2024 CFB Press Conference: Georgia Tech Head Coach Brent Key

first of all I just want to you tell you how excited we are as a football team U but the football team is the only part that comes over just for and play and uh compete on the field on Saturday this is really for all of Georgia Tech uh the Georgia Tech uh community of our alumni U the administration just worked so hard Josh Thompson our efo work put this on uh for for us as a football program uh but all of Georgia Tech has chance for us to Showcase Georgia Tech to let people see who we are but on a grander scale than that it's a chance to continue to take American football uh internationally uh learn more about other cultures other countries uh other countries learn more about our game but when you talk about coming to Ireland and who we are as a football team so many similarities in our program and really not only the city of Dublin but the entire country Blue Collar work uh strong family values uh all of those things that we really Encompass the football program too so I think it's a great opportunity for us to come here and uh have a chance to compete on Saturday um in a wonderful City and a wonderful country uh as you can see we did a little on the helmet to obv have our GT on it but we also added um me notel not not I was making sure what my something Shanahan would tell me that was like not the right thing I should say uh but no with that guys again we're extremely uh extremely happy to be here extremely fortunate to be here and that we open with any questions if you could raise your hand for questions we start coach first of all welcome to welcome to d h what has your message being to the players ahead of the game I can't tell you that uh go fight win uh we really our messaging starts way before the game it starts a week in advance uh and every day is a buildup really into the game day so it's it's a very intered uh long thing that we talked about but it's uh the end of the day we want our guys to compete we want our guys to you know play as hard as they can one play at a time um it's not about leing the scoreboard don't worry about the last play continue play each Play One play at a time as hard as we can and end of the game we'll see we'll see what happens Brent was it like having coach sa here I saw you talking to him before and having him do his first game you know doing his first game be year first game in the season that like yeah it's it's it's it's really cool uh for him to be here for him to see this next chapter his life uh I think everyone's excited to see that uh you with value he be able to bring uh to the network the to game day uh but on a personal level he he's a he's been a huge mentor to me he's been uh you know he's been a huge impact in in my coaching career and a lot of the things I do dayto day now uh as a head coach a lot of the things in our program um you there there's very very strong influence from him all over the georgeate football program so be able to see him talk to him U catch up on some some other things and football as great coach ke you've been over a few times already you know with Georgia Tech but also as a coach before as well is there anything you can take from those previous couple times coming over that can help your team maybe get an edge uh going into the game yeah I think anytime you you you start to stack experiences you learn from them right and you just to go about something and say well we're going do it the same way the next time you know no one stays the same you either get better to get worse so we're always looking to see different things we can tweak change uh adjust whether it be scheduling whether it be uh you know protocols lead in the game whether you the way we travel whatever it is but uh you there there's always things working to pick up on and adjust make better David into what to expect when you're here you say that one more time I'm from I'm from the south I'm from the south of the United States I'm from La it's not it's not Los Angeles it's lower Alabama has David Shanahan given you any insight into anything special that you might experience when you're here in Arland uh this is a wonderful country and a wonderful City but we're here to play a football game right we're on a very strict schedule being here the greatest experience we can have in in this great country is to go out with murday right and I'll bring them all back vacation later on fo when it comes to you know you talked about of the people sharing kind of the values um of Geor but when it comes to the football itself you want me start talking away on that talk yeah I'll so for you um than why in terms of the expansion of American football why Dublin serve as a good base to maybe move further into Europe and further around the world well I think it starts with the relationships of the two countries I mean the the relationship between Ireland and United States is as strong as anything uh it's a you know from tourism to trade to um you people living you moving uh it's it's a very strong relationship between the two countries so um why would we not be able to share uh among other things we already do on my share our our Sports what is it you look out for in a player I suppose there's any young players listening today who have dreams of playing American football someday well every position is different there's a lot of positions on the team but for the most part you know minus the uh Specialists were the kicker punters uh they're a little different in terms of the abilities that they bring uh you know majority of the punters kickers uh in the United States have strong soccer backgrounds um they you know they've been this small kicking kicking the ball and that's where they develop the leg strength and the techniques to do those things uh but really I I could go over those things for uh for 30 minutes about different positions but if I had to say one thing toughness right the toughness that that players have to have uh to play the game of football um big strong you know big strong smart tough guys have pretty good success so but every play every position is different but the the toughness we have to have has to bealed in each individual player in order to be a successful football team time for a couple more will bring players and back here how important is it for you and your coaches to try and make this look like a normal game day you said the most important thing is the win on Saturday but obviously with the travel how much preparation have you and your coach staff had to put into that as a coaching staff this is no different than any other game right we we we play games at home we play games on the road uh it's the administration it's the operations speaking of I see John Palumbo up there uh you know one of our administrators who's done a fantastic job uh Mike Flynn I already mentioned Josh Thompson the job that he has done uh from operation standpoint in football program they put so many hours and so much time into this trip in order for us as football coaches to be able to maintain a noral schedule and that's why I'm so appreciative and all of us as coaches and all of our players are so appreciative because at the end of the day our job is to come over here prepare a football team to come play a football game right and hopefully come out Victorious and so they've done a great job of allowing me to do that and then in turn our staff to do that so other than uh being on a flight a little bit longer than we would some other times that's it is and um you know not a whole lot different than East Coast West Coast United States has it been different for your players kind of coming internationally and how you've seen them versus previously when you've just gone East Coast West Coast had passports seriously I mean these kids I said this in a press conference the other day that new college football game out right they stay play that thing all night long and then they go to practice then they go to uh class all day they're 18 20 22 years old they're going to do those things regard so it's not it's not a lot different we got off the plane they're full of energy they're smiling U you know people watching as we're on the bus we had really good energy and focus in the practice today so uh to make it as normal as possible for those kids is what our job is else okay we'll take the two in the back and then we'll sure thanks very much there's a few guys who were playing college football and NFL Charlie Smith New Orleans from County down youve also Jack playing college football you have J Mami as well you David within your own ranks a lot of people from Ireland looking at this as a sport whereas maybe previously that was something they did across the water there's a pathway there now something you oh yeah and really our sport in the United States the the international part of it and expansion of the sport internationally really started it has started uh NFL has really embraced it NFL's embraced coming uh overseas and going to different countries to play um I mean it was 10 years ago that I came here with uh with UCF we played we played Penn State here in 2014 and just to see the growth in knowledge of the game of football in this country right the growth in people that will be at the game I don't know what the exact crowd number was 10 years ago but it might say something on paper but I know what I saw with my own eyes you to to walk out there on Saturday and see what 51,000 in in the stadium that's going to be amazing and uh it's a it's a cool thing to witness and see and be a part of because it is the expansion football American football across the back the offse emphasis for was to protect the football can you kind of assess how much that message has been taken to Heart how much you can still play with ability stay your confidence confence yeah we a played a game yet so we'll know once we play a game no I mean he's done a tremendous job in practice we going against each other uh we know where we are relative to each other we'll see on Saturday we all relative to a team uh you you know that that's the beauty of football is you play an entire season okay it's not one season you look at right every game we look at to improve from that previous game right and take it the next week and the next week and the next week when you look at the entire season see improvements then you see Valu you see here then you see here right as long as it's doing this and not this you're making progress like I said earlier you either get better or you get worse no one stays the same we're constantly trying to improve right we're trying to improve ourselves individually and then collectively as a football team I can't predict what will happen in the future I can't predict what will happen on Saturday right I can't predict what will happen during the season if I look at the past is a pretty good predictor of it I know in my head how how going play no okay can I uh you said you said you weren't def but have you let the players try black pudding yet okay so first off before we go there I love the way he started to and you just kept you just asking you jumped in you jumped in you took you took the bu out of horn so um you talk what black pudding you said you weren't the fan but have you let the players try it yet the blood sausage oh I know I do not want to be disrespectful because I love this country right I love coming here there's so many things about this country that that I enjoy back in the United States your pig sausage blood whatever it ain't one of them it's not I'm sorry there's things I don't like I don't like I don't like little green be English bees those little things those little green beas I don't like those either and they're in the US but like I despise it like I said I'm from the south we eat grits and biscuits and eggs and bacon and our sausage is round and Dr from a pig I'm just not a fan of it but David absolutely loves it and swears by it he also told me about a saying that was about pigs flying and something so on the pig's back yes about flying on the pig's back and he thought I was going to go come over here six months ago and tell everybody that and when I talked to some people that I really trust they told me what it meant he set me up he totally set me up so he's right there waiting to come talk to y'all so again appreciate you guys go jackets thank you