ATLANTA- Georgia Tech football coach Brent Key addressed the media for the final time ahead of the Jackets game with undefeated Duke on Saturday night in Bobby Dodd Stadium.
"We've got a challenging game coming up on Saturday coming off the bye week last week. We rested up ourselves and got back healthy again and got some more speed back and a little pep in the step I guess you'd say. I thought we had good energy in practice, but energy has never been the problem. It is locking in and focusing in on the details of what you are doing," Key said.
Tech has sold out the student allotment of tickets at 8,000+ tickets and made additional tickets available for the game.
"It is a great feeling to know that we are playing a home night game and seeing our students and fans, I think there are what over 8,000 student tickets already out there so let's get more. Let's get 10, let's get 12k and let's add to that every week and create a great environment to watch a football game," Key said. "It is a great environment for our students to be able to congregate together and have fun on a Saturday night. As an alumni here it brings back a lot of good memories when you see those students up there celebrating after the team wins and we hope to create some of that again on Saturday night."
Key talked about processing speed being an important factor and he talked about Special Forces in the US Military and made a point to not compare the jobs, but how you have to quickly process information and he said he honors those people who put their lives on the line like the SEAL teams on special missions, but ultimately in those tough moments you have to rely on your training and that is what is similar to football. It all comes back to installation and training and making sure practice things are taught the correct way and that every has the right approach both mentally and physically.
He said that processing speed has been a big focus this week and playing fast whether you are covering somebody and pursuing across the field or at LB anticipating what is going to happen, seeing it and making two steps in the right hole or on the OL anticipating a blitz, not second guessing yourself.
Brent Key said the academic student-athletes of the week were Chris Elko and A.J. Cheeks.
The Scout Team players of the week were Kace Adams and Will Kiker for the D (against GT's O) and Ben Guthrie and Ryan Purves for the O (against GT's D)
He made Joe Fusile, Jason Moore and Henry Freer the captains for this week's game, Key picked them because they are all former walk-ons who earned major playing time and all three ended up on scholarship. Key said despite the cap limit being raised for scholarships they still intend to have a walk-on program at Georgia Tech and those people are vital for the future of the entire organization and someone who may have been lightly recruited out of HS still needs a path to play football and those young men sacrifice a lot to try to be on a team and this was a visible way for him to honor those young men in the program past and present.
On Jason Moore, he said he has been a long-time glue guy who came in as a walk-on OL and then ended up on scholarship as a DL. Joe Fusile has been an integral part of the offense for several years and Henry is a guy most people don't know because they only know the long snapper when they mess up in a game, what Henry has done scholastically at GT and what he thinks he will do in the future, he joked we better all get his number because he will be big guy in the future.
I asked him what is the next step for the program after having close losses and wins to create the margin where they are not in those dogfights every week in league play, Key said there is no secret sauce he can bottle up, but it comes down to practice and preparation and having confidence in yourself and the plans and decisions. He said every game here out will be evenly matched and they have to take care of the football, they've been overemphasizing creating turnovers now on D the last two weeks and stealing possessions and be smart about penalties both pre and post-snap. If that starts to happen then you create some margin.
Chad asked him if Jess Simpson and Tyler Santucci helped with game prep knowing the personnel at Duke and he said he thinks that is often overrated, you watch the tape and can see the strengths and weaknesses of a team individually and collectively and how the head coach manages the game and the full team, he doesn't think it has much of a bearing on the game.
Rod asked him about guys getting their legs back like Malik Rutherford and Eric Singleton Jr, Key said they are both pretty fast and if Rod was asking if they were getting some type of turbo gear or button he can press to make them fast (a joke). He said that they have to go against big strong guys and as they wear down they start slowing down and they lose the advantages of speed.
Key was asked if there is a common theme in how Duke has been able to outlast opponents and have strong 4th quarters, Key said that it comes down to the culture there that Manny Diaz is building upon the things that David Cutcliffe and Mike Elko started there, he said the schemes are different but the structure in the org and the demands for discipline within and the positive traits those men built there in that program and it started when the began turning the corner under Cutcliffe. Key said that Manny Diaz is a really good coach and preaches things the right way and does things the right way to build his team.
I asked about injuries, and he thought about giving me something and then said they are pretty healthy now.
Key was asked about the Harrison Moore recruiting story by Chad, Key said that it was an independent eval of Graham Knowles and he said there are many different ways of finding kids, Harrison was a kid that was playing TE and then moved to OL and went from 230 to 240 to 270 during his final year of HS and Chris Weinke saw him while he was scouting Knowles and then got Geep Wade and Buster Faulkner involved and they saw how super athletic he was and it did help having Knowles there to help recruit him to Tech, but it was done independently. He said his HS coaches did a great job and do a great job of developing players and there is just something different with Moore with his maturity and it was just a matter of him putting on weight in S&C because he had the athletic ability and toughness to play. He said he was still committed to another school (Vandy) when he came on his OV to Tech and they had a great visit and then that Sunday he told Key he was committing to GT. Key said on his home visit with both Knowles and Moore he saw the greatest tailgate he has ever seen for a HS game in the playoffs, he said they had BBQ trailers, smokers and TV trailers and fryers and every other thing you could think of that a former OL would love to see. He joked he may have had a better home visit than Moore had OV.
Key said that Moore is up to 288 or 289 now and he gets it, he is diligent in his studies and is not someone you have to tell things twice to. Key told an amazing story about Harrison Moore from preseason camp. He said that Moore came over to the sideline during good on good and was looking at the ground and Key asked him what was up and he said he lost a tooth. He then ran back into the huddle to play, Key looked around and found the tooth, and called him over, Moore was covered in blood from his mouth but wanted to keep going through practice. They saved the tooth and put it back in. He didn't miss a rep of practice, he said I'm good and Key was like that is a guy I want playing upfront for us.
Chad asked him about the 2022 Duke game, his first home game as head coach, and Key said that he learned a lot that day about self-assessments and his comfort level as a head coach. He was still learning how to manage himself during drives and not being at 110% for every second on the sideline, taking a minute to breath and watch the drive and understanding the game scenarios and the management of them. He said that the final punt in the game was a great learning experience for him, they had a 4th down call, burned a timeout and then punted and he should just taken a delay of game when they were going to punt and he said that was one of those scenarios and there were others in that game in particular where he learned a lot as a coach. He said two days a week he sits with Pat Boyle in his office for 2+ hours and they go over situations that happened in games all over the country with clock management, timeouts, spotting the ball all types of things and he is repping that to get better, he said that he has to get better just like his bosses J Batt and Dr. Cabrera expect and their vision for Georgia Tech athletics, he said they have a singular vision and it is his job to get the football team where they expect it.
He said he has a few other bad memories like when he went over to the crowd after the game and had to get bleeped out for what he said. He said his wife and his mom were pissed at him, but a NFL coach did the same thing the next day, but they didn't care. He said he learned a lot of lessons from that one game.
Off mic he told us a couple of other stories from that game as well that I can't share but were pretty on point with many things people complained about that day.
"We've got a challenging game coming up on Saturday coming off the bye week last week. We rested up ourselves and got back healthy again and got some more speed back and a little pep in the step I guess you'd say. I thought we had good energy in practice, but energy has never been the problem. It is locking in and focusing in on the details of what you are doing," Key said.
Tech has sold out the student allotment of tickets at 8,000+ tickets and made additional tickets available for the game.
"It is a great feeling to know that we are playing a home night game and seeing our students and fans, I think there are what over 8,000 student tickets already out there so let's get more. Let's get 10, let's get 12k and let's add to that every week and create a great environment to watch a football game," Key said. "It is a great environment for our students to be able to congregate together and have fun on a Saturday night. As an alumni here it brings back a lot of good memories when you see those students up there celebrating after the team wins and we hope to create some of that again on Saturday night."
Key talked about processing speed being an important factor and he talked about Special Forces in the US Military and made a point to not compare the jobs, but how you have to quickly process information and he said he honors those people who put their lives on the line like the SEAL teams on special missions, but ultimately in those tough moments you have to rely on your training and that is what is similar to football. It all comes back to installation and training and making sure practice things are taught the correct way and that every has the right approach both mentally and physically.
He said that processing speed has been a big focus this week and playing fast whether you are covering somebody and pursuing across the field or at LB anticipating what is going to happen, seeing it and making two steps in the right hole or on the OL anticipating a blitz, not second guessing yourself.
Brent Key said the academic student-athletes of the week were Chris Elko and A.J. Cheeks.
The Scout Team players of the week were Kace Adams and Will Kiker for the D (against GT's O) and Ben Guthrie and Ryan Purves for the O (against GT's D)
He made Joe Fusile, Jason Moore and Henry Freer the captains for this week's game, Key picked them because they are all former walk-ons who earned major playing time and all three ended up on scholarship. Key said despite the cap limit being raised for scholarships they still intend to have a walk-on program at Georgia Tech and those people are vital for the future of the entire organization and someone who may have been lightly recruited out of HS still needs a path to play football and those young men sacrifice a lot to try to be on a team and this was a visible way for him to honor those young men in the program past and present.
On Jason Moore, he said he has been a long-time glue guy who came in as a walk-on OL and then ended up on scholarship as a DL. Joe Fusile has been an integral part of the offense for several years and Henry is a guy most people don't know because they only know the long snapper when they mess up in a game, what Henry has done scholastically at GT and what he thinks he will do in the future, he joked we better all get his number because he will be big guy in the future.
I asked him what is the next step for the program after having close losses and wins to create the margin where they are not in those dogfights every week in league play, Key said there is no secret sauce he can bottle up, but it comes down to practice and preparation and having confidence in yourself and the plans and decisions. He said every game here out will be evenly matched and they have to take care of the football, they've been overemphasizing creating turnovers now on D the last two weeks and stealing possessions and be smart about penalties both pre and post-snap. If that starts to happen then you create some margin.
Chad asked him if Jess Simpson and Tyler Santucci helped with game prep knowing the personnel at Duke and he said he thinks that is often overrated, you watch the tape and can see the strengths and weaknesses of a team individually and collectively and how the head coach manages the game and the full team, he doesn't think it has much of a bearing on the game.
Rod asked him about guys getting their legs back like Malik Rutherford and Eric Singleton Jr, Key said they are both pretty fast and if Rod was asking if they were getting some type of turbo gear or button he can press to make them fast (a joke). He said that they have to go against big strong guys and as they wear down they start slowing down and they lose the advantages of speed.
Key was asked if there is a common theme in how Duke has been able to outlast opponents and have strong 4th quarters, Key said that it comes down to the culture there that Manny Diaz is building upon the things that David Cutcliffe and Mike Elko started there, he said the schemes are different but the structure in the org and the demands for discipline within and the positive traits those men built there in that program and it started when the began turning the corner under Cutcliffe. Key said that Manny Diaz is a really good coach and preaches things the right way and does things the right way to build his team.
I asked about injuries, and he thought about giving me something and then said they are pretty healthy now.
Key was asked about the Harrison Moore recruiting story by Chad, Key said that it was an independent eval of Graham Knowles and he said there are many different ways of finding kids, Harrison was a kid that was playing TE and then moved to OL and went from 230 to 240 to 270 during his final year of HS and Chris Weinke saw him while he was scouting Knowles and then got Geep Wade and Buster Faulkner involved and they saw how super athletic he was and it did help having Knowles there to help recruit him to Tech, but it was done independently. He said his HS coaches did a great job and do a great job of developing players and there is just something different with Moore with his maturity and it was just a matter of him putting on weight in S&C because he had the athletic ability and toughness to play. He said he was still committed to another school (Vandy) when he came on his OV to Tech and they had a great visit and then that Sunday he told Key he was committing to GT. Key said on his home visit with both Knowles and Moore he saw the greatest tailgate he has ever seen for a HS game in the playoffs, he said they had BBQ trailers, smokers and TV trailers and fryers and every other thing you could think of that a former OL would love to see. He joked he may have had a better home visit than Moore had OV.
Key said that Moore is up to 288 or 289 now and he gets it, he is diligent in his studies and is not someone you have to tell things twice to. Key told an amazing story about Harrison Moore from preseason camp. He said that Moore came over to the sideline during good on good and was looking at the ground and Key asked him what was up and he said he lost a tooth. He then ran back into the huddle to play, Key looked around and found the tooth, and called him over, Moore was covered in blood from his mouth but wanted to keep going through practice. They saved the tooth and put it back in. He didn't miss a rep of practice, he said I'm good and Key was like that is a guy I want playing upfront for us.
Chad asked him about the 2022 Duke game, his first home game as head coach, and Key said that he learned a lot that day about self-assessments and his comfort level as a head coach. He was still learning how to manage himself during drives and not being at 110% for every second on the sideline, taking a minute to breath and watch the drive and understanding the game scenarios and the management of them. He said that the final punt in the game was a great learning experience for him, they had a 4th down call, burned a timeout and then punted and he should just taken a delay of game when they were going to punt and he said that was one of those scenarios and there were others in that game in particular where he learned a lot as a coach. He said two days a week he sits with Pat Boyle in his office for 2+ hours and they go over situations that happened in games all over the country with clock management, timeouts, spotting the ball all types of things and he is repping that to get better, he said that he has to get better just like his bosses J Batt and Dr. Cabrera expect and their vision for Georgia Tech athletics, he said they have a singular vision and it is his job to get the football team where they expect it.
He said he has a few other bad memories like when he went over to the crowd after the game and had to get bleeped out for what he said. He said his wife and his mom were pissed at him, but a NFL coach did the same thing the next day, but they didn't care. He said he learned a lot of lessons from that one game.
Off mic he told us a couple of other stories from that game as well that I can't share but were pretty on point with many things people complained about that day.
