Everything From Head Coach Brent Key During His Bye Week Media Availability

Georgia Tech is on a bye week and have been going through practice before it plays Boston College next week. Here is all head coach Brent Key had to say.

Opening Statement:

“Just finished our third day of practice this week, getting back out on the field. So this time of year, it's a good combination of getting healthy, getting players back healthy and mending up things that you're not doing well or didn't do well and improving on that and adding complementary things to your offense defense, kicking game and improving overall as a team. We met as a team on Tuesday and discussed the game, really kind of put it to bed. It's always hard to put losses to bed, losses eat at you. That's why we prepare and practice and put all the time into it that we do. We've been very fortunate to get to a point where we have not experienced that, and didn't play well enough to deserve to win, and that's what happens. So, you got to take that and like I said after the game, have to, what is your response going to be? I told the team last Saturday night, the greatest thing that could have happened to us happened to us. That's the way we have to look at it. We have to look at that as a chance to really talk about speaking the truth and hearing the truth. Now, really to hear the truth and then go back to anything on the preparation, and we lined up, and the best way, the best analogy I can put to this is what somebody told me earlier in the week. You guys all know I'm like NASCAR and race car driving and fast.”

“You train almost your entire career as a NASCAR driver for what? 1%, 2 % of the time that it might get out of control. That's when the strength training conditioning, when that back tail gets clipped, and you start weaving and tails start spinning, and that sucker starts spinning out of control. That's when you really have to grip that wheel tight. You have to hold on, and you've got to steer that thing out of it in hopes that number one, get it back in the pit, get it going and finish the race. But more importantly, now you've got lives at stake in those things. But such a high percentage, they're working, turning left and going. But when things get out of control, and now wanting how we were on Saturday night, that thing started spinning, started tailspinning. We were screaming, us out of this race car. Instead of gripping that wheel and taking back control of it. I used that analogy on Tuesday when we practiced, when we talked to the team. But I think when you think about it, I mean, that's such the case. And things weren't going well. We gotta have guys put their, and it starts with me. I'm talking about me, coaches, players. You gotta grip that wheel, and you gotta get that thing back in control. So we'll move forward and take the things that we've learned and use them to continue to improve. I thought we had a really good day out there in pads today. We did some initial game planning stuff, but we also did a good amount of work out there as well. We'll get some time this weekend. We'll be back on Sunday. The guys are back out on Sunday, starting to practice again, and continuing to practice.”

On getting younger guys in earlier…

“Yeah, we've done it every other game for the most part. We did in that game. We talked about playing the players for the game. But look, if you think I'm sitting there counting player reps during a game, you're wrong. There are a lot of other things, but then we go back and we see the guys play and participate, and we have to continue to do that.”

On Ahmari Harvey, Jy Gilmore and Savion Riley being back ….

“Maybe. They're all out there today. Nice. They all practiced today. They all have pads on today. What do we use that last year question? Oh, down the camera. Reporter (Questionable or Doubtful?), because that has obviously shown not to really be the truth until the kickoff, so.Yeah, I pretty much know somebody's questionable or doubtful. Doubtful means you doubt they can go. They probably won't go. So no soapboxes, they're all ahead of schedule. All right, and we expect them all back, and hopefully they'll all be back very soon. You got me there because it was Thursday, and that's a Thursday question day. So I couldn't say anything else. Yeah, you're wise, grasshopper.”

On how much concern if things started spinning out of control…

“Yeah, it’s concerning. They really started out similar in ways. We didn't have the ball first, but it was similar to the Duke game. In the Duke game, we got a big play on the two-yard line fumble return for a touchdown, right? But that's what I'm talking about with speaking the truth and hearing the truth, okay? Just because you get a fumble on the two-yard line doesn't mean the other 98 yards didn't happen, right? We got fortunate there; we got ourselves out with a big play, and that's happened a couple of times for us this year. We've kind of gone up and down, they've gone up and down the field, and we've bowed it back, and we weren't able to do that. They were a good offense, and they do a good job of protecting the football. That's something that they had in the second, especially in the second half of the games, they coughed the ball up, and they didn't do that. And they were able to line up and like, I don't need to say it again, but I we're all on the same page with that.”

On senior leadership and picking guys up after a loss….

“Yeah, I'm glad you asked that because after this loss, you got people who know that thing worked. Are you okay? Guys, we're fine. We're pissed. We were pissed. All right, you're let one game turn into two, right? You're gonna sit there and walk around with your head up your butt and woe is me. We got that out of us real quick on Tuesday when we got back out there, right? Tuesday, then Wednesday. That's not what this team is. I got zero concern with that, right? But I'm not gonna sit back and just play by chance either. Yesterday was a lot of good practice. It was summer camp-type practice. Today, kinda half and half. To lack confidence because you lose the game, that's nothing, that's not acceptable. That's not something I even think about with this team. So I told them, I said, the best thing that could happen to you, happened to you. Now you're saying that after the game. Of course, I'm not gonna say that before the game, but you have to really have your eyes open, ears open and know what we have to get done.”

On if the team has had a different mentality in practice…

“As opposed to what? Look, guys, we've had really good practices. We went out and played like absolute. You about got me censored there. We went out and played like crap. We didn't get the job done, right? We weren't in the right play positions. We weren't able to execute when the time came, right? You can't change that. We're not taking it back. I'm not gonna sit there and tell these guys and these coaches, well, it's because you didn't do this last week. Well, I stood up after practice and told everyone, Hey, we've had a good practice, a good week of preparation. Now, what happened between the mental part of it once we got punched in the mouth? All right, now that's different. That's what took place. I said that already after the game on Saturday. We lined up, we went out there and all three phases we got punched in the mouth, all right? And we didn't throw back as hard as we needed to. So there's no different mindset on the team. They got beat. We got beat. I got beat. It's on me. If I want people to blame, blame me. All right, don't blame each other. But when I say that, they gotta be able to be accountable too and look themselves in the face. And that's what this team is. They've got accountable young people on it, accountable leaders and move forward. I was trying to give her a good coach speak, but the name was right there.

On the run defense….

“Yeah, there are lot of things you can do. We've got to play full defense, right? There are things we'll change, things we're working on, we spent the last four days addressing.”

On if he cares about the College Football Playoff…

“Yeah, so I don't care about it right now. But maybe in the future. Again, it goes back to just, you guys do a phenomenal job in this day and age, right, of pushing information out for people to, for content and people to read. Mean, it is so hard to avoid it. Y’all know I try to. I try, but I don't have. I don't read social media, I don't read those things, I try to, but it's hard to. So we talked about the team the last couple of weeks. It's what makes college football great. If there were no writers and no reporters and you guys weren't doing those jobs and doing the jobs that y'all do. You wouldn't be reaching the millions and millions of people that our game does. I thank y'all for that. I thank y'all for the content y'all put out and the information, and taking the time to check facts and see if it's correct. Half of it's real, half of it's not. And you know what? It makes for a great form of entertainment. It really does. But the people who are performing are us. And we get it. That's what it is. We gotta live in truth, right? And right now, all that matters is how we perform, ten days from now, nine days from now. That's the world we have to live in because the rankings don't mean anything right now to us cuz it gets us nowhere, it helps us with nothing. I'd love to be able to sit back in what, four weeks, three or four weeks, and we'll be able to sit down and you guys can all come over to the house and we'll sit down and then we'll all watch the rankings together and see what happens. How about that?

On how the team can do well down the stretch…

“All right, you have to improve in everything. You have to continue to do what you're doing well, continue to do it well, play complementary football. If I could just roll it out there and say, hey, here's what we're gonna get better at, you'd probably be running football, stopping the run, creating turnovers, ball security, playing disciplined football, situational ball inside the five, third and short, fourth and shorts, third and longs. That's what we're focusing on: getting better.”

On if the approach is the same or different on a second bye week…

“Y'all have some such like in-depth questions about things that I've never thought of in my life, Dom. Threw it into the computer and spit out the things and we have to, now we're doing this amount of stuff this week. You have certain days that we're going to go out and practice. We tweak and alter and change the practice based on what we need. We're going to practice on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday regardless. Now it changes a little bit depending on when your game is the following week. Sometimes you have Thursday or Friday, or Saturday, depending on that. But the schedule is the same. The schedule is the same. What you do within that time, yeah, that changes. Going back to what you're self-scouting, you're recruiting. The amount of practice you need, the things you need to get done, yet you also have to get guys healthy and get them back. So it's all in all. You get in the back part of the season, right? That goes the same for any week.”

On the Josh Petty situation…

“No. Mike already put a comment out, the school put a statement out, and that's what we're going to stay with.”

On his name being floated for jobs….

“Flattering, it's awesome. Yeah, people have texted me, all of you got a bunch of new friends, people think you're up for jobs and stuff. People you haven’t talked to in five years in the profession, or texting you and calling you. What in the world is people calling me for right now? We lost the game on Saturday, I get it, yes, we gotta. Oh, Thanks, babe. Maybe I'm an idiot. It's flattering. It's flattering, but not for me, for this program. Since I came back here, since I was named the head coach here, Kelly, outside of time with my family, every waking second of my life is going towards building this program to get to the point that it is right now. So that in turn we can continue three years from now, five years from now, ten years from now, continue to elevate this place. To be in that conversation, not to be in there for two or three weeks, but to be a consistent team. Not when you lose one game, people say, the storybook's over. No, it's just beginning. I could go on and on, could say yes, no, all that crap. Slice me open and see what colors I bleed.”

On addressing it with the team…

“We laugh about it. We do with the team. Flattering, great. It's awesome, guys. You're hear it. Hey, guess what? I went and spoke in Birmingham on Monday. I did. Me and our deputy AD went to Birmingham, and I spoke at the touchdown or at the quarterback club. Come on, that's probably the other 50 % that I was talking about, though, right? They just kind of are unnamed sources or rumors or those things, right? So it's flattering. Probably a good idea to ask the thing. Oh, ask my wife. Ask my daughter. Come on now. Yeah, there you go. I appreciate y'all asking it, though. I appreciate y'all asking those hard jabbing questions.”

On Boston College…

“We're just getting into it. We've been focusing on ourselves right now. Yeah, we'll save that for next week. I've watched a couple of games, both sides of the ball, complete games, but I'm more into what we have to continue to improve on and who we are right now. Not the opponent yet. We still got some work we gotta clean up today.

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