The Georgia Tech football team finished Tuesday’s practice strong ahead of the team playing its first game of the season versus No. 10 Florida State in the Aer Lingus College Football Classic in Dublin on Saturday.
Once practice concluded, Georgia Tech coach Brent Key addressed some questions from reporters ahead of the first game. He spoke to reporters for 20 minutes, covering various topics.
Below is a full transcript of what Key had to say as Georgia Tech football prepares for Florida State:
Opening statement ...
“Game week’s here. So super excited. The team’s excited, put a lot of hard work in since January and be able to go play an opponent like Florida State. (FSU coach) Mike (Norvell) does a great job with that team. They’re the defending conference champions and with 12 straight ACC wins they’ve had, and 23 and four over the last the last two seasons, fourth best record in the country. So that’s a great opportunity for us. Importantly, it’s great opportunity for all the Georgia Tech alumni, our fans, our students, and our band that is going over. I mean, just a great opportunity to have people see what Georgia Tech is, see who we are, and what this school is about, and what our people are about. Hope to have a great crowd over there and what’s sold out game. Hope to have a really good, loud crowd. Hearing all the people that say they’re going over it’s exciting.
So, you know, I do want to say just what a tremendous job our administration has done, you know, put this thing together for the last two years, and then in our ops team. And I do want to single out (director of football operations) Josh Thompson, and the job that Josh has done, our DFO, and really preparing, really, for about a year and a half now, this trip and all he’s done and his staff that works with him in football, it’s really allowed us as coaches and players not to have to worry about anything. And this is really no different than any normal first game of the season for us because of the work he’s been able to do, and he has done to make this as smooth as possible for everybody. So, thanks to all those guys, and thanks to Josh for the work he does.
You know, but we’re ready to go. We’ve got one more day of practice tomorrow. We’ll head over tomorrow night, then we’ll land Thursday morning. It will be business as usual on Thursday, same on Friday. So, get ready to play Saturday.
I know the depth chart also will be released later today. One thing you’ll see on there, Brett Seither is not on there. He did suffer an ACL tear two weeks ago, so he’ll have surgery on it but in those types of situations, it’s probably the best thing you’d have in terms of how and what happened. But just really thinking about him and have been, and spent a lot of time with him as he’s gone through that and some other things, but he won’t be on there. But it also gives opportunity now for Avery Boyd, who was limited a little bit early in camp with some tendinitis, whatnot, but it’s been full go really him and Jackson Hawes to get the start at tight end. So excited for Avery, a guy that’s bulked up and embraced the transition to the tight end position, 242-245 pounds now, and doing everything really consistent at that position. So excited to have him back, as upset as we are about what happened to Brett, you know, excited to have Avery back at the same time. So, you know, really, that’s the only thing on the depth chart that should be anything more than we’re rolling with, so now we got a full, healthy squad ready to go play on Saturday afternoon.”
On whether the roles of the tight ends would increase ...
“Yeah, Avery made a transition through spring to the tight end spot, and it has really done a really nice job there. The thing I’ve been, it was to me, shocking to everybody, but I’ve really been pleased with his blocking and what he’s been able to do, not only, you know, as a guy move, but as a point of attack on the line of scrimmage, in line guy, he’s a big, strong guy does a good job. But also, that’s a testament to the amount of depth we’ve been able to bring in over the last year, really 10 months, I should say, and the coaches developing those guys, because just because you bring people in doesn’t mean they’re going to be ready to play in week one. So, the guys that we brought in, Ryland Goede, Jackson Hawes and then the freshman Luke Harpring, thought about Luke before David Prince would be a really good football player. So, we’ve got depth at that position. So, it helps, because it’s a game of football, things are going to happen. Injuries are going to occur, and the more depth you have, and the more quality depth you have, and they’re coached up to be able to play, you know, the least amount of really ripple effect that you have.”
On what he saw after evaluating the running backs this past weekend...
“I know we’ve got five guys that are ready to go play football. Jamal (Haynes) is going to be our starting running back. That’s not changing. Jamal Haynes is starting at running back. You know, then the other guys that have all been in the mix are still in the mix. So, I think what the depth chart will tell you exactly how it’s going to be once it’s released but, but all those guys have gotten work. They’ve also all gotten to be a huge part of special teams. So we didn’t flow the game. I mean, you need a bunch of those guys as the season goes. It’s one position that you got to have four or five guys ready to play any given game.”
On how challenging it will be to face a team with many new starters on offense ...
“It’s not really from that standpoint. You know, Mike’s called offensive plays for a long time. You know his offense is his offense in regards to what they do, it’s different week to week, on how they what personnel groups, what packages, what shifts, motions and different things they use within it. So those things haven’t changed. And you know, there’s film for many, many years, and you see, it’s the same type of thing. And he believes in running the football, play action, you know, spreading the field, not only vertically but horizontally, working side on the sideline, getting the ball in this, in the playmakers hands. It sounds pretty familiar to me. It’s what our defense sees every day out here. So there’s a lot of similarities in the two teams offensively, in what they do. Obviously, we know the quarterback drives the drives the show, but they’ve got DJ Uiagalelei there, who has experience in this league. He had a good season last year. You know, once we come out the gate, we’ll really see. But the important thing in your first game is everybody talks about the opponent, the opponent, the opponent, right? The unknowns are what you don’t you can’t predict. So it’s really about your team, how sound you are with your base offense, defense and kicking game, and then how quickly your coaches can make adjustments within the game. Because, I mean, look, if you’re waiting till halftime to make adjustments, I mean, the game’s over, you’ve got to make adjustments fast. So then you have the ability to play for the full four quarters. So, but no. And then you watch film of individual players from different schools, you know, to see, but at the end of the day, it’s about the, you know, the scheme that they’re going to run that’s been the same for a lot of years. And, you know, we have a high-volume offense ourselves, so the defense has seen, been exposed to pretty much everything you possibly could.”
On whether the intensity has ramped up and how the team has grown over the summer ...
“I think they did a good job of building their individual selves from January all the way through the summer, right? And then August is when you come together as a football team, and you can’t predict how that’s going to be. You hope the chemistry becomes good, but it’s the shared adversity that they go through throughout (preseason) camp, throughout their day-to-day, you know, lives that allows guys to bond together in the locker room and in order for all three groups, offense, defense and kicking game, to have the bonds that they do in the locker room, to be able to have relationships. It’s a testament to the leadership on the team. It’s a testament to the people we have in the organization that do a lot with our players, our player-development group with (director of player development Anthony Parker) and (football chief of staff Donald Hill-Eley) you know what they do with those guys, the work they’ve done in the summer. Really, we have a 10-week class that’s taught in the summer about champions, mindset and leadership that really break them down individually and exposes their vulnerability. So exposes those things within the players and allows them to really find out truly who the other guys are. Then you put the pads on, and you go through and battle each day, and it only brings those guys closer. So you can’t predict how it’s going to be, but I’ve been pleased with how this team has come together, really, as one over the previous eight months, and now, like you said, it’s game week. You know, things change a little bit in terms of going to get scouts. That’s the other thing. I mean, we got with the depth on the team, we’ve been able to have really good scout practices, probably some of the best I’ve been around, in terms of those guys giving really good effort and giving really good looks. They’re not just sitting there as a tackling dummy, they’re giving good looks and doing things well. So, all that’s to be able to roll it out there on Saturday and go play a game.”
On how the team makes sure to be physically ready for Saturday given the long flight ...
“It’s no different than going east coast to west coast. I mean, I’ve said it a couple times this week. When did that new video game come out? If you tell me these kids have been going to bed at nine o’clock every night and waking up on time at 6:30 a.m., they’ve been up playing the game till 2:00 a.m. and 3:00 a.m. all right. And they come out and they practice all day long. They’re 18 to 22 years old, man. These guys go out, they play the game all night long, and then they come to practice all day and they do it over again. So I’m probably thinking this might actually be on their schedule. We might be interrupting it by trying to like do something different so they’ll adjust fine.”
On how happy he is for (punter) David Shanahan to play at home ...
“Yeah, I mean, look, I don’t care what position you want on the team, right? You play for as long as he has in college football, you’re a vet. You’ve seen a lot of things. And the growth he’s had from his time he got here to now, really just understanding football and understanding that, you know, there’s situations within the game that you have to work towards. And, you know, punts just not a kick it as far as you can, especially when you’re on the 40-yard line, 43-yard line, you don’t just boom it. So he’s grown. He’s seen his growth. You know the fact he’s dean’s list graduate of Georgia Tech. You know the relationships he has with the guys and things. I think he’s what, been one- or two-time grand marshal parades in town or whatnot, Saint Patty’s Day parades. And he tells about, I don’t even have Saint Patty’s over there, so I don’t know. I don’t know to trust David or not (about things related to Ireland). He tries to tell me these like sayings to say. And I looked one of them up, and it was something about pigs flying or something. So I don’t know when he’s busting my chops or not, but excited David has a chance to go play in front of his family. I think that’s what’s important. Not everyone gets that in college, but we go somewhere and guys are from far away from home, and you always hope that you know at least once, once a year, once every year, that they have a chance to be close to where their families are and see him be able to do that. And Sylvain Yondjouen, too. I mean, this is the closest Sylvain (who is from Belgium) has ever been to play by his family. So I think it’s a good, good opportunity for both of them.”
On how important Game One is ...
“Yeah, it’s not just another game. I mean, we’re going to a different country to expose our game of football and be ambassadors towards American football in another country. What an unbelievable opportunity these kids and these coaches have, and really, to showcase our sport. And when you go up there, we went over there earlier in the year to do some advanced work. And the unknown still exists about American football, or it’s really kind of mind blowing when you see it, because it’s every day to us, but to get over there and see the passion people have for it, how much they enjoy the game, how much they’re continuing to learn about the game we played over there 10 years ago when I was at (Central Florida), and just seeing the evolution in the last 10 years of that sport over there. So, it’s a really cool opportunity to be on that stage, to be the first game of the year, to play the opponent like we have a chance to play in Florida State. So it’s fun. A lot of these guys probably haven’t been on flights, much less been out of the country. Matter of fact, I don’t think (offensive coordinator) Buster (Faulkner) has been out of the country. He just told me that. He doesn’t like flying either, so I got him sitting next to me. You OK, Buster.”
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