ATLANTA—Georgia Tech football coach
Brent Key spoke to the media on Thursday during the bye week. His team aims to get healthy before hosting a top-10 Miami team next week in Bobby Dodd Stadium.
Going into the Miami game, the biggest question is who will play quarterback for the Jackets. Starter
Haynes King has missed the last two games with a shoulder injury. His backup
Zach Pyron got banged up in both games and was pulled for true freshman
Aaron Philo at Virginia Tech in the second half.
Key said that King's status remains unclear nine days from the Miami game.
"I don't want to sit here and say he is day-to-day again, but it is truly a day-to-day and I'm very hopeful to get him back for Miami, but I can't sit here and say that he is probable for Miami," Key said. "I would hope by next Wednesday or Thursday we will get a little clearer definition of it. We were hoping to this week, he wasn't able to go last week and we were hoping to use the bye week as a bit of a buffer of time."
With King still on the mend, Key said that both Pyron and Philo are continuing to prepare in practice this week.
"You got to build reps with both guys," Key said. "I thought Aaron did a nice job when he got in there and put the ball where it needed to be a couple of times. At the same time, a freshman playing that position in the middle of the year and that is a tough ask. Those things start flying a little faster out there, but I've got confidence in those guys and we will continue to work with both of them."
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Key said that they gave some time off to the staff this week to let them spend time with their families especially those with young kids to do Halloween stuff. He said there is something very special about how kids view Halloween compared to Christmas or birthdays, it is the dressing up, parades and all kinds of other stuff around it that is cool.
Key said they tweaked some stuff compared to the last bye week because of the amount of injuries and player availabilities and recovery aspect of things right now. They are trying to get guys healthy and rehab them and manage injuries and guys who are banged up.
They started Miami prep a little bit yesterday with fundamentals to begin touching on the Canes. He said that there is a big focus on class work and study hall and other things as well and they'll watch the Miami-Duke game and that will be helpful since it is a common opponent.
Key will have the staff out for the next few days seeing guys including himself.
Key said there is no sugar coating things right now, they've got to execute and push through things to have success on Saturdays.
Key said he talked to the team about how the bye week is like plugging your phone into a charger when the battery is low and you don't just throw your charged up phone on the couch, you use it. Doing that gains life for your phone and you can recharge both physically and mentally during a bye week and jump into the next challenge.
I asked him about Ricky Brumfield's replacements on the staff and he said that Football Scoop report on Tanner Cotman taking over the CBs was inaccurate.
"Tanner is a good young football coach, but they have several good young coaches on the defensive side and Cory (Peoples) is very capable of coaching the entire backend and several other guys work with our guys whether it be the nickel, the safety or the corner spots. Tanner is one of them and I think he does a really fine job and is gonna be a really good football coach. Other guys are popping in there and really working," he said.
On Tim Salem taking over special teams duties, "Tim has been around a long time and coached a lot of football, coached a lot of special teams and a lot of really good special teams so I expect us to improve in that facet," Key said.
Key's comment on Ricky leaving, "he is no longer with the team and I'm wishing him the best."
Key was asked about having to make these changes mid-season the last two years, "that is not something you want to do at all by any means. You don't want to be that guy, but some things are out of your control," he said.
Key said the defense did a good job on third downs the last two games, but gave up a couple of fourth downs. They are digging in more on Miami who was very good on 3rd down against FSU last week and the good players that they have and how to execute at a high level.
On
@Boger2337 campaign about the chain gang screw up, Key said the ACC confirmed that VT's chain gang moved the chains illegally from the 25 to the 24 and they got an extra yard on that fourth down play and it was something he wanted to see the video of before he commented on it (I asked after the game). It was an "inadvertent administrative error that occurred" per the ACC office and he said those things happen and they got to put themselves in a situation where that is not affecting the game or going to cost them.
Key said he feels very strong about the recruiting class and that they will sign a good one. He said that the guys they have committed in the backend and ones that could come in and play immediately and he likes the guys up front. He feels like the coaches have done a really good job of recruiting these guys. They'll look to the portal for some other areas they need to add pieces to and the recruiting is the draft and the portal is free agency like the NFL.
I asked about the lack of explosives this year vs the better sustained drives when King was healthy running the offense and he said that it is something they are working on and they wanted to have more sustained drives this year overall and it has helped the defense, but the number of drives under 2 minutes of game clock in recent games has been not good and they are putting too much stress on the defense when they go 3 and out or 6 and out or less. They've done some deep dives into the issues and why they can't sustain drives and also how to get more explosives.
Brent Key's top Halloween candies
1. Snickers
2. Twix
3. Reese's
4. his sleep Kit Kats
I asked how much the TE injuries have impacted the offense and their plan going into the season. They have been pretty limited at times to 11-personnel due the lack of TEs due to injury after losing Brett Seither and then Jackson Hawes and Josh Beetham getting dinged and Ryland Goede's injury. It was clear they planned to be in 21-personnel and heavy packages to help the run game.
Key said that adversity reintroduces you to yourself and they have to find other ways. They built the team in a certain way (they only have two true slots for example and like 8 TEs) and they you are trying to build a productive offense but you have to be adaptable and no one on their schedule cares about adversity, it is what does the scoreboard say at the end of the game. They've talked a lot about adjustments as a staff.
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