Everything From Georgia Tech's Brent Key At ACC Media Days

Georgia Tech head coach Brent Key talked to the media in Charlotte for the annual preseason ACC Media Days. Here is everything he had to say.

Opening Statement….

“Hey, what's up, everybody? Come on, we need some energy in here now. That midday right after lunch. We got to get some juice going in this room now.

Happy to be back here again. You know, appreciate Commissioner Phillips and what he's done to put this on and put it together. You know, it's kind of crazy. Fourth time, I think, being up here. It goes fast. It goes really fast.

But when I became the head coach three years ago, now going on my fourth year, you know, a lot of people say, well, that must be the highlight of what you've accomplished and what you've done. No, it's not. My goal wanting to be the head coach, my goal is to be the head coach of Georgia Tech and win championships. That's what our goal is.

Our goal is to graduate players and win championships. We've done a good job of progressing each year. You know, six wins, seven wins, nine wins. All right, but the mission is to win championships. That's not changing.

The great thing is from myself, President Cabrera, Ryan Alpert, our AD, who has been with us now a year, we share that mission. Like I said, we've made good progress, but we've not been able to accomplish that mission yet to this point. Last year was a good step in the right direction, winning nine games. But let's make no mistake: I am not happy about that, all right? If you don't think that's driven myself in how we've built the roster, how we've trained, prepared, worked, built a staff to put the right men in place to be around these guys, then obviously you don't know me, and you don't know our program. Again, don't get me wrong, I'm very happy for what we've accomplished, I am. But I am not satisfied, not one bit.

We've done a lot in terms of rebuilding our staff, our roster to put ourselves in a position to now go out and continue to, you know, try to accomplish that mission. These guys up here are great examples of those two things of graduating our players, being successful in school, preparing for a life after football, and working every single day to win championships.I'm just very fortunate to be here with these guys. I think we've got something special. I really do. I believe in these players. If I could fit the whole team on the plane, we would have fit the whole team, but I don't think the ACC would have allowed us to do that.

That's what our goals are. That's who we are. Our identity is not changing. Faces change. Names change. But the identity of Georgia Tech football is not going to change. We welcome any team to play us or us to play any team. I think we're one of, what, five teams playing 11 Power 4 games this year. Our out-of-conference schedule is as competitive as anybody in the country, as well with the ACC schedule that is as competitive as anyone in the league in an extremely competitive league.We're super excited, and that's all I got for you.”

On opening against two really strong non-conference opponents…

“No different than if we opened up with anybody in the league. Our mindset and focus doesn't change.

I don't have any corny slogans or sayings or anything like that to put together with the team. I'm sorry. I didn't bring that with me today. But we're going to show up every day and work our tails off so we can line up and go out and play the type of football that I envision us playing. That's regardless of who the opponent is.

But I think I said it last year, we would line up and play anybody any time, right? We're very excited about being able to play those opponents. The work has already been in play, and we're excited about them all.”

On what stands out about Alberto Mendoza’s game…

“I don't know. He hasn't started a college football game yet. I mean, he throws it. I mean, he hasn't started a college game. You think I'm going to sit here and tell you everything he does and does well and doesn't do well? Come on, we just talked about the two people -- the people we opened up with.He's smart, cerebral. Sees the whole field, can get us in and out of good plays, bad plays. He's accurate, has a good release. Mom and dad are great people.”

On bringing Justice Haynes to Georgia Tech…

“He went in the portal. I think we called him. Look, no different than anybody else. It's recruiting. It's relationships.We've got two running backs here with us today, and I think we have, what, four more back at home we couldn't fit on the plane with us. If that tells you what type of team we're going to be. They all complement each other very well.

Excited to finally have Justice in Atlanta, Georgia, is the greatest city on the face of the earth and to be there. I'm super excited about that entire group.When you have a new quarterback -- and, look, quarterback is the most important position in all of sports, in my opinion, in all of sports. How do you take the pressure off of him? Right there. That's how you take the pressure off of him. Allow him to develop and grow as a quarterback. Doesn't matter how talented you are. There's firsts in everything at that position. That's on us as coaches to make sure we don't put him in a position to have to win every game all year long, right? Let him grow into that.

Very, very fortunate to be able to have these running backs with us on our team, the depth we have at that position, the unselfishness that they have. But also, we have a lot of experience on our offensive staff and within the whole staff of how to play these guys, how to practice these guys, how to train them, how to prepare them so that they're just as fresh in the fourth quarter in November as they were in the first quarter in September.”

On being adaptable in college football…

“What else am I going to do? Seriously. Am I going to object to it? No, I don't want to do that. I don't have a say in it. We could walk out of here and have three different rules or a change in something. You have to be adaptable. You have to be able to change.

People say, oh, you know, kids are different now. Well, so are the adults. We are too. We're the ones that set the example, but the same guys that want to complain about a lot of the things in college football need to look themselves in the mirror. They're the ones jumping jobs every two years too. Let's be real. The adults in the room sometimes end up being the bigger problem.

I'm very transparent with my team about that. We talk very real in terms of that. Look, we're co-workers. This is no dictatorship at Georgia Tech. I'm the head coach, I'm the leader, yes, but we have to work together, and they understand that. It's about the players at Georgia Tech. Always has been and always will be as long as I'm the head football coach there.”

On the legacy Haynes King left…

“He called me last night and asked if I was coming to Charlotte today. I said, yes, Haynes, you know the answer to that. Somebody said they saw him walking down the street the other day, down by Chipotle or something.You know, very few people, very few -- when I say people, I mean players, coaches, staff -- will know what we went through over the last four years. Kyle is one of them.

When these guys matriculate through our program, whether it be Haynes, whether it be Clayton Powell-Lee, whether it be Kyle, Aidan Birr, those guys, they know the true story. The only thing I ask for these guys when they walk out that door is to leave this program better than when they walked in. That's the most proud thing I can say about those guys. Haynes, all of them.”

On Georgia Tech competing in the NIL era….

“Personally, Georgia Tech is, in my opinion, the greatest place in the entire country to get the combination of both, all right, and you have to find the right fit, to answer your question. You have to have people in your program that understand that football is going to come to an end, all right? There's a life after football. Not life when you graduate because I want every one of these guys to play in the NFL for a long time, to reach all their dreams. But you got to have the right fit, the right person. That's a culture that was established in our locker room three years ago, three and a half years ago, that they'll tell us.

That doesn't mean everything is rosy the day everybody walks in the door. The roster turns over 30, 35% every January on every time team. To find the right fit to come into your locker room -- and I know every coach comes up here and talks about the fit, the fit, the fit. The fit is unique to each individual program in school. It's unique to where you are.

There's kids that don't want to go to college in a major city. Guess what, we're not moving the school. That's not a fit. Okay, but the ones that understand that there's a life after football that want to be developed and coached hard, all right, held accountable, high expectations on the field and in the classroom, and then be able to build the relationships that it takes to have successful life afterwards, I don't say it lightly when I say I want guys to come to Georgia Tech to be a first round pick and a CEO. I say that, and I mean that.

One of the coolest pictures I saw last year was a picture of Keylan Rutledge walking across the stage one week and a couple of weeks later walking across another stage. Obviously he was at his home. He didn't walk across when he got drafted in the first round, but it's figurative.A first-round pick and a college graduate from Georgia Tech who is going to have success, and that's what I want for all of our guys.”

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