Sorry for the delay but I was pretty wiped out by the travel the last two days getting all the way home to Atlanta.
Next Saturday night is a trap game (A La BG)-what’s Keys messaging to the team to keep everyone focused after a big emotional victory?
KQ- Key worked for the King of Trap Game messaging Nick Saban at Alabama and he is employing many of Saban's theories on his team this week, but the reality of them losing to Bowling Green and Boston College is still fresh on their minds. That should help a lot. The fact they know these kids, some date girls who go there and stuff like that will bring added motivation IMO.
How big is this win for recruiting?
KQ- It got Christian Garrett to pop (not really) but yeah they've had a lot of kids positively reaching out and kids like Katrell Webb yesterday from the 2026 class tweeting GT stuff and tagging the school and coaches. That is not normal in my experience here.
What’s the story on Chad Alexander? You may have mentioned him over the summer but if you did I missed it.
KQ- I've written about him a lot over the last two years. He was one of their best special teams players a year ago especially on punt team. He was on kickoff, kick return, punt return and punt coverage last year playing almost 170 snaps on those units over nine games (missed time with an injury). They've always been excited about him as a player. He was committed to Army and backed out to walk-on at Georgia Tech and it should pay off as he will get a ship IMO this year. He had a half dozen smaller offers like Army and Air Force and some FCS schools. He was Chadrick back then. He would've definitely been a guy CPJ would've recruited out of HS as a slotback.
In your mind what does a win like that do for the program long term, do you think this was the beginning of the turn around for Tech football?
KQ- Depends on what they do this year. This was something they needed badly with the way the schedule sets up so now they control their destiny and need to win the games they will be favored in and steal some others. If they do that then it will mean something.
I’m a fan of Jim Phillips, as he I believe he is forward-thinking and solutions oriented for the ACC. For example he has already mentioned the idea of going back to an 18-game schedule instead of 20 for mens basketball and has finally jumped on the propaganda train on par with the SEC in football. My question is do you seem him changing anything with the mandatory Notre Dame games every 3rd year for all the football teams?
Let’s use FSU as the example. They still have a great shot to be 10-2 and rep the ACC in the playoffs. But they play Notre Dame this year, so if they lose and go 9-3 they aren’t getting in. Since ND being a Top 10 team in football has no benefit to the ACC like it would in other sports, all it’s doing IMO is making it harder to get multiple ACC teams in the new CFP format. Thoughts?
KQ- Jim is a really nice and genuine guy who is trying his best in a difficult situation. I talked to him for a bit before the GT-FSU game on the sideline and you can tell he is putting a lot of thoughts in how to both fix things and make things work. I think he believes he can hold the league together.
As far as the ND thing goes, they want to play GT and will push so even if that altered GT would somehow get shafted into playing them MORE often. The playoff bit is sort of the luck of scheduling. GT has a really favorable schedule on paper next year especially if things implode at Colorado. So not playing ND that year helps GT, but say GT is rolling and they beat ND this year and lose to UGA and are 12-1 with an ACC title, that ND win could give them a top 4 spot and a bye. It cuts both ways.
How many consecutive Natties will we win? Are you excited about getting to cover the CFP in January?
KQ- Love the optimism. I'd like to cover a bowl game not within +/- 3 days of Christmas to start with.
Oddly enough, the experience of the BG game last year makes me more confident for the State game. I’m guessing Key and the team learned their lesson. Just wishful thinking or something to that?
KQ- I agree that the game against BG should be a learning lesson, but the truth is this is a very different team and staff than that one. That should make a big difference as well and you hope that Haynes King makes better decisions as well.
Luginbill and others place the FSU “loss”, not the Tech win, at the feet of DJU. What do you say?
KQ- You play with what you got. I didn't hear a lot of pundits giving GT a pass on losing to UVA in 2022 when Jeff SIms was hurt and they threw Zach Gibson in who shit his pants in that game with a bad game plan for him. Good teams win regardless of the challenges. FSU's vaunted defensive line couldn't stop GT from running their asses over. That is why they lost. Their lack of belief in the QB also falls on Mike Norvell like that two-minute drill before the first half.
Do you think Key and the training staff will take the same approach as they always do with recovery or try to optimize as much as possible? I guess there may not be much to change. But after this physical game in another country in week 0 and the traveling and what not, you’d think they may just emphasize on this.
KQ- They've worked on this stuff for a full year and knew what the issues would be with the travel. The beauty of the last game is neither side played anywhere near as many snaps as they did in most games in 2023. That should help.
If you’re the coach at another school watching yesterday’s film, how would you be game planning to beat Tech?
KQ- Loading the box and making Haynes King beat me over the top and spying him with a safety speed level guy and not a LB or a DE who he will outrun to the edge. The defense is harder to figure out because what Tyler Santucci did was very specific to what FSU was doing with DJU and their run game and that is different than how most teams play.
