JOL TV: Brent Key talks about Tech’s win over FSU 24-21 in Ireland

everybody good really excited for the for the players you what they were able to accomplish tonight um we set our goals going into the going into the season and they really have nothing to do with the outcome of the football game we all know that's what we want to occur but U our goal is to go out and play every play as hard as we can possibly play not with the school board and a lot of times people hear that think it's kind of Coach talk but uh it's starting to be engrained in who we are uh they're starting to understand that the players are happy geia tech fans alumni everybody out there that that came to support us here uh it was a special game uh special game uh for the ACC really good game in in the league um to be able to have defending conference Champs on the stage tonight in the ACC and to be able to uh showcase what the league is in competitive good football right and I know we have a really good uh you know marketing slogan in our league it talks about the league of the quarterback and whatnot right I think you can add the line of scrimmage to that too and that's where big games were want at the line of scrimmage and I'm really proud of the the offensive line shocking that right really proud of those guys uh and how they were prepared you know the defense you once they settled in Tyler s too cheap and I hadn't said a word about it I just kind of I told our team and really that's that's what matters our team we're not trying to prove anything to anyone not trying to go out and impress people all we're doing is trying to play as hard as we can possibly play together U as a team as a family we have in that locker room and we I I was confident this week I was confident because of the plan that was put together and the progress I've teen made really from the start of the year until now and really proud of the way those guys settled in after that first drive uh we're able to uh Tyler settle down with some calls and able to play assignment football get off blocks I thought they're playing fast so again didn't turn the ball over had three penalties one of them onlo comes free gets the unfortunate face anything intentional uh the way it came across we got to we got to coach him to keep those hands lower so that doesn't happen um then uh the miles had the the pi DPI on deep ball and we had one F start on the offensive line but uh all in all it was a clean game for the first game of the season and that's what you want to see you want to be a limit your mistakes self-defeating errors uh and we want to play for 60 minutes we want to build football team has committed themselves individually and in the team and we talk about execution with our football team what execution is that that's the confidence to go make a play right whether you're a quarterback whether you're a offensive lineman and balls on one yard line and they're going to run behind you uh whether you're a corner making a play on a ball in a man-to-man situation or you're a kicker at the end of the game to win the football game and we had our final walk through yesterday the last play we had in the walk through uh was a field goal and I stopped it brought them together and said guys this game's going to come down to a field goal this is your last rep of perfection before we go to the game total confidence in Aiden B what a football player he is what a football player and when I say that I don't I don't say that lightly now he's a football player he's on leadership he does that all the time and missed one earlier a long one and you talk ice his now he came up to good I don't care the ball is just put it down make it and the confidence for him so again U credit to to Mike having his team come over here have prepared to come here and play football game but really happy for our people really happy for the ACC um and what this league is and for other people to see that as well so enjoy this tonight we got an early meeting tomorrow morning before we head back home we'll get back home around 2:30 go straight to the weight room lift stretch and stride um have meetings uh head outside practice they'll be back in class on Monday uh then we'll get ready to go we have game next Saturday right back so again um appreciate everyone's Hospitality here what an unbelievable experience this has been for us as a football team uh as an entire uh institution it's been a great experience to and and share our game with everyone here so again I just want to thank everyone for the hospitality just really excited rest of season wake up tomorrow morning that take questions for questions we St back here you know Tyler talked to the defense last night he said 166 days ago the journey and he told him their only goal was to be the best version of the 2024 Georgia Tech defense that they could be not be anything more than that um last night was the first meeting I set in with the full defense and that was an intentional thing I wanted those guys to understand the confidence I had in Tyler sanui and his staff and last night I said in that meeting I stood up and when it was over and I told those guys I cannot wait to see y'all go out on that field play one and we talk about there's going to be setbacks there's going to be obstacles to overcome U it's not about that it's about playing the next play about playing the next play success and failure are really one and the same they can both be distractions too and you got to stay in the moment play the next play and I thought that's what they did tonight I was and huge credit to Tyler and his staff and the plan you put together you know the plan's great but you you don't build a type of you don't build that type of resiliency unless early and starts throughout the whole year so really happy to have him have him part of Georgia Tech being a yellow ja BR it seems like you've had a quiet confidence about this team going into the year and and you always have had led your teams to not be too big for the Moment Like You the opponent's not too big it's just a game on the schedule how much do you think that factored in and how how much is this kind of showing the confidence you had going on your team going into the season you know you you build confidence you going against each other and the confidence really came from seeing the defense progress over the you know throughout spring practice throughout the summer throughout the training camp I I thought our offensive line played a good game tonight they I punched in the face for a week and a half training camp we we couldn't get a yard on the ground and uh so that that that built confidence you know in this football team um you know we added a lot of dep we play a lot of guys defense tonight play a lot of guys played their first football game right first meaningful snaps in a football game on that side of the ball and that's only going to help us but with mistakes mistakes right those guys now have have playing time you know as a coach a lot of times when it gets into a really tight football game you get nervous about those rotations having a guy in there you necessarily what what the starter um he stuck to the plan Tyler stuck to the plan kept those guys coming in those those guys better players uh for it this season coach key you spoke about confidence in your defense I was wondering the decline that P call Early in the game on Third and five or six is that a manifestation of that confidence yeah and he really kind that no man's land on the field too uh um you know you have to know your team but you also have to know your opponent you have to know what your opponent's Tendencies are you have to know they play the game um I won't get into everything about it but you know there's a it's part of part of the football game and look that that's a roll that's a rooll the dice deal right there now sure right I mean that that's one if you look up you know ask a 100 experts on it you probably get 50/50 you back them up or you you know take away the down U and I thought right there at that time that eliminate the down was right coach you made a point in the build of this game of not making a big deal about the fact that this game is being played in Ireland and come all the way across the Atlanta to play it how much does that mentality feed into the result that you got on the field tonight I think it does uh I would like to think it does I'm sitting here in Dublin Ireland right now and I couldn't tell you the difference if I'm sitting in uh tallas Florida Atlant Georgia or chapi it's when when you are really coaching a team and training a team be with the feet are it doesn't matter where you play um you it doesn't matter how you get there once you're there you're there Thursday was a Thursday no different than a Thursday at home Friday was a Friday no different than a Friday at home Saturday it's game day right tomorrow we'll wake up we travel back uh only difference really is we're traveling tomorrow morning as opposed to tonight and I mean tomorrow be we'll be a practice be practice and working out tomorrow so uh we came over here 10 years ago uh and played a football game first of all I want to say to this entire country wow what a difference that time span has made in the Love of the Game the understanding of the game uh people embracing the game uh huge huge and credit to the people that have uh been putting this game on uh and how they have increased the popularity of it throughout the entire country uh but when we came over 10 years ago you know we did a lot of the things we went to uh went to the downtown or uh went to the the old jail we went to you know Guinness we did a lot of those things okay this was this is I changed that mentality we were're able to see the place interact with the people I told him before the game they said we'll come back another time and do those things they're probably going to hold to it now just curious if you talk a little bit about your running backs Chad Alexander there's a guy that you talked about in the spring walk- on guy and can you just talk about how he's kind of blossomed into a guy that played a huge role in this game and Jamal too how he's uh you know continues to to thrive for you yeah you know he's really a great example of who we are as a football team we got a lot of guys that aren't big enough you fast enough you know I been overlooked at another school and decided to come here you know it who we are right and it's uh that's who these guys were building themselves into and Chad Chad's up 185 lbs now he does Run 10 three he can roll now but he he wasn't that that was impressive he was running between the tackles and pushing the B and you know just the resiliency that he showed and the toughness that he showed uh that was his first Carry in a football game first car he get he's getting positive yards he's falling forward well those are the same things we saw in the scrimmages you know I told the team this is in our first game of the season y'all played against each other twice already we know who we are right now it's time to go out and have the confidence go out and play so that's what he was doing uh doing all all preseason C so really happy for CH is there anything that you learned about your football team throughout this week whether it be the travel the mentality of the team heading into the game or even something from the game that you took away as a real positive from this week you know once I sit down I'll I'll have more time to think about that there's always Lessons Learned there's Lessons Learned in good image lessons AR bad just because can I ask who that was J that was my can't say too much oh you want day uh what we what what can't happen is you know say we used to talk a lot about you never waste any failure right well you also can't waste these because that ball goes one way or the other in the last play we don't win the football game that doesn't change the first 60 Minutes of the game right well if you lose the game now you can be different and going back when you're addressing the mistakes and the things you have to get better at you have have to be the same and when we see those mistakes when we see those things those are things we have to we have to address and we have to we have to correct we have to fixed um but I I I don't think I learned anything from a from a mindset standpoint I think it just confirmed it time for a couple more k um on the mandles shotgun snap what happened there and then you know theing play like won't we try to get back is that half full or half empty guys K I would expect nothing less out of be my friend no uh so we are we are a motion I mean obviously right we're a motion shift football team uh and we have a lot of different receivers running those motions right and for for a defense it's really hard when that ball is snap right cuz you don't know the the window dressing the the I takes place so we worked really hard to get that timed up exactly right and the timing of it was a little bit off uh you know and ended up on the ground so he was able to get it back um we had a couple snap issues like we had the one that uh earlier in the football game it was a low left snap U usually that comes from not following through that's something we can fix there's there's a there's proba there's hundreds of things we have to correct and fix in that football game and then that like the uing play we think we want to get to the 33 or 30 or did you have point in mind this is what we wanted yeah so the way the wind was blowing in the stadium it didn't feel a lot but it was a huge difference going south than it was going north the open open ended Stadium it was coming in that way which is kind of what we expected um you know the kick line from the going into the open end uh was around a 30 35ish right at 35 probably could push it to 38 with Aid leg um if it was a game on the line type situation now going the other way it was a 40 you know 40 to 42 Mark that we were looking at and obviously they they were looking at the exact same Mark I they have this that kicker has the same leg that Aiden does um we count short on our than Miss Stars they hit theirs right before halftime going into the south end of the stadium but I don't know mean you see me there was a lot of conversation between me and a uh leading up to that really the whole game because you know it didn't take long in a football game but it's going to be a close game right when you start looking at possessions you have three possessions in the first half of the game right now a sudden there's you know there's 11 minutes on the clock in the fourth you know okay we're going to get the ball back one more time after this I think it was six and a half minutes left six whatever it was six something left from the clock and we got the ball back so you're playing all right yeah let's let's score this year way if you're not going to take a knee on one yard on field to score because a tie ball game a little different if you're up when you're winning but U we also wanted to take time off the clock right we knew they had all three timeouts plus the new uh the two-minute timeout is factored into it um so we were able to hold our timeouts not waste them and get the ball to where it needed to be yeah man that that ball fluttering back behind oh no oh no oh no but you got to have confidence in your players you have to you can't just say you have confidence in them all week and then get scared that they're not going to do uh do their job when the game's on the line okay time for a couple more we'll uh start did you have one in the back I'm sorry yeah y y you know earlier the week asked about a just whether or not he kind of he the lessons about protecting the football and you said we'll find out one game just thewi for him to figure things out that moment on that b snap and just throughout the game sort of metal you show is that something that you've known or that grow development yeah again you know you know what you know about your football team when it goes uh uh against each other and once you play play a different opponent you'll find out so U you the amount of times that he took off and ran and scrambled right when he saw a crease or whatnot but he didn't try to force the ball right you know I thought Buster did a really good job too of calling uh some of those those plays on third down to get Guys open and to play main coverage U we going into the game get new left tackle out there they got pretty good pass ressure and so you know you look at the timing of all those things H HS did a really good job protecting the football right reserving the right to kick uh and putting us in position to win the game if you want you mentioned back practice tomor concus have 10,000 things in my head spinning right now that we have to make sure we get to in the mindset and how we're going to talk to what we're going to do you love team meum at 7:30 tomorrow morning talk about the game soon as this is over I'm heading back and start watching the film and gring it U close out the game as quick as we can and and be able to move on the others there's a lot of things in your head to go uh we talked about at first we learned how not to lose we talked about we learned how to win the next step in this journey is learning how to win consistently okay the team that I believe we have we'll go back to we'll go back to work the good thing is yeah we got a six or seven hour plane guide to be able to make sure we get that message across awesome thank you coach appreciate you than coach