ATLANTA- Georgia Tech football coach Brent Key spoke to the media on Tuesday as the Jackets enjoy a week to focus on themselves with a bye. Key explained his plan for the week and how new defensive coordinator Kevin Sherrer plans to continue to make tweaks to the Tech defense to imprint his philosophy after taking over for Andrew Thacker last week as the principal play caller on defense.
Key said the structure of how they do things on defense has been the biggest adjustment so far
“I just walked out of a staff meeting and the biggest thing we are doing is more organizational on that side. Just where everyone is on the field, the way he is calling it, we’ve got multiple signals and multiple different ways to get calls in and there are probably five or six different ways to get defensive calls in,” Key said. “The substitutions and when they are coming in because we have more personnel groupings on defense that we are using, just the management of all of those things. That is a big part of what today is for us as a defensive staff. Getting those things together.”
The changes on that side of the ball are beyond just the on-the-field product as Sherrer aims to do things his way with Key’s backing.
“How are we going to present the opponent each week, the information we are going to give to the kids? The information we are going to show in a unit presentation of the whole defense. What’s in the scouting reports, how are we doing corrections, each day how are we addressing corrections, practicing fundamentals, some of the group work things and so it is really more of an organizational thing right now that we are focusing on. Once we get those things really cleaned up today and tomorrow then we will go more into the schematic stuff,” Key said of the defensive adjustments.
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Key said that Miami had a good crowd and the atmosphere was pretty good and the rain cooled things off a little bit, it turned into a great night for the Jackets. He said he was happiest for the kids and the staff to be able to rebound and get the win on Saturday night. He said the discussion about not letting BG define them was big and now they have to put together a good week of work during the bye week. He said the most important practice of the year was today and the most important practice of the year will be tomorrow’s practice and that is the approach the team has to take.
He said to that end he asked the linemen in front of him in the team meeting what they ate last night and they gave all sorts of answers and he asked them if they are hungry now and they said they are starving and he said that is how they need to feel. You are always hungry to win, hungry to get better and hungry to play the right way with competitive discipline in the game and to compete for 60 minutes they way they did. They have to have the same hunger this week and attack the week the same way.
Thursday they will start to work on Boston College. He said his food analogy resonated with the players.
He said he also spoke to the team about the media narrative from the game being so much about Mario Cristobal and his mistakes more than the effort and plays that led them to winning the game. He said that the players on the field all made the choice to play until the final whistle and if they all didn’t play that last at 100% that wouldn’t have happened. Then they flip it around and go 74 yards in 26 seconds. “We had to wash a stigma off of us that we had as a football team and we went out and did that.”
Key said they were back practicing today and school is out both yesterday and today for fall break, but the team worked today and they did some good-on-good work and did a team lift and a 30-minute team run period. They watched film as well and were in shells for the practice. They did 20-25 at the end to work on fundamentals and techniques and basic football stuff. Some 7v7, 1v1s both pass and pass rush stuff. They worked on some specific situations and blitz pick ups from the first six games that were issues and they did some work vs scouts and a long special teams period. Tomorrow they will go 2 hours and 20 minutes in the same model and then Thursday they will work on BC. The team will break Friday and Saturday and then come back on Sunday to start BC week.
Key was asked about changes in coverages and he said that Sherrer put in some tweaks in coverages and played some different coverages in certain downs and distances compared to the past and in different parts of the field. It was more about what they felt like was best by down and distance in the game it was steered more toward GT than Tyler Van Dyke, but they ended up being good change ups that threw off Van Dyke apparently.
Key said their red zone play calls in the game were going to be based on a few things, but he wanted to be aggressive in the game going for it on 4th downs where approiate and when to kick FGs and when to go for it. He said how the GT defense plays will also dictate how aggressive he is in those situations.
Key said that recruiting is going well and they have to stay the course there. The majority of the staff will go out on Thursday to be in place for Friday and then everyone who is local will go out Friday including himself. He is planning to go to 3 HS games on Friday night. He said it is full speed ahead on recruiting.
Key said he was pleased with how the secondary tackled on Saturday and he said he wants his guys to be aggressive and take their shot to make the play and don't sit there and stutter and have your head down, if you don't make the tackle trust the other 10 guys to clean it up. They rallied to the ball better and had 5-6-7 guys come to rally around and make the tackle.
Key said the highs of Miami and the lows of BG are something he has to manage as the leader of the program and he has 120 players and 55-60 staff that feed off what he says and how he acts. They are waiting to see change when he walks in the door and he can't do that, he has to stay ni the middle and never be too high or too low. That is their process of building the program and you won't see him too overly excited about a win two or three days later and he won't be in the dumps after a loss two or three days later either. The game was 20 seconds away from a different outcome but that doesn't change who they are as a team or people. When you win people have less bad that they find in the game and more good and that is the world they live in. Everyone wants affirmation and to talk about the good things, but he wants to talk about the bad things and why they had to win on the last play of the game instead of winning by 14. That's the way he looks at it and there are good and bad things after every game and they need to address both.
On Jordan Williams, Key said he was running around today, but didn't do the contact stuff. He said that Jordan was pissed he wasn't on the trip to Miami and that he almost threw his TV through the window both good and bad during the game watching it at home. He is moving around better.
On Chase Lane, he is out there and it is giving it a go. He said with both Lane and Williams iti s a pain tolerance thing more than jeopardy of reinjury or anything like that.
Key said that he is very fortunate and he kisses his wife and daughter every morning before he leaves the house and he is usually home at 8 pm every night so he can put his daughter to bed at night. Those two mean the world to him and that is why he is working so hard for them. He said last night he got home at 7:30 pm because of the bye week instead of 8 pm and that was great. He will be out on Friday and then Saturday he is going to stay home and have pancakes with them and watch CFB games. That is how he will spend his bye week.
Key said the structure of how they do things on defense has been the biggest adjustment so far
“I just walked out of a staff meeting and the biggest thing we are doing is more organizational on that side. Just where everyone is on the field, the way he is calling it, we’ve got multiple signals and multiple different ways to get calls in and there are probably five or six different ways to get defensive calls in,” Key said. “The substitutions and when they are coming in because we have more personnel groupings on defense that we are using, just the management of all of those things. That is a big part of what today is for us as a defensive staff. Getting those things together.”
The changes on that side of the ball are beyond just the on-the-field product as Sherrer aims to do things his way with Key’s backing.
“How are we going to present the opponent each week, the information we are going to give to the kids? The information we are going to show in a unit presentation of the whole defense. What’s in the scouting reports, how are we doing corrections, each day how are we addressing corrections, practicing fundamentals, some of the group work things and so it is really more of an organizational thing right now that we are focusing on. Once we get those things really cleaned up today and tomorrow then we will go more into the schematic stuff,” Key said of the defensive adjustments.
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Key said that Miami had a good crowd and the atmosphere was pretty good and the rain cooled things off a little bit, it turned into a great night for the Jackets. He said he was happiest for the kids and the staff to be able to rebound and get the win on Saturday night. He said the discussion about not letting BG define them was big and now they have to put together a good week of work during the bye week. He said the most important practice of the year was today and the most important practice of the year will be tomorrow’s practice and that is the approach the team has to take.
He said to that end he asked the linemen in front of him in the team meeting what they ate last night and they gave all sorts of answers and he asked them if they are hungry now and they said they are starving and he said that is how they need to feel. You are always hungry to win, hungry to get better and hungry to play the right way with competitive discipline in the game and to compete for 60 minutes they way they did. They have to have the same hunger this week and attack the week the same way.
Thursday they will start to work on Boston College. He said his food analogy resonated with the players.
He said he also spoke to the team about the media narrative from the game being so much about Mario Cristobal and his mistakes more than the effort and plays that led them to winning the game. He said that the players on the field all made the choice to play until the final whistle and if they all didn’t play that last at 100% that wouldn’t have happened. Then they flip it around and go 74 yards in 26 seconds. “We had to wash a stigma off of us that we had as a football team and we went out and did that.”
Key said they were back practicing today and school is out both yesterday and today for fall break, but the team worked today and they did some good-on-good work and did a team lift and a 30-minute team run period. They watched film as well and were in shells for the practice. They did 20-25 at the end to work on fundamentals and techniques and basic football stuff. Some 7v7, 1v1s both pass and pass rush stuff. They worked on some specific situations and blitz pick ups from the first six games that were issues and they did some work vs scouts and a long special teams period. Tomorrow they will go 2 hours and 20 minutes in the same model and then Thursday they will work on BC. The team will break Friday and Saturday and then come back on Sunday to start BC week.
Key was asked about changes in coverages and he said that Sherrer put in some tweaks in coverages and played some different coverages in certain downs and distances compared to the past and in different parts of the field. It was more about what they felt like was best by down and distance in the game it was steered more toward GT than Tyler Van Dyke, but they ended up being good change ups that threw off Van Dyke apparently.
Key said their red zone play calls in the game were going to be based on a few things, but he wanted to be aggressive in the game going for it on 4th downs where approiate and when to kick FGs and when to go for it. He said how the GT defense plays will also dictate how aggressive he is in those situations.
Key said that recruiting is going well and they have to stay the course there. The majority of the staff will go out on Thursday to be in place for Friday and then everyone who is local will go out Friday including himself. He is planning to go to 3 HS games on Friday night. He said it is full speed ahead on recruiting.
Key said he was pleased with how the secondary tackled on Saturday and he said he wants his guys to be aggressive and take their shot to make the play and don't sit there and stutter and have your head down, if you don't make the tackle trust the other 10 guys to clean it up. They rallied to the ball better and had 5-6-7 guys come to rally around and make the tackle.
Key said the highs of Miami and the lows of BG are something he has to manage as the leader of the program and he has 120 players and 55-60 staff that feed off what he says and how he acts. They are waiting to see change when he walks in the door and he can't do that, he has to stay ni the middle and never be too high or too low. That is their process of building the program and you won't see him too overly excited about a win two or three days later and he won't be in the dumps after a loss two or three days later either. The game was 20 seconds away from a different outcome but that doesn't change who they are as a team or people. When you win people have less bad that they find in the game and more good and that is the world they live in. Everyone wants affirmation and to talk about the good things, but he wants to talk about the bad things and why they had to win on the last play of the game instead of winning by 14. That's the way he looks at it and there are good and bad things after every game and they need to address both.
On Jordan Williams, Key said he was running around today, but didn't do the contact stuff. He said that Jordan was pissed he wasn't on the trip to Miami and that he almost threw his TV through the window both good and bad during the game watching it at home. He is moving around better.
On Chase Lane, he is out there and it is giving it a go. He said with both Lane and Williams iti s a pain tolerance thing more than jeopardy of reinjury or anything like that.
Key said that he is very fortunate and he kisses his wife and daughter every morning before he leaves the house and he is usually home at 8 pm every night so he can put his daughter to bed at night. Those two mean the world to him and that is why he is working so hard for them. He said last night he got home at 7:30 pm because of the bye week instead of 8 pm and that was great. He will be out on Friday and then Saturday he is going to stay home and have pancakes with them and watch CFB games. That is how he will spend his bye week.
