I'm working remotely as my chest cold savages my respiratory system, hopefully I'm on the backend and can work tomorrow at GT.
Here is what Brent Key had to say today
It was such an electric atmosphere from the music to the lights, everything about it was electric. The support from the stands and the student section. My wife showed me a video from behind the student section and it was electric and brought back some good memories and it was great getting to spend time with them.
63 times I’ve run through that tunnel before a game and that was hands down the most electric atmosphere. Danielle said I was running fast out of the tunnel and I was juiced up too. It had a major impact on the game positive for us and negative for the other team and that is what you want for a home-field advantage.
POW offense Dontae Smith, defense Ahmari Harvey and special teams Abdul Janneh blocked punt and Aidan Birr who has done a nice job kicking for us.
There are four one-game seasons ahead of us and that is all we are concerned about.
Externally everyone is going to ask the question and I bought it up Sunday night, we choose the event and the outcome is up to us. The event everyone wants to make is not winning back-to-back games and being a favorite in games and not winning. The kids are going to hear and be asked all week. We are not going to respond to events in the past, you can’t do anything about it now. We can sit here and have hypothetical conversations about it and never have truth. All we can have response to is how we prepare, study, nutrition, sleep patterns and we respond to those things correctly we will have the outcome we want. I had Henry Freer come up in front of our team and he tutors lots of guys on the team and we put up an equation and he showed how to solve it and it hit our GT players right where we needed it to.
We had a good practice today and I’m looking forward to Saturday.
On having Dontae Smith back, his impact was pretty evident on the game on Saturday. Player availability is the biggest thing for any team in the country right now. To have depth at certain positions, to get guys who have been out back and to manage guys who are banged up. That was a physical game on Saturday and in my time with these guys I have not seen them lay it on the line like they did Saturday night. You could feel it on the sideline, the contact and the hits. I was sent a video today if there is something they want to see and it was Dan Campbell of the Lions talking about laying it on the line and how much they want to play for each other and it reminded me of our guys. The managing of our guys through the week now so we can play the same way at 2 o’clock in Charlottesville becomes the expectation.
On the two-point conversion, it is simple math, debatable in a one or two-score game, are you playing two scores ahead or one score ahead. The touchdown before that if you go truly by the book it would’ve said you go for two, I chose not to and kick the extra point. I’m not a big believer in doing in the first half at all but there are times that call for it. When you get to the third quarter or the fourth quarter, you are looking at how many possessions you have left. You are looking if we score on this one let’s kick the extra point and then go for two on the next one. The possessions dwindle down and you have two left then you go for it. As the drive is going on, I’m not just watching football like I’m at a local establishment. It is constant thinking about this drive, the next drive and how many drives are left. Pat Boyle who stands with me on the sideline and is one of the smartest football people I’ve been associated with, we sit there and play the game and the scenarios in our head so when that comes it is an easy go for it or not. You can also have surprise moments and you have to go with your gut reaction. Are you playing for it as much as you can. I’ll sit down today for three hours and watch situational football from college football last weekend and that is how I can practice and that is part of my routine this week.
Those situational calls are done on Thursday afternoon. I sit down with the coordinators and we go through short-yardage, situational, two-point plays, overtime, you name it as many things as we can get through in a game. It is 4th and 12 on the 12 to win the game. You are down by one last play, do you kick the PAT or go for two? There will be eight things in the game where you have to go on the fly.
On the formula on beating UVA, they are playing with a lot of confidence and having played UNC last week we had crossover film and it was two straight weeks of seeing the film and the improvement they’ve made. They’ve lost three games or four games by a total of 10 points. Three out of four they’ve been up double digits on teams and not won the game, who does that sound like? This is a carbon copy two plays, three plays there the records can be totally different. Records don’t mean anything in November. That is the challenge to the team, the coaching staff, the support staff and anyone in the building, unless you are watching film and seeing the team you should have no judgment on who should win and who shouldn’t win.
On Haynes King’s growth, he is a coach on the field and his daddy is a coach and he has grown up around it. I think the sky is the limit for him and you look at the improvement in 10 months here from where he was at a position where a lot of people don’t think you can improve the technical aspects, the fundamentals of it. That is how he does this and that is how he is always going to do it. He has completely changed and his growth comes with continued confidence but it also comes from mistakes. He is one of the rare kind that can have success or failure and learn from both of them. It has been great to be around him this year and I’m looking forward to many more to come with him.
On saving redshirts playing the four or burning them, it is hard to take a guy off the bench and put them in the game with that many left. There are some guys who have played in a couple of games that might have a couple of more left. Really it comes back to player availability. If we get into a situation where a couple of guys go down, that is a conversation we would have. We do every Monday morning and we talk through the roster and where they are at. Right now I do not foresee anyone new popping into the mix.
Here is what Brent Key had to say today
It was such an electric atmosphere from the music to the lights, everything about it was electric. The support from the stands and the student section. My wife showed me a video from behind the student section and it was electric and brought back some good memories and it was great getting to spend time with them.
63 times I’ve run through that tunnel before a game and that was hands down the most electric atmosphere. Danielle said I was running fast out of the tunnel and I was juiced up too. It had a major impact on the game positive for us and negative for the other team and that is what you want for a home-field advantage.
POW offense Dontae Smith, defense Ahmari Harvey and special teams Abdul Janneh blocked punt and Aidan Birr who has done a nice job kicking for us.
There are four one-game seasons ahead of us and that is all we are concerned about.
Externally everyone is going to ask the question and I bought it up Sunday night, we choose the event and the outcome is up to us. The event everyone wants to make is not winning back-to-back games and being a favorite in games and not winning. The kids are going to hear and be asked all week. We are not going to respond to events in the past, you can’t do anything about it now. We can sit here and have hypothetical conversations about it and never have truth. All we can have response to is how we prepare, study, nutrition, sleep patterns and we respond to those things correctly we will have the outcome we want. I had Henry Freer come up in front of our team and he tutors lots of guys on the team and we put up an equation and he showed how to solve it and it hit our GT players right where we needed it to.
We had a good practice today and I’m looking forward to Saturday.
On having Dontae Smith back, his impact was pretty evident on the game on Saturday. Player availability is the biggest thing for any team in the country right now. To have depth at certain positions, to get guys who have been out back and to manage guys who are banged up. That was a physical game on Saturday and in my time with these guys I have not seen them lay it on the line like they did Saturday night. You could feel it on the sideline, the contact and the hits. I was sent a video today if there is something they want to see and it was Dan Campbell of the Lions talking about laying it on the line and how much they want to play for each other and it reminded me of our guys. The managing of our guys through the week now so we can play the same way at 2 o’clock in Charlottesville becomes the expectation.
On the two-point conversion, it is simple math, debatable in a one or two-score game, are you playing two scores ahead or one score ahead. The touchdown before that if you go truly by the book it would’ve said you go for two, I chose not to and kick the extra point. I’m not a big believer in doing in the first half at all but there are times that call for it. When you get to the third quarter or the fourth quarter, you are looking at how many possessions you have left. You are looking if we score on this one let’s kick the extra point and then go for two on the next one. The possessions dwindle down and you have two left then you go for it. As the drive is going on, I’m not just watching football like I’m at a local establishment. It is constant thinking about this drive, the next drive and how many drives are left. Pat Boyle who stands with me on the sideline and is one of the smartest football people I’ve been associated with, we sit there and play the game and the scenarios in our head so when that comes it is an easy go for it or not. You can also have surprise moments and you have to go with your gut reaction. Are you playing for it as much as you can. I’ll sit down today for three hours and watch situational football from college football last weekend and that is how I can practice and that is part of my routine this week.
Those situational calls are done on Thursday afternoon. I sit down with the coordinators and we go through short-yardage, situational, two-point plays, overtime, you name it as many things as we can get through in a game. It is 4th and 12 on the 12 to win the game. You are down by one last play, do you kick the PAT or go for two? There will be eight things in the game where you have to go on the fly.
On the formula on beating UVA, they are playing with a lot of confidence and having played UNC last week we had crossover film and it was two straight weeks of seeing the film and the improvement they’ve made. They’ve lost three games or four games by a total of 10 points. Three out of four they’ve been up double digits on teams and not won the game, who does that sound like? This is a carbon copy two plays, three plays there the records can be totally different. Records don’t mean anything in November. That is the challenge to the team, the coaching staff, the support staff and anyone in the building, unless you are watching film and seeing the team you should have no judgment on who should win and who shouldn’t win.
On Haynes King’s growth, he is a coach on the field and his daddy is a coach and he has grown up around it. I think the sky is the limit for him and you look at the improvement in 10 months here from where he was at a position where a lot of people don’t think you can improve the technical aspects, the fundamentals of it. That is how he does this and that is how he is always going to do it. He has completely changed and his growth comes with continued confidence but it also comes from mistakes. He is one of the rare kind that can have success or failure and learn from both of them. It has been great to be around him this year and I’m looking forward to many more to come with him.
On saving redshirts playing the four or burning them, it is hard to take a guy off the bench and put them in the game with that many left. There are some guys who have played in a couple of games that might have a couple of more left. Really it comes back to player availability. If we get into a situation where a couple of guys go down, that is a conversation we would have. We do every Monday morning and we talk through the roster and where they are at. Right now I do not foresee anyone new popping into the mix.
