Everything From Brent Key After No.7 Georgia Tech's Victory Over Syracuse

Georgia Tech is 8-0 for the first time since 1966 and with the win today, they surpassed the previous win totals of 7-6 that head coach Brent Key had in each of his first two seasons with his alma mater. It was a dominant day on offense for the Yellow Jackets and arguably their most complete performance to date.

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

Opening Statement...

" All right. Before anything, I just want to. I mean, just a huge, huge shout-out to our administration and their team for selling out this game. And for our fans for showing up, and you, and that's the great thing about being here, right? It's our fans, it's our alumni, our friends of the program. It's everything that gave. Now we're starting to get people interested in Georgia to take football that might not have gone here. It might be a casual fan of any school, and that's what we have to continue to do. So thanks so much to Ryan and Brent for what they done to put the effort in to get that done and set the bar high now, guys. So let's keep doing it.

I can't tell you how much that helps the players, the energy. And we went into the game; we talked about it last night. We wanted to give that energy to the stadium. We didn't want to be a team that feeds off of that and feeds off of a home crowd, and now it's different. These places, we wanted to be able to feed energy to the crowd, I thought they were loud, especially early on. We gave up that play, and then on the early on on defense, the crowd was a huge factor in us being able to get a stop and holding to a field goal there.

So I appreciate the fans. Appreciate the administration for making that happen. We're getting closer to playing a full game. We're getting closer. The good thing about that is we haven't peaked yet, and I'm not mistaken, that's kind of how you want it. You want to play your best ball, but you start rolling into the end of October, November, and I thought we played the closest thing we have to a complete game. I think it was five plays in the first half that, whether it was a lack of focus, a lack of discipline, a lack of execution, we hurt ourselves, and two of those were able to overcome it. But then we got to continue to work and try to play that perfect game. And that's what I want them about, that's what we stay on it and that's our goal play that perfect game. Look, it's an imperfect game. We all know that, but you know, our goal, right, I get it. There hasn't been a team in the history of football probabl,y to go through the whole season without having a penalty, or without having you know, I don't know about turnover, but we can't do those things.

We can't do it. We're able to overcome them today. We got a good victory, know, situationally, I thought we did good, you know, when you count fourth downs in there, we were 9 and 13. It was 8 to 12 on the third, one 1 on the fourth, so it was able to keep the drives going. We got into the red area, and we did a good job in the red area. I thought Hayes executed very well right before halftime, with a limited amount of time on the clock. And one time out in our pocket we, I planned on using it to save the clock when the defense was out there, and the way it went, we were able to save it and use it for the field goal there at the end.

So great job by the offense being able to go in and get put points on the board there, going into halftime., You'll have to say, hey, take out a couple of plays here and there, but hey, that's why you play the game, right? Defensively, for the most part, did it continue to make some improvement in areas? I thought we contested balls better today, but they're still, we came out of half to give up those two plays really quickly. There was a seat. We busted a coverage. It was a lack of communication. That's on our part. And then we gave up the slant there on the second plate. But then we used it when we tightened back down. So look, I'm proud of the team. I' proud of the coaches. I thought we got better this week. That was the challenge on Sunday. Enjoy it tonight, and then tomorrow, the new challenge comes. Another one-game season is in front of us

1. On Jordan Allen's performance...

" Yeah, I don't what stat-wise, what was it? 6 for 67. You know, Bailey had, what, four for 48. Those two guys together, stepping in from a league. I mean, they both did a really good job and they were eating. But I think I might have said earlier in the week, that's why you play guys early. That's why you play early in the season. So when times like this come, and you've got guys that might be down for a game, you've got guys that are able to step in. It's not the first time out there, and he did. He did a nice job. He's got speed. He can run. And he's getting more and more confident doing it. But if he hadn't had that outboy game, it was maybe it was second or third game of the year where he caught that little squ green passes into the game, and got tracked down and caught. If he hadn't been out there in that situation and felt the speed of the game, well, he's probably not able to go out and be able to be productive today, but I thought Haynes knew had a couple of times on third downs and just evade a rush, throw the ball up.

We had one Zion called, and then the other one, I think Bailey caught just to make a play. And you know, I thought we threw the ball to you the ball well. I mean, what were we? st I don't. Three of four? No, I'm saying efficiency. I don't care about yards. 25 25, 31. So about efficiency, guys. Hey, I couldn't care less. A lot of yards get put on boards, and they have L's at the end of it, so I want to be efficient., I wish we had on that first drive, we're moving the ball right out the gate, and we put the ball on the ground. We can't do that. But all in all, I'm extremely happy to get win number eight on the season. extremely extremely happy for these guys, but I think to makes I'm the most happy about is I know they're going to come back in tomorrow, ready to work."

2. On if this win meant more to him due to last year's game vs Syracuse...

"A faceless opponent. For me to sit up here and tell you that that game meant more to me than another game, now I'm a hypocrite and what I tell the players every week to have a faceless opponent and played at our strengths and played it to be the best version of ourselves."

3. On Haynes King being a Heisman candidate...

"Either you are are, you aren't. What's the definition I don't just make it look up the definition of what that trophy is.. Says it right there. I mean, find me somebody else on the team that brings more value to the team that is truly the epitome of what the team is rooted in. making and Ron, he can throw. I mean, it's. I'm glad he's on my team. I don't have a vote for it. I don't know if anybody who does. But... I would. It'd be a shame if he's not in New York."

4. On if Haynes King is taking too many hits...

"We didn't, we didn't bring any stretchers out for him today. If I'm not mistaken, there was a couple guys that tried to tackle him, got taken off the field. He's not being Superman, he's just being Haynes."

5. On Josh Beetham bouncing back from his early drops...

"I said, hey, you drop that, we put it behind you, you're gonna catch one later for a touchdown." I said to see. He got two? You got two. You got two of them. Two touchdowns, two drops. Should have had four. But I told him, he came off the field. Move on. Next play. You're gonna get one later on. And fourth and one, and we got a really good play design. He was able to get the touchdown and got one later on. I said look, hey, you can carry that with you for the rest of the day and not have anything to show for it."

6. On the offense responding when Syracuse scored the touchdown to open the second half...

"Yeah, I mean, we are just playing football. I mean, it's complimentary football. I don't really believe in momentum. I believe in teams that play one play at a time and play forward, you coach forward. Again. momentum is not, you know, good teams play good football, regardless of the situation, regardless of circumstances."

7. On the third down defense...

"I mean, you get a stop on third, you're ready to play fourth now. I mean, that's the way it is these days. Yeah, we're making improvements. We're making improvements. You know, we have some things we got to clean up, obviously. A lot of this goes back to situational football, and I think we're doing a good job in situational ball, understanding the importance of it. I'm eating the fourth down is they have, they went for fourth down today. So just because you get a stop on third doesn't necessarily mean you're off the field. I mean, you, two out of four times, if they converted on fourth down, so we got to go to stop those two."

8. On being one of several coaches that has their alma mater ranked in the top 25...

" I mean, I'm not out there playing the game. We're not out there playing. So. I know it's kind of hypothetical question. It helps me. I mean, I had no clue that that. That's pretty cool. Five out of 11, and then two more are in the top. Wow. Well, I guess it doesn't."

9. On having the program at 8-0...

" Look at the players. Look at the coaches. They're the ones that are going out there and doing it."

10. On how the secondary played considering the players they were missing...

"Yeah, I mean, we gave up those couple of big plays to start second half, but what was it? I mean, we gave up, what, 224 yards passing, and I'm not a stat guy, I could care less, but you brought it up, so, you know, take away that, what was that, 75 yards in two plays? I mean, you're sitting there I mean, I mean they're getting better and better.

They transitioned on the ball better today. You know, we had a couple of plays up, you know, the mean. We have to protect the middle of the field better. You know, we got to fit some of the perimeter quick, you know, some of the add-on bubbles, better know, keep our leverage on the ball. But I thought for being a group of guys, but again, that comes back to why we play guys a lot early in the season. I don't have any update on Zach at all. I'll give you some on Thursday."

11. On the depth the program has built...

"Yeah, I mean, that's the name of the game. I mean, recruiting's our lifeblood. There's a lot of, room full of really, really good football players, high school football players in there right now, and we need more of those guys to come join us as well. But we really, we made a very, very conscious effort to develop our depth, at keep positions, and secondary was definitely one of them defensive tackle, defens line was definitely one of them. Last year, you know, we started losing guys on the back end, and it not only hurt you on the defensive side, but it hurt you on special teams. That's where it really starts to show up. So, but to me, you never where you need to be from a depth standpoint, from a roster standpoint. And we got to continue to work our tails off to increase our depth and increase increase the level of our roster, and we will."

12. On the defense...

"Yeah, I mean, they're doing it. They're improving every week. I'll walk in there tomorrow night, and tell the team the same thing. We have to improve in the next week. We have to. You know, teams at this time of year that play winning football are improve each week, because you're not gonna stay the same by any means, you're gonna improve or you're gonna get worse. And we got to improve, and it's hard to do, but I'm gonna challenge it again tomorrow to do it."