Everything From Brent Key Ahead of the Miami Game on Saturday

Georgia Tech has its eyes set on the next opponent coming to Bobby Dodd Stadium, which would be the Miami Hurricanes.

Miami is coming off a blowout loss to rival Florida State and like the Yellow Jackets, has a 4-5 record.

Interim head coach Brent Key met with the media today to discuss the upcoming game against the Hurricanes and other topics.

Here is everything that Key had to say today.

Opening Statement:

"Proud of the guys for the game last Saturday, obviously proud of the outcome, the way they played, overcame a lot of adversity in the game and even before the game. We were able to play a full 60 minutes, which is what we ask our guys to do, is play a full 60 minutes, regardless of the score and just focus on playing the next play, one play at a time and see what happens at the end of the game and they did that. I think they really rallied together as a team, when bad things happened, to show the resolve that they did, they continued to fight and make plays."

"It was really good to watch. It was exciting for them. It is no different than the week before, we will get back in on Sunday and correct what we have to correct, enjoy it, and move on and get ready to play a really good Miami football team. It was a little bit of an earlier game so you got a little bit more time to enjoy it but it's on to the next one right now and that is what we are looking at. I am proud of those guys and how they fought and now we have to carry it over to this week. We can't have any sort of a mental hangover from last week's game going into this Miami game and we have."

"I can't say enough... they are a really good and a really talented football team and right now the most important thing is our mental preparation. Everyone is banged up, everyone gets sick, everyone has cumulative reps on their bodies, it is about how you can carry your mental intensity throughout the day, through a two-hour practice and then whether it is time to do good on good and the physical part and be able to ramp it back up and understand that and not take time off. You look in the NFL, professional football, that is how they have to practice, they have a limited amount of bodies and then their practice squad players and then they have to be smart in the weight room and how they practice during the week and that is a longer season than is played in college and that is in a lot of ways what we are asking our guys to do, the difference is, these guys are not professionals, they are college kids and I told them the advantage they have is they are Georgia Tech college kids, so they have to be able to use that advantage they have as to the mental part of it and that is what they have to carry."

"Then, the mental toughness that it takes to be able to flip the switch from one part of the practice to the other part of the practice, whether it be a full all out good on good or it is an early in practice walk through early part, so we have to be able to do that throughout the week and we did a good job of that last week and be able to get to Saturday and be able to play as fast as we possibly can."

1. An update on the Flu situation with the team...

"Hopefully it flew away. That is what it is this time of year. There is a lot of Vitamin C and B-12 and hand sanitizer and people back to wearing masks and being careful and people trying to be as careful as they can. The majority of the guys that were sick are better now. You expect this time of year. When that happens, we have to adjust at practice. Pierce (Quick) was back today, Paula (Vaipulu) was back today, Dylan was back today, and Jeff was out there again today. Those guys that are back healthy, we have to keep healthy and then mitigate the ones that continue to get sick whether it is tomorrow or back today or stomach is hurting and all of that... it is what you have to deal with at this time of year and the guys have done a really good job with showing the... it is really about mental toughness too, to be able to have something affect you, whether it is a day before a game, two days before a game or an hour before a game and a starter goes out or a starter can't play and you have to be able to rally around whoever is going to be in there and really just continue to play the game one game at a time and be able to reach you end goal when the game is over."

2. On Jakiah Leftwich and if he will play more...

"Yeah. That is what we are trying to do, get the best five on the field at all times and Jakiah went in there and he is young and still has a lot of developing to do, but he plays hard, he plays really hard and he practices hard. He has physical and mental toughness in him. Now, he is really starting to figure the game out and is starting to understand things. If he makes a mistake, he knows what that mistake is and can come to the sideline and tell you I need to do this or I need to that and make the correction and understand it and take it into the game and that is something he does a good job of. That is something that is hard for younger players, to be able to put that bad play behind you and not think about it on the next series or the next third down and he has shown the ability to do that, which I am proud of."

3. On if Jeff Sims will play when healthy, given how Zach Pyron is playing...

"First, we have to be able to see if Jeff will be able to play. He is practicing, just like he practiced last week, but we will be able to make that decision when it gets closer to game time to see if he will have the ability to play a full football game."

4. On how he chooses a starting running back...

"With all things being equal, if all are healthy, yes we determine that before the game. The last really five weeks, or five games, we have done "this series is this guys series" or "this series is this guys series" and we are going to rotate to this point or this guy has speciality plays as this goes on, being very detailed about who is going in and then how we are playing them and when we are going in, whether it is the first quarter or the third quarter, you make the decision about who is going in as who is doing the best job in protection. Then you factor in injuries and that is one position that probably gets banged up the most throughout a game. But yeah, we script it out and we are very detailed on who is going in at certain times. The last few games it has worked out. I can't say enough... all four of those guys are for each other. They want the ball, they understand there is only one ball and they have done a good job and they have got a chance to put their hands on it and get the yardage that is there. I think they have done a good job of improvement last week, we knew we were going to face a defense that would be angling and slanting and understanding where those cuts were going to be and where the protections were and they did a nice job last week of doing what we asked them to do and things we challenged them with coming from previous weeks."

5. On the red zone offense...

"You know, the easy thing to say is that the game is over and why did you make that call? You can't live like that. That is not fair to anyone involved. The thing we do is, we take a look at what we can do this week, and why did we stall out here. What was the deficiency in the play? I mean, you look at it over the course of the last three or four games and say, which ones are coming up the most, which are the common occurrences? One, you have to fix it or you change it and those are really the options, you have to really look at it and say, this is who we are gonna be, this is what we are going to do once we are down there and this afternoon will be third down and red zone game planning day and tomorrow, third down and red zone out at practice. You can bet we will do a really good job of putting a good plan together so when it gets down there, we are getting seven and at least in position to get seven instead of three."

6. On the final home game and if it brings any juice to the guys...

"Yeah, it does. Anytime you are able to play at home it's an advantage, its the travel, the time on your body, whether it be cramped on a plane or in a hotel room, I mean, that is why it is home-field advantage. Then on top of that with your fans and the student section and the band, it is a huge advantage, it is. At the same time, it is senior day. We have seniors that are playing their last game at Bobby Dodd and you wanna go out and play your best for them and put your best during the week for them. You also have to understand that is only going to last so far during the game. You can have a great pep talk before the game, but after the first hit, it is over. It is what you have done to sustain that during the week that is really going to be the difference in the outcome of the game."

7. On Zach's ability to put plays behind him...

"Putting things behind you is one thing, but to be able to learn from that mistake, that is the bigger picture and to be that young, to be able to learn from those mistakes... he is very mature past his age, I can say that in those things and when he comes to the sideline and says "Oh my gosh, I knew this was going to happen and that is not going to happen again and the anticipation of things out there, I mean, even over the course of the game you saw it. Yeah, he does a fantastic job of that and a lot of those things are who he is, that is what he has done since he was in the ninth and tenth grade in high school, so it is not something that just happened over night. Now the development and learning the offense and the speed of the game, those things take time once you get to college, but some of those things are innate and he has them."

8. On the punt coverage...

"You hate to sit up here and say it is a work in progress... you know, David (Shanahan) is kicking the crap out of the ball, he really is. He is putting, I think he averaged 48 or 49 yards a kick last week, so he is putting the ball out there. You've got the wall behind, probably half of the protection you would say and the other six or seven guys involved in the coverage. Well, there is two, the snapper does not count because he is on the ball,two in the front, there is two in the sides and two in the back to spread the net as you would say and if one of those guys gets out of lane or you know loses leverage on the football. you've gotta have overlap in it. I mean... they have coaches too and they are going to scheme and coach and there is overlap in it and the frustrating thing that happened is when you watched the one that is returned for the touchdown and the one that was a 20-yard gain, you would say it is a lack of effort, somebody is loafing, but when you look at it, it was actually the exact opposite. The guys were running so fast down the field now when that guy catches the ball, they have to saddle up and keep the thing in front of them. Well, everyone went to take their shot and ran past, so now you have four of the six guys all the way going down the field and ran all the way past, now he just has one person that he has to make miss and now it is back on the wall to make the saving tackle so you know, the overpursuing of it was the problem. So we spent from Sunday to... a lot of time on Sunday to a lot of time out there today to just get back to understanding of keeping the leverage on the football once it happens and being able to judge when he is able to come down and catch it, we are not running past him. We made a lot of improvements today and we will continue to stress it and work on it."

9. On the emotions going into senior day...

"My emotions are no different, there is nothing emotional, it is all trying to give these guys the best ability to win a football game and the kids... that is the part that becomes emotional. What is the thing we talk about in football, you can't be an emotional player, you can't play with emotion, you have to have energy over emotion and when you play emotional, bad things happen. One of the big points of emphasis with the entire team was execution over emotional and they did that and they went out and executed that. Now to tell them to take a time, that is a very special time in their lives and as we get older, we are kind of emotional about things like that, I can tell you first hand, all I wanted to do was get back in the locker room with my guys and get ready to play a football game. Now our parents, that was a different story, our parents, let them carry the emotion, but our guys gotta go out there and take the picture and give their mom and dads a hug and get back in and get ready to play a football game because if they really wanna remember senior day, go win the game, that is the best memory of a senior day"

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