The Four Most Interesting Things Head Coach Brent Key Said In His Tuesday Press Conference

What were the most interesting things head coach Brent Key had to say on Tuesday

Head Coach Brent Key | Photo Via Najeh Wilkins- Ga Tech On SI

Coach Key started the press conference by calling out his team and how it looked last Thursday night. He didn’t mince words. The biggest thing was that Coach Key just didn’t call out players he also put the onus on himself and the coaching staff. 

“We look as if we were poorly prepared, poorly coached, poor discipline,  soft football team.  And that was extremely black and white. And that's the way I have to be with this thing.  Okay.  And hope you guys appreciate the transparency that I'm going to give you guys right now, because as I sit up here and I take full responsibility, we've had four days of long meetings.

“There's shared responsibility.  There's an accountability that goes around as well.  On Sunday,  you normally have a team meeting or the staff meeting,  team meeting,  individual meetings, and watch previous games. I had one full meeting with staff, players and really just combine the staff meeting, the player meeting, and we watched the full game together. The TV copy, because you see a lot of things on the TV copy that you don't see on the coaches copy from, especially from a discipline standpoint. That's the thing I want to address right now is that it was not Georgia Tech football. That was not the team that I've talked about for the last eight months,” said Key. 

Another key part he hit on was getting back to the standard of what the Georgia Tech football program is and how the identity has been built. Now the big thing is getting back to that identity. 

“I think the key thing I said was on Thursday night that these same things were going to take place. It would have taken place if that ball had gone through the uprights. Right. This is not an out because of an outcome of losing. This is an outcome of not playing up to the standard that this program has created over the last four years, right?  And this team has built for themselves over the last eight months.  

“We've been in this position before here.  We've been in this position, right?  Of losing it. I don't want to lose a game. You kidding me?  But I sure don't want to have two or one turned into two.  All right.  I fully expect us to go out and play much, better football.  That's my expectation.  Now, my expectation was that the first game.  But gotta make that improvement between one and two now.That's the biggest thing right there,” said Key. 

Georgia Tech will have a tough offensive assignment going against a tough Tennessee bunch that has a good secondary and one of the best linebacking units in the country. The Volunteers made some wholesale changes and brought in one of the best defensive coordinators in the business in Jim Knowles whose experience spans from various successful tenures. Coach Key talked about the challenge he presents and the type of coach he is. 

“Jim Knowles is a really, really good defensive coordinator. He’s had a lot of success. From Duke to Oklahoma State to Ohio State and Penn State, he’s done a great job. Puts his players in position to make plays, right? Not real complicated appearing.  Then they play a really sound, fundamentally sound scheme and it fundamentally sound players and they're good players doing it so. Look,It'll be a challenge for us. We're excited about it. I'm excited about it. If anybody in this building it excited about it, they better go find a better be in,” said Key. 

Coach Key was very complimentary of Tennessee QB Faizon Brandon in his opening press conference. Brandon lit up Furman on Saturday in tune to tying a Tennessee freshman record with five touchdowns. He looked poised and was one of the biggest things Coach Key pointed to his poise 

“He is talented. He's a big man standing back there he can rip it. They're doing a good job of-The, I can imagine he will continue to do a good job of putting him in a position to make plays but not have to carry the whole thing, right?  He pulls it down and he can run the thing too.  He's a big joker.  But the poise he has, the command of the offense.Man,  he was impressive to watch reallyMan, he was impressive to watch, really, the first game.  But seeing him as a high school player coming up, you saw that, everyone saw that,” said Key.