Everything From Brent Key After Georgia Tech's Second Spring Scrimmage

Opening Statement….

“As far as game goes, uh last week we ones, twos and threes and went back and forth on that play. Today, we just went to ones and twos, rolled threes in with the second group, but uh wanted to get a really complete game out of it. We went over 100 with the two groups, which I think we were about 55, 60 plays each, when you put everything in there. So I wanted to get close to a full game. You can really see where we're at. Every practice or every scrimmage, there's different factors that you're dealing with, and you really see where your team's at. And today was a little bit, it was sunny. Last week was overcast, the day was sunny and got a little warmer as it went on. I thought we had a balanced day.

It was good on both sides. It was bad on both sides. But I told the staff last Monday. I said everything we're pissed off about today, everything we gotta correct, everything we have to fix, everything we have to do better. right, next Monday, we cannot be mad, pissed off, and trying to fix the same things. We have to correct those. So we have a whole other list of things we're pissed off about. So moral of that is, you should always be pissed off on a Monday after the script, right? But I thought we did. I thought we corrected a lot of things from last week that we had to improve on. Our operation from the sideline to the field was much, much cleaner. Pre snap penalties, really so much better on that. Execution, uh everything that happens before the snap. Substitutions, all that, alignments were much better there. And that was with opening, uh we opened up a little bit more in the first half, in the second half, it was a more complete playbook to this point. Wanted to see those guys get execute, not just base offense and defense. And I thought we had some good things show Mendoza, who had three touchdowns today. Gavin Harris had two of them, and Jordan Allen had another.

Dalen Penson had a couple of big catches. There are a couple more that would have really, I mean, he'd had a huge, huge day. He won on a go route down the sideline and couldn't pull it in. There was another one that he couldn't cross the middle and make those two catches. You have a monster day and. I thought the quarterbacks did a nice job of throwing the deep ball. We got to pull them in and make the plays. I have all the confidence in the world today to be able to make those plays. He's made them throughout the spring and he's done a good job. we're throwing the deep ball well. Now we got to be consistent coming down with it. But I think we're about 50%,maybe little less than 50 % on the deep ball today. I'd like to be much, much higher than that, as well as the quarterbacks and those who are throwing the thing.

I thought he was a lot more comfortable out there, in the second scrimmage. A lot more comfortable just running the show, taking what the defense gave him. I think the first drive of the game, offense came out really good in energy. I think it was about eight plays, eight or nine plays. It was like a five, three, five, four run pass split right there. George called it very balanced and kind of very completion-driven throws. We're able to execute and go down the field. Right, next time up defense bowed their next bag. Right, offense didn't have the same energy coming out on the field, and it shows. When you get penalties within a drive, those are killers, okay? There was a couple of balls that cut back against the grain or bounced outside in the run game and those were holding penalties waiting to happen. We had a couple of holding penalties, which brought us back. So we got to eliminate those things. Those come with the coaching, the technique, moving your feet, running your feet, not just being in quicksand and letting guys work to get off the blocks. Credit the defense for working to get off the block.

Defensively on the front, I thought 95 (Tawfiq Thomas), Noah Carter, Jordan (Walker). I thought they did a really good job in there. uh The young kid, man, (Christian) Speakman, he's really playing much older than he is. You tell a guy looking at the flat wall of the line of scrimmage, push the pocket in pass rush. Christian Garrett, I thought, had a nice job. We went around a lot of games today just to see, really, from a protection standpoint, where we were at. And then, from a pass rush standpoint, who are we? Are we gonna be a straight rush team? Are we gonna be a game team? Are we gonna mix it up? We have to bring pressure.

We wanna be able to evaluate those things. I thought those guys did a good job on the back end. Daiquan (White), Bach (Jaylen Mbakwe), Fenix Felton had a good day, showed up on some really good tackles out there. And the guy that keeps catching my eye out there, Kealan Jones, he just keeps showing up, whether it be a solid, really good tackle in space, whether it be in coverage, support, knowing what to do. He's progressing a lot. Up front, I thought the guy that made huge, huge strides this week was uh Joe Ionata. I thought he made massive strides. Will Reed

But it was good for those things. We still have a lot of work to do tackling. I think we're still trying to tackle too low. Those end up being missed tackles, especially in the back end, diving at shoestrings. Boogie got after them pretty good over there. They came out in the second half and did a better job. That's where I saw Fenix and Kealan really show up there. I spoke to the offense at the halfway mark and told them, kind of played it out for them. Hey, look, really good when you have the energy, and everybody's in it, and then energy leads execution. They came out in the second half, and I thought they had a good feel, good energy again. So all in all, I thought we had a competitive scrimmage. It's a lot of good film for us as coaches to look at and see where we're at and know what we have to stress and do this week and these next few practices we have left. This is not a take-it-off week. This is not a, we scrimmage the spring games on Saturday. We had a lot of work to do, really, to solidify our foundation going into the off-season, into the summer program of where we're at.”

On the injuries and if the team is banged up…

“We're banged up. I mean, that's the nature of spring. Obviously, in the season, the work to get them back and play-ready is different from what it is in spring. Spring is about developing the depth of your roster. So anytime a guy's down, and we have a freshman in there, a new guy in there, a young guy that hadn't played many meaningful reps yet, and they get a chance to go out there and get good live scrimmage work or get really good practice work, that's a major added bonus, actually. So we got a lot of guys out there in black shirts, and a couple guys got banged up today, nothing serious, but that's football. That's also why you come out in spring, and you tackle and your physical practices because you have to callus your body for those things. Whether it be holding on to the football in traffic and getting banged around. I thought Mbawke made a really good play on the ball today. There were two guys fighting for it going down, and they fought for it and ended up ruling it an interception by him. With him and Jordan both fighting for it as they're going down. So there's a lot of competition out there, but guys are going to get banged up. We're gonna get them healthy. But also in spring ball, we're gonna make sure that we get these guys back healthy for that summer too.”

On the linebacker position and what it standing out…

“You know (Braylon) Outlaw was doing a really good job and got the daggum flu this week.

Had an upper respiratory infection and was out for a couple of days. We planned on moving him up and working him with the ones, right? Not to say he's a starter right now, but working with the ones to see how he reacts. That's what spring is for. We get guys in those spots and see how they play with a different guy next to them, an older guy next to him. I thought Cayman (Spaulding), early in spring, had a setback we had to address. I think he's come back as a much better version of himself. He's got to learn to play without becoming emotional within a place. And we had to make a strong act on it early in the spring.

But again, that's what spring is for, to find out how guys play in those situations and to be able to fix those things. That's what coaching is. That's why we all coach, to clean those things up. Kyle has played a lot of football here. Boogie's got Kyle playing a really, really good football right now. Playing true to himself, um putting him in position to do what he does best, ah the way we're playing backers.He's really understanding. Boogie's such a great teacher. Man, he's a great teacher at that position. We got a lot of defense in, a lot of tweaks within the defense. The guys pick it up. Now today, when we started unloading the playbook on them, now you see guys, oh crap. Now the multiples start increasing, right? Now it's not just a situational or segmented type period. Now the offense has a lot of stuff in, so a lot of good coaching, a lot of good teaching that we must improve on this week.”

On how to have consistent energy throughout the team…

“Everybody starts with me, starts with the coordinators, the assistant coaches, and goes down into the players, the leaders on the team, and then the freshmen have been here for 12 practices. You know, that's really how it goes. You can't let external factors, whether it's people in the stadium, not in the stadium, a practice field at the stadium, all those things dictate the type of energy you have. Have you ever hit your snooze button? Have you hit snooze before? In the mornings? All right, don't do it again. Some days you don't feel as good as others, right, when you get out of bed. You got 200 people out there on that field, and you've got coaches, staff, and players all out there. Somebody hit their snooze that day. Needs to be encouraged. We've all done it. He misses half the stuff because he just turns the alarm clock off. So when you put it in those terms, it's easy to understand, right? It's easy to feel because these guys also stay up and work and do projects and study. That's one of the things I've always told coaches, before you jump a guy that might be tired, know what time of the semester it is, is it midterms?

Are they getting ready? Are they all studying for big tests coming up? Not that it makes it okay, but at least you understand why, right? And you can help them with it when you address it. Now, it's staying up late at night playing video games, that's on them. Energy was much better than it was last week, much better than last week. Again, it's never gonna be perfect, right? But I'm sure gonna try to get it there. That's our job, There's a difference in energy and out there being a cheerleader, right? We have a great group of cheerleaders that come every Saturday to our games. I don't need coaches and players being cheerleaders. I need them having energy. How do you see energy when you take the field, when you run off the field? How you effort to the football? If we huddle, how we break the huddle?

That's what I look at communication, how loud and confident the communication is. That all comes back to the energy. They come off the field, they're going to sit on the bench and just kind of doing this or they all, they get the water, standing up and they're watching the other group and behind the other group. Are they out there talking trash to each other? Not the other side of the football, but each other, hey, you want that. Not bad trash, but when the D-tackle is talking to defensive end, hey, I got him on this, I got him on this, mean, that's energy. All right, when people are talking to huddle center walks in, hey, that's his huddle. Everybody shut up. All right, that's energy. All right, that's leadership. All those things. And that's really what I'm looking a lot of during these practices or during these scrimmage situations.”

On moving players around this spring…

“Yeah, he's playing guard. We're working him some at center. during the practice, he's just playing a guard. Move Jaedyn over. Look, I said that back in January. I was gonna take guys and move them around this year. We moved Devontae Smith to corner during spring ball one year to develop the depth on the team. You don't know how the season's gonna play out. None of us do. We might need another running back. We might need another corner. You don't know those things; you might need another offensive lineman or defensive lineman. This is the time to do that. My comfort level in sitting in this chair and confidence in the program have allowed those things to be easy to do now. I'm not really worried about what guys want to do; I'm worried about what's best for the football team and building the depth. People have the best depth in November and December, the ones who will continue to play the longest, too. So you never know when you're gonna need those. It might be depth position on a scout team where you're a little bit better on that scout team in November, and you're making that other guy cross from that much better, right? It all matters.”

On the TE room and what is standing out…

“(Spencer) Mermans been out since first couple of days. He hyper extended his knee. And uh so he's down on those day to day, week to week things that he probably can come back this next week. But it's also, I don't want to risk somebody for one or two days of practice to miss it for another two to three weeks in the summer, right? ah Gavin's had a big day. I think he's gotten better. He's got to continue to work on his blocking. He's a good receiver. When he gets open, you've got to continue to work on his releases and understanding the coverage and how we want run the routes. I think Kevin (Roche) has really improved this spring. Kevin's got high, high ceiling as a football player. He's 6'7", 265 pounds, can run, can block, bend. He's a total package, he's a tight end. I would dare to say we have more people coaching that position right now than anywhere in the country, Holding them to a very, very high standard of what we've got to get done. Whether it be blocking the run game, routes, route technique, pad level, pad level in his routes. Run after the catch, he had a really good day today, but he a really good day. uh (Chris) Corbo got a hamstring back in off season times, kind of fighting coming back.

He's been back out there last week. We get to see him out there. He got a Charlie Horse today on something. He actually was wearing his pants. I'm like some guys who will wear them all the way up. I mean, that position is, you know, we've got a lot of guys there, but that's also a position that's banged up. You know Blake Ragsdale has been very serviceable for us. You know, done some really good things out there. I know I'm missing somebody. Yeah, he's (Nathan Agyemang) trying to figure it out. He's trying to figure it out right now. These guys played receiver, really making that transition to really full time to a tight end, a true tight end. He's got to continue to develop. He's got a lot of reps in a really good form. He's gonna make it when summer training camp gets here, it's gonna make it that much better. But a lot of these freshmen, they gotta get in the weight room. That line of scrimmage is hard to play on. There are some big men across the room. They're trying to line up a block.”

On Kealan Jones and his versatility…

“We got people there. I mean, they're all versatile. Maybe he's playing safety. He's a safety. Tae is playing two spots. Let's let him learn how to crawl and then get up off of these and start walking, maybe jogging a little bit before we put him in that full thing. He's practiced 11 days, 12 days now. So, just go and say he had a good day, but it doesn't mean he's Ronnie Lott out there yet. I mean, he's not there yet. He made a couple of good plays today. So, he's really talented, very conscientious kid. Down the road could he? I don't know, maybe if we need it. We got some other guys in those positions that are doing a nice job. I think Kelvin's been one of the most consistent best players of the entire spring at Nickel. Developing depth there with Tae playing it. Elgin, have a couple corners down. So you have to move guys around. But Elgin's got us moving around right now. But he's also been here for a year. He settled into what he's doing at the spot he's at. Tay's been here for a year, so we can move him around a little bit.