Everything From Georgia Tech Head Coach Brent Key After the Yellow Jackets' Second Scrimmage

Georgia Tech is inching closer to its season opening game against Colorado and today, the Yellow Jackets held another scrimmage. After it was over, head coach Brent Key spoke to the media and here is everything that he had to say:

Opening Statement...

"All right, had a final scrimmage of preseason camp. You know, when 125 plays, I was planning to go about 100, but the first 100 looked like dog crap. So everybody got a chance to get in their place, see what they can do, how they can help this football team. We got some heat out there today. Reached about 94, but about 115 on the turf, which was what I wanted. I wanted to see how these guys could sustain and practice through some adversity. I don't think we are anywhere close to being ready to play a football game.

Way too many penalties. Way too many turnovers. Way too many ball and assignments. Way too many guys that either didn't play or tapped out for aches and pains and things you have to you know, we're not even close from the standpoint from mental toughness the grit and the fortitude that you have to have to play this play this game, you know, we got, we got a lot of young kids on the field new kids. That isn't, zero excuse, so we got a lot of damn work to do."

1. On any positives from the scrimmage...

"Well, we had better pass protection out there today, But now I'm concerned about the lack of pass rush and the fact we can't catch football when it is strong."

2. On how the team can recover going into next week...

"Next week? How about in two weeks? How about in two weeks when we play? The only thing good about today is the fact we have time to correct it, 13 days."

3. On Colorado Prep...

"So we'll come in tomorrow as a staff, and hopefully it's being done as we speak. We'll evaluate the football team, evaluate the roster, evaluate where we're at from-- and look, I don't care if we go on the first game and we run two offensive plays and two defensive calls. We're going to play what we can execute with the best players on the field to do it. We'll meet all day tomorrow as a staff. School starts on Mondays, so the players are off then. We'll come back on Tuesday and Wednesday, and they'll be camp practices. They will be camp practices. We gotta find out who wants to play football. And then we'll go and get into the Colorado prep on Thursday and Friday."

4. On what changed about today...

"I don't know, if I had a crystal ball, I'd be able to stop it. I'd be predicting it's going to happen. What changed? The heat? Little adversity? Somebody talking to them on their shoulder? You're tired. Don't get hurt. Adversity."

5. On how he will measure their response to today...

" I do not measure it. I don't measure it. I speak from the heart and from the truth and from what I see. From what I see watching 125 plays live. I speak exactly what I feel every time."

6. On the physical health of the team...

"Yeah, physical, physical health's fine. I believe I'll get the injury report later. I want to get the mental health, not mental health, I apologize, the mental toughness. And really, that's part of the mental psychology. And look, this starts with me. This starts with me. This is my job to get the football team in a position to be able to compete and play football games. The mental toughness which goes into the game, the mindset that you have to have.

These guys came out with a really good attitude and a lot of energy to start the day. And we went into this thing, we wanted to play a lot of guys today to see what they could do and who can help us, who's gonna be in the two-deep, who's not gonna be in the two-deep, who's on teams, scrimmage every special team today. And we wanna see who can go out there and it's going to be, I mean, it don't matter if it's game one or the last game of the season, there's going to be challenges, adversity, different things that you can't control, right? And, the hardest thing right now with anybody, not just a young player, it's adults, it's players, is to be able to block everything else out, right? Is it not be affected by things that you can't control or circumstances that you're in, right and in the mindset and in the mental toughness part of it is it's so much of the game it's so much of the game."

7. On coaching them from this scrimmage...

"I'm actually really happy that we get to go coach the crap out of them for the next 13 days, put them in a position to play football."

8. On the progress they have made in camp...

"I still believe we have a chance to be a really good football team. We weren't today. We weren't today."

9. On if any upperclassmen or leaders stepped up today...

"No, they did. They say things, they do things. That's the thing that we don't feel you have to be ready to go before the game. You don't have somebody behind you patting you on the butt or kicking the butt, right? When you do something good, you do something bad. And when you do something bad, you can't let it carry over to the next play. And way too much of that right now.

Good and bad, I should say. Good and bad. Making, you know, acting like we just made the greatest play in the world on a routine play. You gotta play third down and you get smoked. Like you've done it before."

10. On any positive performances from anyone today...

"There's positives out there. The work. A lot of not positive. I like our running backs, I thought we improved up front on the line, or either that or we didn't rush the pass or played run defense. I mean, that many turnovers, I mean, is it offense or is it defense? I don't know, we've got to handle a lot of balls and to handle a lot of balls and four interceptions."

11. On Jerome Bettis speaking to the team...

"So we have speakers, there was so much on his bio, I couldn't even write it all down. I had to use my phone to look at Wikipedia or whatever. I mean, talking to a man in restrooms, 13,600 yards in the national football league. All Pro, Pro Bowl, Super Bowl champ, Hall of Famer. Talk about big backs. That's a big back. He was elusive. He could run you over. He could run around you."

12. On coaching mental toughness...

"Each player is different. Every person is coached independently. Every player is coached independently. And that's our job as coaches to find out how they learn best, how they retain information, and then how far we can push them. And that's what our jobs do. Football is and being able to have people execute in uncomfortable situations and when they feel uncomfortable or when they're mentally uncomfortable because of what's just happened to them. You know, a lot of times people want to show emotion to let people see them and it's an internal thought that people will see that I'm mad about it. Right?

You mess something up and throw something or you hit something. How much of that's really a reaction of you, or how much that's really just trying to show those people outside. Again, it's external factors that so much get in people's heads You gotta be able to play the next play. We spend a lot of, we put a lot of resources and infrastructure into the mental it. And it all really is in the same circle of things. The mindset coaching, the mental health. We want to make sure our guys are strong mentally. Everyone in this football team and everyone in the staff goes through something different every day that other people don't know. But as coaches, we have to coach with keeping the expectation what it is, but also keeping that side of empathy in the relationship you have with people there. You can't dip your toe into both of them and think you're going to split it up. It's 100 % all in on both."

13. On how many freshmen can play right now...

"I would say there's probably one, two, three. There's anywhere from six to eight guys right now, freshmen that are probably in the mix to play in the first game. There's probably 10 to 14 that possibly by a third of the way through the season, midpoint of the season, that we want to have ready to play We have a talented group of guys, freshman, but there's only so many plays and look, it's a positive when your team when freshmen aren't walking in the door ready to play You know that they're learning how to play the game, learning to get up at the speed of the game In years past I couldn't sit there and say that they would be in the mix. They probably out there going, so that's a positive sign of the program"

14. On the student body...

"I want to give a big shout out to our student body. I mean, the amount of tickets, I got word of the amount of tickets that have been sold already for home games and that they've sold out tickets and that they're open in other sections of the stadium for the students. If I can tell the students anything, we're going to put a good product on that field. There's going to be 11 people on each side of the ball in the kicking game. They didn't go out. They're going to play their butts off for y 'all students. I cannot thank the students enough for the effort they put into to come to these games and give us really that 12th man. And I talk a lot about the shared diversity that takes place at Georgia Tech and the bond that is You know those students they're part of our team on Saturdays and you know to see that, to see how many students have already come out and bought their tickets and how many more and they've opened up other sections, so students keep buying keep coming. All right. We'll keep opening up sections of the stadiums. We want you all here We want you all here and we need you all here. All right, and I promise that, we are gonna put a great product on that feel for you guys. It's what y 'all can be proud of."