Everything From Brent Key's Press Conference Ahead of Bowl Game vs UCF
It is almost game time for Georgia Tech and UCF in the Gasparilla Bowl.
The two teams will meet this Friday and it will be their third meeting in four years, with UCF winning the previous two games (2020 and 2022). It is going to be a matchup of two high-powered offenses in Tampa Bay and it could be one of the highest-scoring games of bowl season.
Yellow Jackets head coach Brent Key met with the media today and here is everything he had to say.
Opening Statement:
"We are glad to be down here. It is a good reward for a season that these guys have had, the team, the staff, the whole organization, the entire Georgia Tech family, but really for those seniors, they have been through a lot and I reminded them the other day, just think of the guys that have played here in the times between when we played in bowl games and think about the guys who have busted their butts and put in so much work for this place and we are able to reap the benefits now, this season and there are a lot of guys at this game that mean a lot to the team. So I think it is important for them and important to know that as nice as it is for this football team, there is a history of people that have played at Georgia Tech that are honored when you get to come to a bowl game and see the program going in the right direction.
It is a great place to be in Tampa, it is a great place to have a bowl game. I tried to count yesterday, it is the third time that I have to a game here in Tampa, the fourth of this game. The last time I was down here, it ended with one second on the clock in a form that I was not very pleased with, the confetti fell down on someone else's sideline so it is good to go back out in Raymond James Stadium and go out and play a game again against a good opponent. All in all, it has been a good experience for us.
There are two things that we are given in a bowl game. We are given the opportunity to enjoy the time with our teammates and our friends and family members and be able to enjoy that part of it. Be able to enjoy going out to practice and put together a game plan, but really the third piece of that is something that we have to go out and earn that piece of it. We have to go out and play the way that we are capable of playing on Friday night so when the game is over, we have a chance to get that third type of fun and that third type of celebration and that is being able to be out there and holding that trophy and say that we won the game.
Let's make no mistake about it, as much of a reward as this is to come down here with these guys to have fun and the staff to have fun, we came down here for one reason and that is to win a football game. That is our sole approach in this trip down here, it is no different than any other game during the season, we have come down prepared to win a football game. That is the real fun in bowl games and if you have been to enough of them and had to stand on that other sideline and see someone else go out there and hold the trophy up, it is not a good feeling at all, I don't care what bowl game you are in, it is not a good feeling. I do not want these guys to be able to experience that. We have put the work and preparation in as a staff and give everything that we have as a staff to these players and ask these players to give everything they have and really most importantly the seniors who are playing their last game here at Georgia Tech and the guys that have graduated and are going to move on, we have a lot of those guys we want to be able to have a good experience in this game.
We are playing a good team. We really started practice two weeks ago, two and a half weeks ago we really started preparation last Friday and really while we were at home on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, really put together a lot of work. Full padded practices, be able to go out and play the game the right way and now that we have gotten down here, we are really honing in on the game plan, working out kinks in the game plan and putting it together and putting the final touches on it and be able to let those guys be able to go out and play fast on Friday night.
We have a good opponent like I said. Gus Malzahn has coached for a long time and has been at several places and been successful at every one of them. He is known for having great offenses and he is a great play-caller, great designer of not just offenses but individualized game plans and plays so it will be a big challenge for us. They have an opportunistic defense that is able to create negative plays. What really stands out is their third-down defense. There are teams that they have played that are in the teens as far as third-down percentages go. We are going to have to do a good job in all three phases to have a chance to go out and get one in the end."
Georgia Tech head coach Brent Key
1. On practice this morning...
"It was good, it was really good, it was quick. It was good, we had a good practice and that is the best part about it, when guys have a little freedom to go out and do things the day before, ride roller coasters, and seem to lock back in the next day at practice. It was spirited, it was live, it was fast. I told them we got our work in up there and I wanted to come down here and be able to practice fast and not be doing a lot of hitting down here, save that for Friday night. I thought they moved around really well, it was good energy and good communication of the team.
We have a couple of more days to focus in on those things and be able to get ready to play."
2. On trying to play with players in the portal as bowl practices are going on...
"Schemes don't change. Players are different in some spots and that is really nothing different week to week, it is no different as if someone got hurt. There are only like one or two positions where if a guy is missing, it changes the dynamic of the game. We go about our plan the same way, the schemes are the same, the coaches are the same, the playcallers are the same so nothing will change here."
3. On what it would mean to send a guy like Dontae Smith out with a victory in a bowl game...
"It would be huge for any of them. I think I brought up Dontae and Jaylon King in the team meeting yesterday and just talked about, they were the reference that I used for all of the people that have played here in between the time they were a freshman and they are the two that are left and to be able to enjoy the bowl game but also experience it and be able to come out with a win so it would be great, I would love it for all of those seniors, the guys who are graduated to be able to experience a win."
4. On how they are looking as far as health...
"Good. Everyone is banged up at this point in the year and we have had a couple of weeks to heal up a little bit but we also practiced and its an opportunity to go out and get 14, 15 extra practices for your team so we are not going to go out and take it easy and tread lightly, we are going to go out there and prepare the right way.
Over the course of the season, we remained really healthy. One of the most impressive things I think about over the entire past year has been the job that (Strength coach) AJ (Artis) and his staff and putting all of those things together to allow us to have player availability and that's what is huge, player availability at this time so I think the way we have gone about things have really helped in that and you don't see a lot of the pulls and the strains that keep guys out for a couple of weeks at a time so other than a few guys here or there throughout the season we have been relatively healthy all year so we are excited to come to this game and stay healthy over the course of this game as well."
5. On if guys that have entered the portal can play in the game (some traveled to the game)...
"That is at my discretion, my decision."
Georgia Tech faces UCF on Friday
6. On trying to close the early part of his 2024 class up while preparing for the game...
"I see things so differently than that. Working here from my office, working there from my office, what is the difference? The added challenge of the portal and the challenge of signing day and the bowl game, it is fair ground for everyone, it is part of what we do every day, we wake up and take the challenges that come about in that day and I firmly believe that every minute or second that you are complaining, you are wasting a second fixing those problems or the challenges you had, I don't look at that as any different.
Now, the organization of it and the planning of it, yeah, that has to take place. How we organize for things to be ready to occur, that is something for two weeks out that we have been planning for what we are going to do, we are going to have a staff meeting here in a minute to go over the exact processes again but no different than at home practices and doing things, we are just doing them here. We got the staff meeting set up here, I have an office set up here, we have coaches' offices, it is just business as usual.
7. On Buster Faulkner's name being floated for other jobs...
I have said that from day one, I want to develop players to become better players and coaches to become better coaches. I want assistant coaches to become coordinator and coordinators to become head coaches. When you can do that as a head coach, it does not matter if you have been coaching for one year or 15 years, that is an extremely rewarding thing to have happen. From someone in your program and organization reach their goals and aspirations in this profession. That is awesome."
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