Brent Key held his second presser of the week on Thursday and we fired up ahead of the game on Saturday with South Carolina State.
Key joined us after the leadership meeting with the team leadership group and they are still tweaking some things as they set up the routines for games.
Key said the team are excited to get back to work and open up play in BDS. They had really physical practices as usual on Tuesday and Wednesday in full pads and then today was about mental work and they'll get back at it tomorrow and then it will be game day.
They are only down one player from the Louisville game, Sylvain Yondjouen who tore his ACL. You can read his comments on there here
Key is excited the game is early and they can get prepared a little early, stretch and then kickoff without having to wait around all day. He said he wants to see how his team responds coming off the Louisville game with SC State.
On punt returns, Key said that Dominick Blaylock did a nice job. He is looking for ball security first on punt returns and he averaged 8.4 in the first game and that is great because it helps with field position. He isn't necessarily looking to break one every time because he wants a guy who is going to field the punt and give the offense the ball back and some guys can't hold onto the ball that are the threats to always break it (look at the Duke-Clemson game as a great example). He said every yard the punt returner gets is a bonus.
On kickoff returns, they think Christian Leary is a guy who can get yards after the return and he has good vision. He said sometimes those guys have to gamble a little more that the 10 upfront are going to block and sometimes just an arm tackle can slow down the kick returner so that is why occasionally they won't get back to the 25 on a return but that is a gamble that you are going to make if you want to be an attacking team. They want to be aggressive so it is a risk/reward thing and as the game went on they were more 50/50 on returns vs fair catches.
I asked Key if he has anything special planned for the game day experience in BDS, he said just winning. He wants to grow the crowd each week by winning and having a good team that is fun to watch. He said it is on everyone from the team to the coaches to the fans and students to help them win. If they start winning then people will fill up the stadium and support the program more.
Key said he expects SC State to have a quality football team and they will try to win the game. They are going to get after GT and not just roll over.
I asked him if we will see Ethan Mackenny and Corey Robinson at LT and he said they are getting as many people as they can ready to play and sometimes things just go wrong and sometimes they need to see the game from the sideline to get out of a rut (Robinson) and sometimes guys just play well when they get in the game. He said his job is to put the best 11 on the field and figure that part out.
Key got a little salty when he got asked about the Louisville game by a TV dude, this presser is supposed to be focused on the next game and is why we are doing two now.
I asked him about Eric Singleton Jr. and he said that sometimes freshmen play like freshmen and sometimes the lights are not too big for others. Eric is explosive and they plan on playing him a lot in the future and having a guy like that takes a lot of pressure off the QB, the OL and the run game because he can stretch the field vertically and break people down one-on-one in space.
Key wasn't interested in talking about the right guard spot and he said that Connor Scaglione will continue to play and they'll have five OLs in the game.
I asked Key about penciling in wins and how that backfired in the past here with some games. He said, "I don't have a pencil. I don't pencil crap. We have 11 starters on offense and 11 starters on defense and we plan to go out ther and play 65-75 players in this football game." He said they want to see improvement individually from every player on the team and every person in the org including himself, the coaches, the trainers, the equipment room guys and S&C guys. Everyone in the program can improve including himself. They get a chance to improve on Saturday and when you pencil something in nothing gets done. This is a process and they are process driven and right now they are learning what it takes to be successful every Saturday. That is why college football is the greatest game in the world because no one knows what is going to happen every week. Everyone there prepares their butt off to give them an opportunity to go out there. He said he hopes the starters play 75 snaps or 85, he joked if they get to 85 they manipulated the clock somehow with the new rules, but he said that is how they have to prepare.
Key joined us after the leadership meeting with the team leadership group and they are still tweaking some things as they set up the routines for games.
Key said the team are excited to get back to work and open up play in BDS. They had really physical practices as usual on Tuesday and Wednesday in full pads and then today was about mental work and they'll get back at it tomorrow and then it will be game day.
They are only down one player from the Louisville game, Sylvain Yondjouen who tore his ACL. You can read his comments on there here
Key is excited the game is early and they can get prepared a little early, stretch and then kickoff without having to wait around all day. He said he wants to see how his team responds coming off the Louisville game with SC State.
On punt returns, Key said that Dominick Blaylock did a nice job. He is looking for ball security first on punt returns and he averaged 8.4 in the first game and that is great because it helps with field position. He isn't necessarily looking to break one every time because he wants a guy who is going to field the punt and give the offense the ball back and some guys can't hold onto the ball that are the threats to always break it (look at the Duke-Clemson game as a great example). He said every yard the punt returner gets is a bonus.
On kickoff returns, they think Christian Leary is a guy who can get yards after the return and he has good vision. He said sometimes those guys have to gamble a little more that the 10 upfront are going to block and sometimes just an arm tackle can slow down the kick returner so that is why occasionally they won't get back to the 25 on a return but that is a gamble that you are going to make if you want to be an attacking team. They want to be aggressive so it is a risk/reward thing and as the game went on they were more 50/50 on returns vs fair catches.
I asked Key if he has anything special planned for the game day experience in BDS, he said just winning. He wants to grow the crowd each week by winning and having a good team that is fun to watch. He said it is on everyone from the team to the coaches to the fans and students to help them win. If they start winning then people will fill up the stadium and support the program more.
Key said he expects SC State to have a quality football team and they will try to win the game. They are going to get after GT and not just roll over.
I asked him if we will see Ethan Mackenny and Corey Robinson at LT and he said they are getting as many people as they can ready to play and sometimes things just go wrong and sometimes they need to see the game from the sideline to get out of a rut (Robinson) and sometimes guys just play well when they get in the game. He said his job is to put the best 11 on the field and figure that part out.
Key got a little salty when he got asked about the Louisville game by a TV dude, this presser is supposed to be focused on the next game and is why we are doing two now.
I asked him about Eric Singleton Jr. and he said that sometimes freshmen play like freshmen and sometimes the lights are not too big for others. Eric is explosive and they plan on playing him a lot in the future and having a guy like that takes a lot of pressure off the QB, the OL and the run game because he can stretch the field vertically and break people down one-on-one in space.
Key wasn't interested in talking about the right guard spot and he said that Connor Scaglione will continue to play and they'll have five OLs in the game.
I asked Key about penciling in wins and how that backfired in the past here with some games. He said, "I don't have a pencil. I don't pencil crap. We have 11 starters on offense and 11 starters on defense and we plan to go out ther and play 65-75 players in this football game." He said they want to see improvement individually from every player on the team and every person in the org including himself, the coaches, the trainers, the equipment room guys and S&C guys. Everyone in the program can improve including himself. They get a chance to improve on Saturday and when you pencil something in nothing gets done. This is a process and they are process driven and right now they are learning what it takes to be successful every Saturday. That is why college football is the greatest game in the world because no one knows what is going to happen every week. Everyone there prepares their butt off to give them an opportunity to go out there. He said he hopes the starters play 75 snaps or 85, he joked if they get to 85 they manipulated the clock somehow with the new rules, but he said that is how they have to prepare.
