Five Most Important Things From Georgia Tech Head Coach Brent Key's Media Availability On Tuesday

Georgia Tech head football coach Brent Key met with the media on Tuesday after practice. Here are five most interesting things he had to say.

Evaluating Alberto Mendoza

Quarterback Alberto Mendoza was a heavy emphasis in the questioning by the media in the press conference. One of the main things was how he was evaluated in the portal and what the process was like. Coach Key went into detail about how he approached it and about bringing in Mendoza.

“It’s such an inexact science with the transfer portal because you have such a small, small window to make decisions on guys. You talk to high school coaches where he has played competitively, other people on the team, coaches. I mean, we try to leave no stone unturned when it comes to the evaluation, especially at that position.

People that know him, your friends, just competitive makeup—there are so many things that go into it, and it’s such a short period of time. His was such a turnaround—wham, bam—and there are three schools on him. You’re fighting your butt off to get the first visit, right? Then you’ve got really a 24-hour window to ask all the questions,” said Key.

“That’s really my trust in the staff, my reliance on the staff, because as we’re vetting guys out, they’re interviewing us and we’re interviewing them. It’s a two-way street when it comes to that. It is a different take than it is in high school, although I do think high school recruiting has become more professional over the last year. I do. But you have to ask the right questions. You have to ask the hard questions. You have to call as many people and talk to as many people as you can. You have a chance to sit down with his parents—the type of people they are, the character and makeup of the family, the values that they have and the intelligence factor.

You put it all together, and then you cross your fingers and hope like hell that you get it right. By the time those guys really get to me, we’ve had plenty of guys come through on visits and meetings, and they don’t even get to me. The coaching staff might say, ‘Hey, they don’t fit us.’ They might be a great player, they might be a great talent, but they don’t fit what we’re looking for at that position. That was the case with a lot of the different guys we looked at.

I was pretty dead set that I wanted a quarterback with multiple years. That was a big, thing that I wanted because I think it’s hard to build your program. How many times have I said it? Quarterback is the most important position in all of sports, right? To be a one-and-, one-and, one-and —I haven’t figured out how to do it that way yet. I like to have guys that you can develop and pour into. A lot of it is the character and makeup of Georgia Tech, the shared adversity that takes place in that locker room, and having the main guy—the signal-caller—be a guy who has gone through that with the other ones. The brotherhood, the bonds—those are all things that I was looking for at that position.”

Mendoza’s Intelligence

Another big thing that has been talked about is the volume of plays the Yellow Jackets will run this season in the George Godsey offense, and if Mendoza would be able to handle it.

“He’s got command. He knows where all 10 guys are supposed to be and where all 11 guys on defense are supposed to be. But at the end of the day, you say these things, and he still has not started a college football game. He’s a sophomore, right? He’s going to take his lumps and his bumps. That’s on us as coaches not to have to put the whole thing into the arsenal to start.

“But what you don’t want to do is get to Game 2, Game 3, Game 4 or Game 5—or worse than that, get to the second quarter—and say, ‘Hey, I want to run this play. This is a complement to this. This is an adjustment we need to make,’ and you can’t put it in, or you’re trying to put it in on Tuesday night.

We put a lot of volume in, yeah. Once we put the game plan together, the volume will be really pared down for each individual game plan,” said Key.

George Godsey Being the Offensive Coordinator

One of the major moves this offseason for the Yellow Jackets was bringing in offensive coordinator George Godsey, who came from the NFL after Buster Faulkner left for Florida. Godsey now will run a lot of plays, and they have both been in sync on getting the program to where they want it to go.

“A lot of experience together. We know each other. It just feels natural. It feels natural. This is somebody that—five years in college and roommates—and then we go on and work for Coach O’Leary for so long together. He goes off and, for the last 15 years, has been in the NFL. But it’s not like we hadn’t talked or seen each other.

“We spent a day in the summer together and talked all the time—talking ball. Look, we weren’t calling to ask how each other were doing when we talked over these years. Probably two or three nights a week.

At the end of the day me and George are 100 percent aligned on one thing, and that’s winning at Georgia Tech. Having the best players we can possibly get and playing the best football we can possibly play, unselfishly, in order to win a football game.

Probably the coolest thing about it has been that he sees the game the way I do. I see the game the way he does because of the way we were brought up—whether it be staffing, whether it be the delegation of work among the staff and the young guys, and how we’re developing young coaches,” said Key.

A major playmaker on the backend

One of the big names to watch this season on the back end is Tae Harris. Harris played a good bit as a freshman but will now assume a starter role and is expected to have a breakout season for the Yellow Jackets. Coach Key talked about his leadership and defensive qualities that should mold him into a top player. Harris will now get to show the world how special he is.

“He’s a guy, back at the beginning of the year in January and February, that we really wanted to be in a leadership position. But again, we were trying to put him in some of those roles, and then you’d see it kind of fall back.Well, he’s a perfect example of once you stop trying to force-feed leadership to somebody, you start to see who the leaders are. He goes from doing this to going—you flip the palms back over and play the next play, right?

I’ve been very pleased with him. Very pleased with Tae. Love that kid. He’s an unbelievable kid. Going on three years now—last year and the year prior recruiting him. He’s one who should have played more last year. He should have played a lot more last year. Look, that’s on me. But that won’t happen this year. Tae will be out there.He’s explosive. He’s fast. He’s a great communicator. He’s really improved from that standpoint of communication.I think, also, he’s been playing next to Savion really every day now for, what, 30-something practices? That continuity they’re starting to have—and then the other guys in the back end.

I look at DBs like the O-line in that there are five guys out there. They all have to play together and they all have to communicate. The difference is they play sideline to sideline; the O-line plays in a box.

“The continuity of those guys, moving guys around now, creates our best five on the field at all times, regardless of any type of injuries or anything that might happen.”

Matchup vs Colorado

Georgia Tech is about a week away from a major matchup against Colorado, has already sold out tickets, and expects a major crowd. The buzz around Georgia Tech is real, both among the fans and the team. It hasn't reached nationally yet, but a major win against the Buffaloes could turn the tide. Coach Key previewed the matchup and how the Yellow Jackets will prepare.

“Look, it’s going to be a hard-fought football game. They’ve got new coordinators. We have new coordinators. Who is going to be the best at what they do and their base? You talk about influences from the old heads—from Coach O’Leary, Coach Saban, Coach Friedgen and all those guys. You go into the first game, you’d better be good at your base offense, defense and special teams because you really don’t know what the other side is going to do.

“We threw a little bit at them today—a couple of teach periods, just a few things. I’m not a believer in practicing for the opponent two weeks prior. I want to keep it as much of a normalized game week as possible, especially in the first game because of the unknowns. If you go out there and guess that you’re going to see something, and they play something totally different—and you’ve practiced for two weeks on it—it’s just wasted reps. But we threw a couple of things at them, a couple of periods today. We’ll throw a couple more tomorrow. Then Thursday, they’ll meet—no practice. Friday, we’ll start in full board. We’ll deliver the scouting reports to them on Thursday morning in meetings,” said Key.

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