Everything From Brent Key's Tuesday Media Availability

Georgia Tech head coach Brent Key talked to the media for his weekly press conference ahead of this week's game vs Temple. Here is everything he had to say.

Opening Statement

"Appreciate you guys being here. Had a good win on Saturday, and had a really good crowd. I want to thank the fans and students who came to the game. They were involved and energetic. Really made a difference in the football game. So can't wait to see the crowd again this week. Excited to be at home again this weekend. We've got to continue to stay the course and continue to improve every day individually, collectively as a team. Offense, defense, special teams, fundamentally, just fundamental technique-wise, the way you play the game. There are a lot of improvements we need to make. There are a lot of things we gotta work on correcting from the first three weeks and continue to improve on. So we've got a long way to go. Happy to get a win last week, but at the same time, every week becomes more important. So with that, any questions?"

On both fourth down plays…..

“Better than us on those plays. We had to be on the block on the fourth and two. We had the numbers. It was an option for the quarterback. They had two over three on the outside and three over four. Then had the numbers and didn't execute the block. They beat us on that play. They're a good football team. They're a very talented, good football team. We know that. We all chase perfection in the games, in the game of football. But at the end of the game, if we won more battles than they have, we've won more of the one on ones, we've won more of the mono and mono things usually come out of a good place. But we got beat on that one, and the same thing with the fourth and one. So we've worked on that since the beginning of springtime, we're unable to execute it."

On injuries and guys getting close who didn’t play last week….

“Yeah, moving forward, we'll talk about injuries on Thursdays now, since that's the way the, no reason why other than just that's when the report comes out on Thursday. I think it makes a lot more sense to do that on Thursdays. So we'll do that and I'll start every press on Thursdays with it.”

On the special teams growth and evaluating the unit as a whole…

“Yeah, I mean, we've got a lot of things to improve on. We've made a lot of progress from last season. I can't say enough about the job that Tim Salem and Brendan Farrell have done. Two tremendous football coaches who live and breathe special teams, game management, and complementary football. I think you're seeing it in the way we play. With that, our coverage units have been good. We got to continue to work on things. We got a lot more volume of special teams to be able to install, and you know, we've done a lot of things that are different this year with personnel. It's not just one group that goes out there. We have different groups within each special team that allows us to really work to get an advantage. But we have to continue to improve. We had a lot of opportunities to cover on kickoffs or get tough returns. That's the nature of college football now. The biggest thing we got to improve on is making sure we don't go to sleep with those opportunities that when one does come to us to return that we're on our blocks. When one does get returned out of the end zone, which our cover units have been good at, we still have to do a better job of avoiding blocks, going through blocks when they're in front of us. Coverage on our punt teams had a lot of opportunities, but when we have, gotta make sure we make them count. Field goal protection has been better. We've still got to continue to improve there. I think we had a couple of opportunities to get block kicks that we've been, you know, a little bit short, a little bit not quite there yet. So we got a little extra effort to be able to get those executed.”

On how he has seen the guys move on from Saturday and refocus on the next game….

“Well, if it were up to me, they'd know no different at all. They hear things from other places. So now I trust the football team. I believe in this football team. I told them that I stood a few guys up on Sunday night. Jamal, Kyle, and Omar, I asked them. I said, Look, you know, what's your favorite memory from high school football, Jamal. You know, Kyle, what's your favorite memory you've had, a favorite play you've made wearing the GT uniform? Omar, what was your favorite play last night? So what do they all have in common? They're in the past; they're just memories for us. We've never played a game here, and one player's ever relied on a play they made in high school to have success in college. So what's the difference? Nothing. There's none. These guys have earned the opportunity to now have this challenge. They've earned that by the way they've played and competed and earned the outcomes that we all wanted. Every challenge gets bigger. I told the team after practice the same thing I've said as all week is. Saban used to tell us that more people die on the way down from Mount Everest than on the way up. You can't relax. You can't relax. You have to be just as prepared every single week. There is no crescendo or top. Our goals when we started the season were not to win game three of the season. They weren't to win game four of the season. They weren't to win game eight or 12. Our goals are a lot bigger than that. Our expectations internally are a lot bigger than that. As long as we keep our heads in the right place and stay focused, I think other things will take care of themselves.”

On Rodney Shelley and AJ Hoffler play on Saturday…..

“Yeah, hopefully they continue to improve, and it's a lot of time being out. The last couple of weeks, we've been working them back into play mode. I thought AJ did a nice job, a really nice job. He's a big old sucker out there playing in. He uses his hands well and gets extension. Didn't really necessarily have plays come his way. Maybe one, but I think a lot of plays are in his future to be made. When Zach broke his fingernail off. There's an injury for you. He's bent his fingernail, but pulled it off. Kept playing though. You know, Rodney went in early. He's got to get back in the swing of things, but I thought he did a good job the first time getting back out there."

On the perception of the program and dispelling the underdog narrative….

“Per NCAA rules, we're not allowed to do any form of wagering. So I don't know, favorites, underdogs. That’s all Vegas line stuff. I'm serious. Like guys, we tell our team to play with no scoreboard and a faceless opponent. I'm never gonna tell these players to do something I'm not gonna do myself.”

On if people are starting to understand what he is trying to sell and his message about the program…

“Again, I don't know if people are or not. There are more people here today than there were last week, so maybe so. But again, I'm not going to tell the players to ignore things and stay away from things that I'm not going to do myself.”

On the matchup against Temple….

“Yeah, so they started out 2-0, played a really good Oklahoma team this past weekend. New coaching staff there, who's had a lot of success everywhere they've been. Really good football coach. You can tell that they're a well-coached team. Offensively, these guys shift in motion. They're 77 % of the plays, they're motion, and they have eye candy. They're second in the country in most times they motion. Defensively, they pose a lot of problems with you. They play three down front. They kick it to four down. They play bear a lot of different things in the back end that are a little unorthodox from what we've seen the last three or four weeks. They play hard. They've got length on their defense. You know you can tell they're coached the right way. They are sound on special teams, and they're not doing things to beat themselves. Everybody is gonna make mistakes out there. I think the future is really, really bright for this football team and this coaching staff. I've been very impressed watching the way they play the game.”

On what is the key in defending teams that use a lot of motion….

“Eye discipline. It's one of the two most important things we have to get done this week. We have to have great eye discipline on the defensive side of the ball. It's not as much the motion as the fakes within it, right? The rolling over the ball, the carrying out of your fakes. That's something we gotta continue to work tremendously on our fakes and having the same pad level and play action and run game. It's all the deception part of it in order to be able to accomplish what you want to get done. And look, the field is, know, as said, it's 100 yards long, it's 53 and a third wide. Our goal every game is to use every bit of it. And look, you could take the quarterback and put him under center every time, put the running back a little bit closer, and do some of those things. Probably think Coach Johnson was out there coaching. There are a lot of option elements that are involved with it. Being able to put conflict on players on the defensive side of the ball, being able to affect support, affect who sets the edges. And that's another thing they do. Temple does a great job of setting edges in a lot of different ways, right? When you're a team like us, it's understandable why they do it, because then you look on the other side of the ball at what they face every day. So they're every way trying to set the edges and keep that ball contained inside, so this will be a big challenge for us.”

On having a healthy EJ Lightsey this season..

“Yeah, it's extremely important. I mean, supporting all our players who are healthier out there playing. Player availability is the number one key to being able to have a successful season. So EJ's doing a nice job.”

On Omar Daniels and his ability to make an impact and him blossoming…

“Yeah, he is. And like everyone, Omar's got a lot of things, you know, really happy for him with the force fumble and the interception.There's a lot of things we got to improve on. How we play leverage, how we're fitting things, communication. He's matured a ton, really happy for him as a young man. Not just on the field, off the field. More vocal than he has been in the past, which, when you're vocal, it means you're confident. We've still got a lot of things we have to work on and clean up in that spot.”

On Haynes King being a Heisman candidate and the mission he is on….

“I mean, this kid's been on a mission every time he's gone out. Anytime you're a startarting quarterback at your last go round in college, there's something else behind you. Something motivating him from a higher being, I guess you would say. But no, I mean, you know, the definition of what the Heisman is the player most, you know, I don't know the exact wording, but talk about doing the value to your team and doing it with integrity in ways others don't. I mean, you look at the definition of it, who else fits that definition? The grit, the toughness, I think it's extremely undervalued or under-talked about, of how he throws the football. I don't know stats, I don't remember stats leading up to the game of other teams versus our last opponent, but I mean, he was 20-28. It's pretty efficient, and you know when he uses legs, he uses his arm. I think most importantly, he uses his head. I mean to be able to make sure everybody's aligned, seeing the defense. With all the motion we do, making sure everyone's set before the next guy goes. I mean, there are so many things that he does that are valuable, really invaluable for our football team. When the quarterback plays the way he plays and does what he does, it's almost impossible when everyone else doesn't rise up and do the same.”

On the impact and value of Isiah, Eric, Zion, and the wide receivers stepping up…

“Yeah, that was a big thing coming out of that game, I think I said it in here: we've got to get the ball to more people. We got to the ball spread around our playmakers. We've done a better job of that. We've still got guys we can continue to get the ball to. There are only so many plays in a football game. You increase your plays. to increase the way you spread around. Once you get into the flow of a game, really, all the planning you did up until then kind of goes out the window in terms of how you play in the game. Every game turns out differently. You know, their team last week's time of possession had not really been something they were chasing early in the first couple of games they played. You sit there, look at halftime, it was, mean, right at 15-15. So you see that statistically at halftime. Now you start thinking, okay, that's the game they're playing. How do we need to affect it to ensure we have four possessions in the first half? And then we had the one right at the end where we had two plays or whatnot. But really four real possessions. So you're sitting there half-time saying, okay, we'll probably have five, might have six. Right, now that they start counting, those possessions are counting. And when you see that team playing the kind of keep away or whether it was by chance it was by plan. It's the way it worked out. So you got to change your tune a little bit in that second half, but with your adjustments and just how you played the big game.”

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