ATLANTA- Georgia Tech interim head football coach Brent Key spoke to the media on Tuesday during the Jackets' bye week. Key gave his team a few days off to decompress before they jump into preparations for Virginia on Oct. 20th. The Jackets will have a modified practice week with Friday being their normal Sunday schedule and practice ramping up over the weekend toward kickoff.
Key announced his 10th assistant spot on the staff that opened when he replaced Geoff Collins as head coach. Former Alabama State head coach Donald Hill-Eley will fill that role and work with both the offense and special teams. Hill-Eley was working as an offensive analyst this season for the Jackets.
"We did elevate Don Eley to the 10th full-time coach. He will be a special teams assistant and offensive assistant," Key said. "He is a long-time head coach and has a lot of experience with offense and special teams so he will be a big asset there in both of those areas. He will be in the box on game days and be able to help see kind of a bird's eye view from up top to help us with different situations."
Defensive Analyst Anthony Parker was moved into Director of Player Development as well in a move announced by Key on Tuesday. Parker worked with defensive line coaches Larry Knight and David Turner primarily in his analyst role. Parker will help with mentoring players in his new role.
"We moved Anthony and made him the Director of Player Development, so he will be working in that role moving forward and he has really helped with a lot of things on the football team and helped me with a lot of things. He has helped with the players in the locker room with leadership," Key said.
Those moves also follow the promotion of Jason Semore to special teams coordinator following Collins' exit during the first two-plus weeks of Key running the football program.
Key spoke about it not being a normal full bye week because of the Thursday night game coming up so instead of giving the team off this coming weekend, they had the last few days off. They put the Duke game to bed and they are going to focus in practice starting tomorrow on some areas that need improvement and getting healthy as well.
Key said they've started to establish an identity as a team and that is a team that plays hard for 60 minutes and plays physical football and disciplined football. He wants them to play for each other out there and for Georgia Tech. He said they are establishing those things as their identity. He said persistence is a really big part of making that happen and sustaining that.
Key talked about UVA on Thursday night being his final home game as a Yellow Jacket player and he said his mom reminded him of that and he got a little emotional for a second thinking about it. He talked about how special Thursday night games are in Bobby Dodd with the lights of the city and the fired up student section, he said he hopes everyone comes out to support the kids.
Key thanked the student section for helping them beat Duke, he talked about the Gavin Stewart kickoff after the last score in regulation by GT and how fired up the students got for the kickoff team when they ran through the end zone. He said the atmosphere was outstanding on Saturday and the fans helped carry the momentum through the final stretches of the game.
On the OL, Key said in football you will have injuries and you have to keep the next-man up mentality. He said it is a testament to the depth they've built they were able to keep going with all of the injury issues in the last game.
I asked him about Nathan Brock his GA who is taking over a lot of responsibility in that room. He said that Nathan is a guy who worked his way up from a walk-on at Ohio State to a guy who could play in a game there and he was also their signaler at Ohio State so he worked closely with his old OL coach and has that coaching bug. He has been with Key for two years now and he has a good read for what is going on in that room and that is important with the scheme and he can get the kids to play hard too. He said they have some younger guys in the OL room and Brock has really helped there. Key said he is still involved as much as he can be.
Key said on Andrew Thacker:
"'I've known Andrew a long time from his time as a grad assistant with us at UCF, and then bringing him back on as a full-time coach years later and know what an outstanding football coach he is, and what an outstanding mind he has, and how the kids respond to his coaching. The things that Andrew has been able to do for us putting the game plan together the last couple of weeks and simplifying things. We go into the week and by Thursday, we tell the team if there's something you're you're not sure about, something you don't understand, tell your coaches and we'll take it out and that's, that's been something they've really bought into, the kids have, and it's allowed them to be confident in their preparation going into the game."
He said the defense has done a great job with QB pressures and TFLs and getting closer to where he wants to be there. He said communication has been much better in the secondary with coverage and adjustments as well. He said in the Duke game they had 21 of 25 players to open the game with an adjustment by the offense and a change of strength and the safeties have to make the call. He said that LaMailes Brooks has done an amazing job of communicating and getting things fixed on the back end.
Key said that Clayton Powell-Lee came in for Jaylon King last week and as a true freshman played really sound football.
Key said he really likes the way the defense is practicing and preparing in every phase like meeting roos, and walkthroughs, they communicate and have trust in each out there.
Key said they made a player-friendly schedule this week that will allow them to improve in all three phases. The coaches did self-scout this week.
Key said they've given each player a detailed evaluation on their play and what they need to work on and what they are doing well and they'll meet with their position coach one-on-one and go over that and what they need to work on.
Key said he told the players to get away from the building for a few days to decompress and he knows how hard it is to play at GT and do the school piece. He said some of them just said they'd sleep in and he remembers how amazing that was as a player. He said some will need some time to catchup on academics or just catch their breath.
Key said he has put a major emphasis on the scout team giving better looks to the O and D in practice and that is part of his goal of closing the gap between practice and the game. He doesn't want it to be slower than the game speed if they can help it.
I asked Key about his famous quote from 2019 about how people will understand why he left Alabama to come home to GT and this wasn't what he had in mind, but clearly people now understand. He said that he wishes he had time to even process what is happening, but they are just focused on this week and not the season or what happens next or any of that. He said he is telling the players and coaches to do that and he has to do the same thing. He said they can learn lessons from what happened here in the past, but they are focused on improving each day.
I asked him if he had a pinch himself moment and he said to ask him that after the season.
Ken asked him about practice and how it has changed. He brought up the 5 false starts in the Clemson game and he said that they talked about that after the game and he asked the players if they practiced those looks and why did that happen and he said the defense jumped offsides 3-4 times in the UCF game and they practice hard counts every day but there was just a gap between what was happening in practice and on the field and he is trying to eliminate that.
Rod asked about the TE involvement in the offense and wanting to see more from them. Key said that Dylan Leonard being healthier now is helping because he is big and strong and can create some mismatches and really help them in the red area. He had a big catch for a first down in the last game and Chip Long is looking for more mismatches.
I asked Brent about sending his staff out on the road to recruit for the first time this week.
"The big thing is getting into high schools and showing the Georgia Tech logo. We talked about earning our respect back on the field each week, earning respect and people being proud to wear the GT again, we talked about that with the kids and all of these coaches to be proud to wear it and go out in the in this area and be able to show that we're proud to wear it and show that there's something behind that GT and recruiting is no different. We're moving forward to worry about each day that we're in. When that time comes on Thursday the coaches go out they'll go out there work their butts off and be able to evaluate kids and will go to games on Friday night. The full staff will be out of games all over the really all around the Southeast, really in business as usual."
FInally on the punt deal, Key said that working with Coach Semore they knew they might have some coverage issues but they were just trying to fix the protection in the short turnaround the last two weeks and Duke had a great punt returner. He said they had some loafs on the two punts and they are looking at the personnel as well there and some tweaks they could make. He said they are going to look at having some defensive starters on there in bigger roles and guys who are more athletic as well.
Key announced his 10th assistant spot on the staff that opened when he replaced Geoff Collins as head coach. Former Alabama State head coach Donald Hill-Eley will fill that role and work with both the offense and special teams. Hill-Eley was working as an offensive analyst this season for the Jackets.
"We did elevate Don Eley to the 10th full-time coach. He will be a special teams assistant and offensive assistant," Key said. "He is a long-time head coach and has a lot of experience with offense and special teams so he will be a big asset there in both of those areas. He will be in the box on game days and be able to help see kind of a bird's eye view from up top to help us with different situations."
Defensive Analyst Anthony Parker was moved into Director of Player Development as well in a move announced by Key on Tuesday. Parker worked with defensive line coaches Larry Knight and David Turner primarily in his analyst role. Parker will help with mentoring players in his new role.
"We moved Anthony and made him the Director of Player Development, so he will be working in that role moving forward and he has really helped with a lot of things on the football team and helped me with a lot of things. He has helped with the players in the locker room with leadership," Key said.
Those moves also follow the promotion of Jason Semore to special teams coordinator following Collins' exit during the first two-plus weeks of Key running the football program.
Key spoke about it not being a normal full bye week because of the Thursday night game coming up so instead of giving the team off this coming weekend, they had the last few days off. They put the Duke game to bed and they are going to focus in practice starting tomorrow on some areas that need improvement and getting healthy as well.
Key said they've started to establish an identity as a team and that is a team that plays hard for 60 minutes and plays physical football and disciplined football. He wants them to play for each other out there and for Georgia Tech. He said they are establishing those things as their identity. He said persistence is a really big part of making that happen and sustaining that.
Key talked about UVA on Thursday night being his final home game as a Yellow Jacket player and he said his mom reminded him of that and he got a little emotional for a second thinking about it. He talked about how special Thursday night games are in Bobby Dodd with the lights of the city and the fired up student section, he said he hopes everyone comes out to support the kids.
Key thanked the student section for helping them beat Duke, he talked about the Gavin Stewart kickoff after the last score in regulation by GT and how fired up the students got for the kickoff team when they ran through the end zone. He said the atmosphere was outstanding on Saturday and the fans helped carry the momentum through the final stretches of the game.
On the OL, Key said in football you will have injuries and you have to keep the next-man up mentality. He said it is a testament to the depth they've built they were able to keep going with all of the injury issues in the last game.
I asked him about Nathan Brock his GA who is taking over a lot of responsibility in that room. He said that Nathan is a guy who worked his way up from a walk-on at Ohio State to a guy who could play in a game there and he was also their signaler at Ohio State so he worked closely with his old OL coach and has that coaching bug. He has been with Key for two years now and he has a good read for what is going on in that room and that is important with the scheme and he can get the kids to play hard too. He said they have some younger guys in the OL room and Brock has really helped there. Key said he is still involved as much as he can be.
Key said on Andrew Thacker:
"'I've known Andrew a long time from his time as a grad assistant with us at UCF, and then bringing him back on as a full-time coach years later and know what an outstanding football coach he is, and what an outstanding mind he has, and how the kids respond to his coaching. The things that Andrew has been able to do for us putting the game plan together the last couple of weeks and simplifying things. We go into the week and by Thursday, we tell the team if there's something you're you're not sure about, something you don't understand, tell your coaches and we'll take it out and that's, that's been something they've really bought into, the kids have, and it's allowed them to be confident in their preparation going into the game."
He said the defense has done a great job with QB pressures and TFLs and getting closer to where he wants to be there. He said communication has been much better in the secondary with coverage and adjustments as well. He said in the Duke game they had 21 of 25 players to open the game with an adjustment by the offense and a change of strength and the safeties have to make the call. He said that LaMailes Brooks has done an amazing job of communicating and getting things fixed on the back end.
Key said that Clayton Powell-Lee came in for Jaylon King last week and as a true freshman played really sound football.
Key said he really likes the way the defense is practicing and preparing in every phase like meeting roos, and walkthroughs, they communicate and have trust in each out there.
Key said they made a player-friendly schedule this week that will allow them to improve in all three phases. The coaches did self-scout this week.
Key said they've given each player a detailed evaluation on their play and what they need to work on and what they are doing well and they'll meet with their position coach one-on-one and go over that and what they need to work on.
Key said he told the players to get away from the building for a few days to decompress and he knows how hard it is to play at GT and do the school piece. He said some of them just said they'd sleep in and he remembers how amazing that was as a player. He said some will need some time to catchup on academics or just catch their breath.
Key said he has put a major emphasis on the scout team giving better looks to the O and D in practice and that is part of his goal of closing the gap between practice and the game. He doesn't want it to be slower than the game speed if they can help it.
I asked Key about his famous quote from 2019 about how people will understand why he left Alabama to come home to GT and this wasn't what he had in mind, but clearly people now understand. He said that he wishes he had time to even process what is happening, but they are just focused on this week and not the season or what happens next or any of that. He said he is telling the players and coaches to do that and he has to do the same thing. He said they can learn lessons from what happened here in the past, but they are focused on improving each day.
I asked him if he had a pinch himself moment and he said to ask him that after the season.
Ken asked him about practice and how it has changed. He brought up the 5 false starts in the Clemson game and he said that they talked about that after the game and he asked the players if they practiced those looks and why did that happen and he said the defense jumped offsides 3-4 times in the UCF game and they practice hard counts every day but there was just a gap between what was happening in practice and on the field and he is trying to eliminate that.
Rod asked about the TE involvement in the offense and wanting to see more from them. Key said that Dylan Leonard being healthier now is helping because he is big and strong and can create some mismatches and really help them in the red area. He had a big catch for a first down in the last game and Chip Long is looking for more mismatches.
I asked Brent about sending his staff out on the road to recruit for the first time this week.
"The big thing is getting into high schools and showing the Georgia Tech logo. We talked about earning our respect back on the field each week, earning respect and people being proud to wear the GT again, we talked about that with the kids and all of these coaches to be proud to wear it and go out in the in this area and be able to show that we're proud to wear it and show that there's something behind that GT and recruiting is no different. We're moving forward to worry about each day that we're in. When that time comes on Thursday the coaches go out they'll go out there work their butts off and be able to evaluate kids and will go to games on Friday night. The full staff will be out of games all over the really all around the Southeast, really in business as usual."
FInally on the punt deal, Key said that working with Coach Semore they knew they might have some coverage issues but they were just trying to fix the protection in the short turnaround the last two weeks and Duke had a great punt returner. He said they had some loafs on the two punts and they are looking at the personnel as well there and some tweaks they could make. He said they are going to look at having some defensive starters on there in bigger roles and guys who are more athletic as well.
