, it's changed the way they look and the way they throw the ball. I mean, you know, Graham's got as much upside as anybody. So we've got a really good room there. Uh, fully expect these guys to compete every single day from now until the last snap of the last game of the season."

5. On what having Haynes King back does for the rest of the offense...

"Yeah, well, I mean, it's, it goes from something that is elementary and basic is the cadence. To have somebody that's comfortable in the rhythm of the cadence, command of the offense, and checks. As guys continue to elevate themselves and mature within a system, get the ball where it belongs. And there's a sense of calmness when you have when you have that you know that, that true freshman gets out there that first time out there quarterback it's the first time everybody's heard his cadence or you're going from an experienced guy to a guy that you know might be his first day here and just the jitters and also my clock's ticking down it's just a sense of calm with everybody across the board now."

6. On guys like Josh Petty and Tae Harris starting spring practice today...

"History's now, and we're, you're constantly writing history, and I look at those, it's two talented young players that have a true, you know, love of all their competitors and look you can take all the rankings and media and all those things and there's not one bit of that that shows up in those guys and you talk about a group of freshmen that work as hard as I've ever seen and really they check all the boxes. So now look that I mean, every person that comes in that's a great talent is going to play day one. Everyone's got to still develop and be at their own timeline. But I think there's a lot of guys in that freshman class have a chance to help us this year, whether it be the first game or the sixth game or the tenth game."

7. On injury updates...

"Tell you what I'll meet with the trainer today. I'll be ready to answer that next time I'm up. So spring is so fluid with injuries. I mean, you know, yeah, there's a lot of guys that have, you know, shoulders done in the first of December and it's a four to six months. So four months, you start doing a few things, six months before you're back full go. So there's some guys out doing partial, some doing 75%, some doing 25%. It's, You know, this is about time to get guys ready to play in the summer. So really injury updates don't mean much of anything at this point. Unless it might be out for the whole season right now. We're not looking at that. We're looking at guys being able to come out and get themselves better. I mean, look, Kyle (Efford), Rodney (Shelley), I mean, they had shoulder surgery. Happens, seven, eight guys, the guys a year, probably on every team, have something there, whether it be an e -scope or a new labrum, and you know, we'll work those guys in and manage them when they need to be in there, but this time it's about developing the depth on your football team."

8. On if he thought about how far the program has come since his first spring practice as the head coach...

"I didn't, a lot of new people out there, a lot of new faces, a lot of new challenges in front of us, the external challenges are a lot of times more difficult than the internal challenges and being able to foresee those things and think of the things that could come our way, trying to put the right stuff in their heads now and understand that the work now is what's going to pay off and come fall. Look, you know, it drives me crazy. I don't want to sit there on a Saturday afternoon, all right? Or a Saturday night, or a Sunday, and have guys talk all about what they could have done, should have done. All right, they need to be doing it right now. We need to be doing it right now. It starts with me as a coach. I'll think about it some other day though."

9. On player development and Bailey Stockton...

"Yeah, there's a lot of fun things me and Bailey can talk about personally, but I wouldn't share up here. With development, with him. He's awesome. I love Bailey. A little slot machine out there. He's able to, you know, run all the routes and sure -handed and, you know, able to find the open, you know, the boys in the zones and having, you know, enough just smarts in the slot and body control to be able to win. Man, I mean, he's a really good player for us. I'm expecting big things from Bailey this year."

10. On the addition of Brian Bohanon to the staff...

"You know, the thing last year, when everybody said when they came out, say everybody can coach. My big thing was, we can't just have everybody run around out there in coaching because the same message has to be driven to these kids with every other. Otherwise, you're speaking a foreign language to somebody saying something, somebody saying the Yeah, I think that rule was passed in what June, July, something like that last year, you know right before right for camp, well now we've had a year to be in this. Okay. We've had a year to guys get here in January and they're with the program now, you know two months, three months, involved, you're able to have a lot of coaches, okay And you know, there's a, there's a, there's a fine line between having the right of number of coaches, not having enough coaches and having too many coaches, I believe. I think there's a line you don't just acquire coaches to acquire them, you have to have a sense and a purpose for them. So I built out a pro forma of how I want every position to be coached. Look, there's position coaches, there's assistant position coaches, and there's quality controls. And the QCs are really what GA's formerly were, for the most part. And then some positions have assistant position coaches. I mean, we have assistant offensive line coach. Mike Polly's come in. But the things you do with five guys, you've got to have that. I mean, we have two DB coaches, two QCs on the back end. We have two D -line coaches, and you know, could be three D-line coaches. De'Andre Smelter is the assistant receiver coach, with what he is able to bring to the table and how he goes about it. So the world of you know, ten coaches doesn't exist anymore okay, and it's about finding the right number for your staff and Bohanon has been a tremendous help offensively. I help offensively, I expect him to continue to be. But he's been a really big help for me too. Anytime you can have someone else in the building that's sat in that seat and you can bounce things off of or share things with or sometimes just vent to, it's been a huge help. And Don Eley, Tim McFarlin, and I mean, now Bo, I mean just guys that have experienced, you know, long times of being a being a head football coach, they're they're invaluable to me."

11. On how being connected with other coaches helped him make the new hires to his staff...

"Yeah, that's a good question because there's old saying, if you've never worked with somebody, or somebody you would trust your children with, have worked with somebody, don't hire 'cause there's unknowns. And there's, I have a list of so many names of people for every position that you just kind of keep the old words a rolodex or whatnot but there's all my phones now you have those lists but when you can call somebody that you trust that you've worked with that you've been in the battles with and even people maybe you haven't worked with but you have a super amount of trust in Rick and Rick Stockstill is one of them. And those guys all kind of came through stock. Paul is one of them. And you just really trust when those guys call and tell you something, you believe and you stick with it. And that's big, it really is. 'Cause pretty, I mean, if you look at everybody on the staff, there's pretty similar trees everyone's come from. There might be a few offset branches here and there, but everyone's pretty much come from the same type of program structure of a program. So when they get here, there's not the go back to square one, explain every single thing to them. You just kind of hit the ground running and then they fall in line with it. So it makes it a lot easier with the transition times."

Additional Links

How to Watch and Listen: Georgia Tech Men's Basketball vs Miami

NCAA Women's Basketball Bracketology Update: Where is Georgia Tech Heading Into Conference Tournament Week?

Top Three Position Battles to Watch as Georgia Tech Football Begins Spring Practice Tomorrow