Georgia Tech HC Brent Key Talks Florida State Upset & More with Rich Eisen | Full Interview

let's bring in another coach uh fresh off of his big victory um in Ireland over Florida State the head coach of Georgia Tech football Brent key here on the program good to meet you coach how are you sir hey what's going on doing well I bet you are you jet lagged you jet lagged right now what do you got no not at all we had a game Saturday so lot of work to do okay so you're already you're already locked in um so let let me just uh discuss since uh we' we've never chatted we've we've never met before um you're coaching for your Alma what is that like for you coach yeah it's a uh that's special uh say the least uh you know anytime you go through an experience in your life and and it helps to shape you and uh make you into who you are it's it's important it's eted into really your background and into your DNA uh that's what Georgia Tech is to me it's given me a lot of the opportunities I've had in my life uh but I think most importantly it taught me how to work card it taught me how to figure things out taught me how to solve problems uh you know did a lot of the things in in my life to allow me to have some of the experiences I've had uh so the opportunity to lead this program and Lead these young men uh in their day-to-day journey through Georgia Tech not only as a as a football player but also as you know for their life after football it's it's important and to be able to help them uh go through those go through the day-to-day process of it George oier is your guy right without saying go without saying George O is your coach and then he he the one who who brought you into coaching back in the day I tell you what now I mean 1996 well met him in 95 so I came here in 96 wor played for five years G for him Coach so I mean you're talking you know better part of probably half my life I've spent with uh I've spent with uh coach and then so why did you want to get into coaching back in the day for yourself what do you think you know probably everybody has all these really cool things they say about coaching and you know to be honest I love playing football i w good enough to continue to play in the NFL and I wanted to be a part of it but there was a time in my life after being a ga for a year and a half and I said I don't want to do this I'm going to go work in the real world I've got a Georgia Tech degree I'm GNA go make money I'm gonna go go go make some money out there and start you know get my own apartment by myself and when worked in the commercial real estate World here in Atlanta for uh a little bit of time and it took me about six weeks in that before realized uh that I am a football coach missed it missed it a lot you realized you there's you try to leave your lane and you got back in the lane is basically what you're saying yeah for sure sometime it takes something else to make you realize how much you really love something right and then so then you went with George to UCF is that what happened yeah went to UCF we were there uh really from the time it was in the Mac uh all the way up until so max the Conference USA uh brief year in Big East in the AA see and just to to see that place grow uh from what it was to what it is now to know we had such a you know an imprint but to see the way that coach oi worked every day and you've heard the saying you act as if and that's that's the way he was every day it was act as if and uh it it wasn't well we don't have an indoor we don't have practice fields it was all right when are we going to get them here's what we're going to do in recruiting it was never I mean you want to get your butt chewed off now do you say something like well you know he's a national recruit or you know the other the three the three big schools in the state are recruiting I mean that was that was the easiest way in the world to get you get your butt tore up in a meeting so uh it was constantly pushing uh pushing the envelope and pushing to be better and better and that's where I think I've learned a lot of the lessons that that that have helped us today how'd you wind up on Nick Savin radar screen bran uh so in 2009 we had a common opponent we had played Texas during the season they were playing him the national championship game yeah uh several people on the staff there I knew and I went up there from Birmingham and we actually at the home for Christmas and I'd gone down to tuscala and ended up sitting in the o line room with those guys and and with Joe pendry and Coach pendry ended up you know really became a mentor to me at that point you with offensive line play and offensive football and knew several other people on the staff there uh and uh one thing leads to another and you we we you know it was 201 15 15 uh when we all uh when coach oer retired down at UCF and everyone moved on and I ended up heading to tuscala and uh what did you glean from your years being in being in Nick Sav coaching staff coach well I think you you take a you take a masters in in coaching football and you end up leaving there with a couple of doctor degrees and it's uh you know the time management how he's able to to squeeze so much out of every second of the day the efficiency that he's able uh to go about every day with uh the routine that he establishes not just for himself but everyone of the staff and the players uh recruiting you know the the level of evaluation and how important the evaluation that evaluation never stops whether they're a sophomore in high school all the way up until you know the day they sign with you and the constant evaluation of your roster uh and then you the big one is that no matter no matter how hard you think you're working he's always going to want of you he's always going to walk in that staff meeting the next day and you know he'd leave at 10 o'clock at night he'd come in and he'd have 12 15 recruits that he's evaluated written up and then talk about you know half a book that he read that night when are you doing all this like uh but he he was able to do it and and he he he really influenced everyone else around him to do the same and if you didn't you wouldn't make it so have you brought that to your game here your coaching game to Georgia Tech I mean do you yeah I would say probably 90 90 to 95% of of what we do here is probably 90% of what we do here is is based off of either Nick or coach oer that's pretty awesome and then did you see him I mean did you were you get a chance to run into him in Ireland yeah coach that that that that was pretty cool uh to be able to see both of those guys I with with with uh coach sa working on game day and coming to practice on Thursday uh coach coming to practice on Friday you only they were never at the same place at the same time and I wasn't able to get a picture with both of them so uh that's one you know two two men that have influenced me so so much uh in in my day-to-day uh walk in this program but also in my day-to-day life you know coach sa with the mindset part of the game how the mental conditioning that you have to have not just for your team but also for yourself individually you know personally uh but to see both of those guys there at that game that was pretty cool Brent key head coach of Georgia Tech football here on the rich and show run the ball right those are the three words run the ball obviously we saw the game plan a buck 90 on the ground and uh what were you able to see um out of the Florida State Defense that you're like okay this is what we're going to do we're going to run the counter we're going to keep doing it until they stop it what about that yeah so I mean anybody that anybody that watches us knows we're gonna run outside own en counter right there that that's those are the two things that I've run my entire career as as an offensive coach uh as an o line coach you know I think they're great comp compliments to each other they allow you to uh you know play with Tempo varying types of tempo and still be able to execute the plays so you'll finding the right formations the right motions the right shifts to go along with it you know that that's the important part and anytime you go into a game one you don't really know how they're going to they're going to play you think you do you have good uh you have good a feel for what you've seen on tape from previous Seasons but it's all about being the best you can be and I thought we we've worked really hard since January to uh become a stronger football team a you know a faster football team to be better in better shape uh and we were able to go out and we wanted to establish the line of scrimmage uh I think we have a a chance to have a pretty good offensive line around here and for a week and a half of practice I mean those guys didn't they didn't gain an inch on on the ground because of some of the uh additions we made on the defensive side of the ball uh the development of some of the defensive linemen and linebackers uh the new coach coaches we brought in on that side and uh and some of the acquis we made uh in the portal and through recruiting and so what is it like on the sideline of a game like that where you're you're noticing that your will is being imposed and it's the third quarter it's the fourth quarter this is a game you are in it forget about what people were thinking going in like what what what happens on a sideline for you when that happens well it's the expectation every game that we we go in and have that feeling right uh you know for me personally it feels pretty dang good I mean that that that's that's the feeling you want to have on the sideline uh the best part about it though was there was 6 minutes and 33 seconds left on the clock and we got the ball back for the last drive and you know the way the game had gone to that point that was our seventh uh series of the game uh Florida state had had seven series uh I knew we weren't going to get the ball back there was no chance we were getting the ball back so we basically had to go into four-minute M and then they had you know basically four timeouts they had the three timeouts and the two-minute timeout so it with 6:33 on the clock that could be an eternity for for some people and uh we had to basically go into four-minute mode on that drive uh to win the game so it was a it was a well executed plan that we had and uh you know we're able to you know get the win and now move on to the to the uh this next week's game yeah I know and it's moving on I mean how how this is this has got to be and again the way you draw it up you want to take your kids on the road you want to take them to a spot where they're expanding their their world I'm sure this might have been the first European trip for a lot of your kids you're trying to you're trying to um show them what they can do against an opponent that thought they should have been in the college football playoff last year and you go ahead and you do what you did I mean what do you think how how do you follow this up how do you bottle it what do you do here yeah well the big thing is I mean the game the game we played on Saturday was no different than any other game uh for us in the locker room for us as coaches we were able to uh leave leave at 4:00 on Wednesday uh you fly through the night get there on Thursday and go back our normal Thursday we didn't go sight see him we didn't go to castles we didn't go to Guinness we didn't go to Jameson we didn't do any of those things uh we were there to play a football game and to win a game and that's no different than every game we play you throughout the year you know we we learned early on in this journey how not to lose a game right we learned early on then the next step came how to win games right the step we are right now is how to consistently win right and in order to consistently win you have to consistently prepare you to consistently practice and you have to be consistent on a day-to-day basis right our program where we are in the program right now right we've had a lot of lessons learned a lot of lessons learned in the past and we have to take those lessons and and use them in our day-to-day because you know you can't do anything about yesterday except for learn from it you can't do anything about tomorrow but prepare for it so you know was it a big game it was a big game for for Georgia Tech it was a big game for the fans it was a big game for it was a big stage the the program was on but for us in the locker room it was the next game who' you hear from do you hear from anybody that we might know my gosh yeah I'm sure there's I'm sure there's a lot that you would know who'd you hear from I know I know we just met and I'm asking you to name drop that's probably not your I'm picking up uh your your your style here that's not that's not your style um but so then how many text messes how many text messages did you have on your phone when you you grabbed it yeah so you know reception was a little spotty you know in the stadium and you came back out and yeah even with roaming on I me they had 4 58 when I got back to the room that night 58 yeah you get back to the room and it's we went straight into watching the game uh getting it graded getting it done uh because we wanted to be able to get had a team meeting at 7:15 the next morning before we uh left at 7:30 and I wanted to have that game closed out by the time we stepped off the plane yesterday back in Atlanta so you answered Roman Reigns's text first is that who is that whose text you answered first I'm not going there man Megatron you didn't get Megatron's Tex first I mean he was he was at the game was at the game so that's cool what what what do you uh how do you employ Megatron uh with your kids you know what I mean how do you utilize him in any way shape or form or how how much is he willing to share of his his Megatron with your kids yeah no look shoot he he's a he he's a Georgia Tech football player no different than I am right there there's no there there's nothing asked from him I I want him to come here and be comfortable to be welcomed uh and to be able to come here and feel like feel like he's a home still so when these people come back whether it's a you know a guy like Calvin or a um you know CEO of a Fortune 100 company I mean it's not coming here to feel like you're going to get you know hit up and asked for things is is to be able to come back home well listen uh congratulations again I know it's just one win and I know that you've got uh greater aspirations than just beating Florida state in the first game in in Ireland but you I mean it had to be pretty cool for you to have your team do that look the way that it did perform and execute the way that it did in week one of a season when Nick Sabin and George O are hanging out that that had to be pretty cool for you man that really did that was probably that that was probably the added motivation that I wouldn't get my tail chewed off uh after the game by either one that's an interest that's a terrific motivation but it's pretty cool and but by the way I know you didn't go sseeing but to have a guy named ol in Ireland that had to open a door too I imagine you know that house well you know we we we played over there 10 years ago we were at UCF and uh we got beat by Penn State on the last play of the game in field goal so I'm sure for Coach it was a pretty uh redeeming thing to come back over 10 years later and see see a team win on the last play of the game pretty cool congratulations uh coach on on that W appreciate you taking my call it's nice to meet you and I look forward to more chats in the future thank you yeah for sure definitely go jackets you got it that's Brent key everybody go jackets taking care of business running 190 yards on the ground with the dub on to the next for Georgia Tech catch the rich eyes and show every single day on the Roku Channel 12 to3 Eastern for free