Four days of practice before the game and one more tomorrow morning flying to Memphis and staying halfway between Oxford and Memphis. There is a lot of downtime between tomorrow and the game because it is a night game and there is a lot they can do to prepare with that time. The majority of the physical work is done but there is mental work that can be done between now and the game. The team will continue preparing. We need to use our intelligence to prepare for the game and we did a good job of that before the game and we have one more tomorrow
Key said he is excited about the game and the opportunity. Ole Miss is well-coached and they create explosive plays on offense and
I asked Key about how they deal with the window dressing (misdirections and play fakes) Ole Miss uses), anytime you have a run/pass team that gains their explosives through play-action and RPOs you have to have great discipline and you have to be aware of the mechanisms of the offense and the setups that are coming. The quick game and the double moves and the jet-sweeps that become fakes and deep jet crosses. We have to stay gap sound and not think everything is going to be a pass and bust your gap and the back squirts out of there. Discipline has to be high across the board on D. They've worked hard on that all week.
Key was asked if he can tell if his team is ready to go or not. He said in his 20 years as a coach it is consistently inconsistent whether teams are ready to go or not. Sometimes they look great in pregame warmups and play bad and other times they look awful in warmups and play great. He said it is almost impossible to tell and you can drive yourself crazy trying to study it. He chooses to focus on preparing the right way and having a good week of practice and the outcomes should be based on playing with great effort and the way it is supposed to be played and 50% of teams win and 50% lose each week and that is the way it it is, so as long as he is confident in the preparation and consistency in the approach each week you can live with the results. You have to correct mistakes and change things in your approach if something isn't working, but that's it.
Key said they have a long way to go on offense but they've done some nice things and show glimpses of what they can be on that side of the ball, but there are plays they need to execute better and they need to put things on film that are hard to defend. Making sure the QB knows the game plan and manages that and Haynes King seems to get that and if there is anything anyone is unclear about they need to talk to their coaches about it.
Key said he feels like GT players should be able to handle a little more mentally than other places because of how the school prepares you so he expects his players to be able to handle one more play or one more check compared to other places. He said they work out on Tuesday what will work best for the team each week and practice that and then whittle down the game plan and he meets with the coordinators in all three phases and they put the overall game plan including down and distance decisions and things like special team calls for situations.
I asked him about the success against ranked teams on the road last year and he said that they executed pretty well in those games and it was all about having the right frame of mind going in and executing the game plan. He said you have to have the mentality of playing the next play and not worrying about what just happened especially if it was a bad play. You have to forget the good plays too and just focus on the mindset of playing the play at hand, where you are feet and he said he believes that in life as well, live in the moment.
He said Louisville was a really good team and South Carolina State did some good things on offense and this week it is Ole Miss, but it doesn't matter who the opponent is really, it is about having the right mindset as an 18-23 year-old of everyone is going in the same direction and having the staff coach the kids because Key can't coach 120 kids by himself, they have to trust the coaches and the players and shrink the scale of everything to executing the game plan and that play otherwise you don't have a shot.
On the WRs, Key said that DJ Moore has been out for a while and with Chase Lane out this week, Avery Boyd and Bailey Stockton will likely see the field more behind Eric Singleton Jr. Stockton has had a great week working his way up from the scout team onto some special teams as he expects him to play more as the season guys along. He said Zion Taylor has been making some plays and he is starting to mature and those two freshmen should be able to help the team. He doesn't want to just redshirt everyone and if someone can help them win now or in week six then they will play. It is next man up and they are developing them to play more. Key said Boyd has been very good on special teams as well.
Key said he is excited about the game and the opportunity. Ole Miss is well-coached and they create explosive plays on offense and
I asked Key about how they deal with the window dressing (misdirections and play fakes) Ole Miss uses), anytime you have a run/pass team that gains their explosives through play-action and RPOs you have to have great discipline and you have to be aware of the mechanisms of the offense and the setups that are coming. The quick game and the double moves and the jet-sweeps that become fakes and deep jet crosses. We have to stay gap sound and not think everything is going to be a pass and bust your gap and the back squirts out of there. Discipline has to be high across the board on D. They've worked hard on that all week.
Key was asked if he can tell if his team is ready to go or not. He said in his 20 years as a coach it is consistently inconsistent whether teams are ready to go or not. Sometimes they look great in pregame warmups and play bad and other times they look awful in warmups and play great. He said it is almost impossible to tell and you can drive yourself crazy trying to study it. He chooses to focus on preparing the right way and having a good week of practice and the outcomes should be based on playing with great effort and the way it is supposed to be played and 50% of teams win and 50% lose each week and that is the way it it is, so as long as he is confident in the preparation and consistency in the approach each week you can live with the results. You have to correct mistakes and change things in your approach if something isn't working, but that's it.
Key said they have a long way to go on offense but they've done some nice things and show glimpses of what they can be on that side of the ball, but there are plays they need to execute better and they need to put things on film that are hard to defend. Making sure the QB knows the game plan and manages that and Haynes King seems to get that and if there is anything anyone is unclear about they need to talk to their coaches about it.
Key said he feels like GT players should be able to handle a little more mentally than other places because of how the school prepares you so he expects his players to be able to handle one more play or one more check compared to other places. He said they work out on Tuesday what will work best for the team each week and practice that and then whittle down the game plan and he meets with the coordinators in all three phases and they put the overall game plan including down and distance decisions and things like special team calls for situations.
I asked him about the success against ranked teams on the road last year and he said that they executed pretty well in those games and it was all about having the right frame of mind going in and executing the game plan. He said you have to have the mentality of playing the next play and not worrying about what just happened especially if it was a bad play. You have to forget the good plays too and just focus on the mindset of playing the play at hand, where you are feet and he said he believes that in life as well, live in the moment.
He said Louisville was a really good team and South Carolina State did some good things on offense and this week it is Ole Miss, but it doesn't matter who the opponent is really, it is about having the right mindset as an 18-23 year-old of everyone is going in the same direction and having the staff coach the kids because Key can't coach 120 kids by himself, they have to trust the coaches and the players and shrink the scale of everything to executing the game plan and that play otherwise you don't have a shot.
On the WRs, Key said that DJ Moore has been out for a while and with Chase Lane out this week, Avery Boyd and Bailey Stockton will likely see the field more behind Eric Singleton Jr. Stockton has had a great week working his way up from the scout team onto some special teams as he expects him to play more as the season guys along. He said Zion Taylor has been making some plays and he is starting to mature and those two freshmen should be able to help the team. He doesn't want to just redshirt everyone and if someone can help them win now or in week six then they will play. It is next man up and they are developing them to play more. Key said Boyd has been very good on special teams as well.
