Postgame Press Conference: Head Coach Brent Key (August 24, 2024)

really excited for the for the players you know and what they were able to accomplish tonight uh you know we set our goals going into the uh 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 uh our goal is to go out and play every play as hard as we can possibly play not look at the scoreboard and I know a lot of times people hear that and they think it's kind of Coach talk but uh it's starting to be ingrained in who we are uh and and they're starting to understand understand that the the players are I'm happy for Georgia Tech uh the fans the the alumni um everybody out there that that came to support us here uh it was a special game uh it was a special game uh for the ACC it was really good game in in the league uh to be able to have you know the defending conference Champs you know on the stage tonight in the ACC and to be able to uh showcase what the league is and competitive good football all 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 won at the line of scrimmage and I'm really proud of the of the offensive line shocking there right uh really proud of those guys uh and how they were prepared um you know the defense you know you know once they settled in you Tyler saying to Chi and I hadn't said a word about it and I've just kind of I've told our team and really that's that's what matters is our team uh we're not trying to prove anything to anyone we're not trying to go out and impress people all we're doing is trying to play as hard as we can possibly play together uh as a team as a family we have in that locker room and uh we were I I I was confident this week I was confident because of the plan that was put together and the progress I've seen 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 you know Tyler settle him down with some calls and we were able to play assignment football get off blocks and I thought they were playing fast so uh again you know we didn't uh we didn't turn the ball over we had three penalties uh one of them on romelo he come comes free uh gets the unfortunate face mask wantan anything intentional uh the way it came across we just got to you we got to coach him to keep those hands lower uh so that doesn't happen um then uh L miles had the the the pi the DPI on the on the Deep ball uh uh and we had one false start uh on the offensive line but uh all in all it was a clean game for the first game of the season you know and that's what you want to see you want to be able to uh limit your mistakes and self-defeating errors uh and and we want to play for 60 minutes we want to build a tough discipline football team that's committed to themselves individually and and then the team uh and we talk about execu ution with our football team and 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 the ball's on the 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 and 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 into the game uh total confidence in Aiden Burr what a football player he is what a football player and when I say that I I don't take I don't say that lightly now he's a football player he's on leadership uh you know he does that all the time and you missed one earlier uh a long one and you talk about I's veins now I mean he came up to me goes yeah coach I'm good he was I don't care where the ball is just put it down and I'm going to make it and the confidence for him so again um credit to to Mike Norvell for having his team uh come over here and uh have him prepared to to come here and play a football game but uh really happy for our people really happy for the ACC uh and what this league is and for other people to see that as well so uh but we'll enjoy this tonight we got an early meeting tomorrow morning before we head back home we'll get back home around 2:30 we'll go straight to the weight room uh lift stretch and stride um have meetings uh head outside practice they'll be back in class on Monday uh and then we'll get ready to go we got a game next Saturday back uh back at home so again uh 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 come over here and share our game with everyone here so again I just want to thank everyone for the hospitality uh just really excited uh about the rest of the season that gets underway when we wake up tomorrow morning so with that take questions for questions we go starting back with chat here so you Tyler big hug there at the end was yeah you know you know Tyler talked to the defense last night and he said 166 days ago they started a 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 to be anything more than that uh 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 and I stood up when it was over and I told those guys I cannot wait to see y'all go out on that field and play together as one and you know we talk about there's going to be setbacks there's going to be obstacles to overcome uh it's not about that it's about playing the next play it's about playing the next play success and failure are really one and the same they can both be distractions to you and you know you got to stay in the moment uh play the next play and I thought that's what they did tonight and I was and huge credit to Tyler and his staff and the plan he put together but you know the plan's great but you know you don't build a type of you don't build that type of resiliency right unless it starts early and starts throughout the whole year so uh really happy to have him uh have him part of Georgia Tech and being a jacket it seems like you've had a quiet confidence about this team going into the year and you always have had led your team to not be too big for the moment like 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 yeah you know you you you build confidence you know going against each other and the confidence really came from seeing the defense progress over the you know throughout spring practice throughout the summer uh throughout training camp I mean I thought our offensive line played a good game tonight well they got punched in the face for a week and a half of of training camp I mean they we couldn't get a yard on the ground and uh so that that that built confidence that you know the in this football team uh you know we added a lot of depth we were able to play a lot of guys on the on the defense tonight played a lot of guys that played their first football game right first meaningful snaps in a football game on that side of the ball right and that's only going to help us look were there mistakes yeah there's mistakes right but those guys now have have playing time and you know as a coach a lot of times when it gets into a really tight football game you get nervous about those rotations and having a guy in there that had you know necessarily quote unquote the starter uh but he stuck to the plan Tyler stuck to the plan uh kept those guys coming in those those guys are be better football players uh for it uh 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 was that a manifestation of that confidence yeah and it was really kind of 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 uh you know how they play the game uh I won't get into everything about it but you know there there's a there's it's part that's part of the football game and look that that's a roll that's a roll 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 uh and I thought right there at that time that that uh eliminating the down was the was the best decision right here and Coach you made a point in the build of this game of not making a big deal with the fact that this game be play in or and go all the way acoss the play it how much does that mentality feed into the result that you got tonight I think it does uh I would like to think it does uh I'm sitting here in Dublin Ireland right now and I couldn't tell you the difference if I'm sitting in uh Tallahassee Florida or Atlanta Georgia or Chapel Hill I mean it's when you when you are really coaching a team and training a team to to live in the moment and be where their feet are it doesn't matter where you play uh you know it it doesn't matter how you get there right 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 is game day right tomorrow we'll wake up we'll travel back uh the only difference really is we're traveling tomorrow morning as opposed to tonight and I mean tomorrow I mean we'll be we'll be at practice we'll be practicing working out tomorrow so uh we came up here 10 years ago uh and played a football game and first of all I want to say to this entire country wow what a difference that time span is 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 we went to uh we went to the jail down downtown or uh went to the the old jail we went to you know Guinness we did a lot of those things okay this is this is I changed that mentality right we we we're able to see the place you know interact with the people I told them before the game I said hey we'll come back another time and do those things now they're probably going to hold me to it now though so curious if you talk a little bit about your running backs J Alexander's guy that you talked about in the spring walk on guy and can you just talk about how he's kind of blossom into a guy that played a huge role in this game and Jamal too how he continues to thrive for you yeah you know he's really a great example of who we are as a football team you know we got a lot of guys that aren't big enough you know might be fast enough you know might have been overlooked at another school and decided to come here you know they just that's who we are right and it's uh that's who these guys are building themselves into and uh you know Chad Chad's up 185 lbs now he does run 103 he can roll now uh but he didn't it wasn't that that was impressive he was running between the tackles and pushing the pile and you know just the resiliency that he showed and the toughness that he showed uh I mean that was his first Carry in a football game tonight First Carry and he gets 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 isn't our first game of the season y'all have played against each other twice already we know who we are right now it's time to go out and have the confidence to go out and play so but that's what he was doing uh doing all uh all preseason camp so really happy for Chad thank you is there anything that you learn your football team Tri this week whether the TR the mentality of the team having into the game or even something from the game that you took away as from you know once I sit down I'll I'll have more time to think about that uh there's always Lessons Learned there's Lessons Learned in good and there's Lessons Learned in bad uh you know just because uh can I ask who that was J J that was my boss so can't say too much oh you w j now uh you what we what what can't happen is you know coach sa used to talk a lot about you know never wasting a failure right well you also can't waste these because that ball goes one way or the other on the last play and we don't win the football game that doesn't change the first 60 Minutes of the game all right well if you lose the game now you're going to be different and going back and when you're addressing the mistakes and the things you have to get better at no you have to be the same and when we see those mistakes when we see those things you those are things we have to we have to address and and we have to we have to correct we have to fix um but I I I I don't think I learned anything from a from a mindset standpoint I think it just confirmed it okay time for a couple more k um BR on the M handled shotgun snap what happened there and then you know on the twoing play like what were you trying to get back to be able to make the make the to is that half full or half empty guys Ken I would expect nothing less out of you 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 you know for for a defense it's really hard when that ball is being snapped right cuz you don't know the the window dressing the the the eye candy takes place so we we work 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 HS was able to get it back uh you we had a couple snap issues like that we had the one that uh earlier in the football game that was a low left snap uh usually that comes from not following through and that's something we can work and correct and fix but look there there's there's a there's probably there's hundreds of things we have to correct and fix in that football game and then like the uing play we thinking we want to get to the 33 or the 30 or did you have a point in mind that you know this will 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 end of the stadium it was coming in that way which is kind of what we had expected uh you know the kick line from the going into the open end uh was around a 30 you know 35 is we had right at 35 we probably could push it to a 38 with Aiden's leg um if it was a game on the line type situation uh now going the other way U it was a 40 you know 40 to 42 Mark that we were looking at and obviously they look they were looking at the exact same Mark I mean they have the that kicker has the same leg that Aiden does um you know we came up short on ours we missed ours and and they hit theirs uh right before halftime uh going into the south end of the stadium but now we I don't know if I mean you could you see me I'm there was a lot of conversation between me and Aiden uh leading up to that really the whole game cuz you know it doesn't take long in a football game to realize 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 and you know okay well we're going to get the ball back one more time after this and I think it was 6 and a half minutes left six whatever it was six something left on the clock and we got the ball back so and you're playing all right yeah let's let's score the shest way I mean if you you're not going to take a knee on the one yard line and kick field goal we going to score uh because it was a tie ball game a little different if you're up and you're winning but uh 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 that's factored into it uh so we were able to hold our time out so not have to waste them um and and and get the ball to where it needed to be but yeah man when that when that ball went fluttering back behind I went oh no oh no oh no but you got to have confidence in your players or you have to and you can't just say you have confidence in them all week and then get scared that they're 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 in the week I asked you about Haynes and just whether or not you kind of he the lessons about protecting the football and you said you we'll find out I know it's just one game it just the were withf for him to figure things out in that moment on that bad snap and just threw out the game to s met you show is that something that you've known or is that growth and 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 you'll find out so uh 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 uh 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 they play Man coverage and and and and you know uh we going into the game we got new left tackle out there and they got pretty good pass rusher and uh so you know you look at the timing of all those things but Hayes did a really good job of protecting the football all right reserving the right to kick uh and putting us in a position to win the game CH if you want to WP up you mentioned you know getting back to practice tomorrow any concern of getting the guys recalibrated Focus for this you mean do like say the politically correct thing and say no I have none yeah you know as a coach you always have concern I mean anybody knows me I mean Ian got 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 them and what we're going to do you know we we'll have a team meeting at 7:30 tomorrow morning talk about the game soon as this is over I mean I'm heading back and I'm start watching the film and Grading it and uh you know we'll close out the game as quick as we can and and then be able to move on but yeah there's there's a lot of things in your head that go on uh we talked about it first we learned how not to lose then we talked about we learned how to win the next step in this journey is learning how to win consistently okay the the team that I believe we have right we'll go back to work we'll go back to work and the good thing is yeah we got a six or seven hour plane ride to be able to make sure we get that message across okay awesome thank you coach appreciate go jackets