The starting quarterback is no longer with the team, separated to tend to his rehabilitation. The backup quarterback is out for the season with a broken clavicle. The future of the coaching staff is uncertain. After 10 games, bumps and bruises are accumulating. And the next opponent is led by a Heisman Trophy candidate at quarterback.
There’s a lot that’s out of Georgia Tech’s control that’s not going its way. Consequentially, the challenge of staying focused on what it can control only grows as it prepares for No. 13 North Carolina on Saturday (5:30 p.m., ESPN2). To this point, the Yellow Jackets have done their best.
“In the last seven weeks, these kids have been through a lot, and I couldn’t be more proud of these kids for the way they’ve responded,” interim coach Brent Key said Tuesday. “If you were on the practice field (Tuesday) and saw how they practiced and understood how you have to practice and understood when you come into meetings – this is no different than seven weeks ago when we sat in here and everyone asked about the challenges of keeping the team together.”
The Jackets have been in a similar situation before. A year ago, with quarterback Jeff Sims sidelined and the season’s prospects sliding away, Tech played its final two games of the season against Notre Dame and Georgia. The Fighting Irish were a one-loss team that was ranked eighth. (North Carolina also is a one-loss team) Georgia, then as now, was undefeated and ranked first in the country. The depleted Jackets were hammered by both, losing by a combined score of 100-0.
Key embraces the challenge ahead. He spoke Tuesday of the task of keeping the team in a proper frame of mind and communicating to the team directly or through the assistant coaches to help ensure that.
“So every day is a challenge in that regard,” he said. “Every day. And whether you coach for one year, 10 years or 20 years, those are always going to be the challenges that you face. But you know what? Those are the things you love about being a coach, too. What you do on a daily basis impacts the lives of others, and that’s what I love about being a coach.”
Part of the message this week may have been about the lack of value in moping. Complaining and being upset about injuries or other tough breaks, Key said, is wasted time that could be spent getting the next player ready.
“Who’s got time to do that?” he asked. “We have a chance to play football this weekend. These kids have a chance to play football with each other again. And not only play football, but play a really good dadgum football team at their place. Which, everybody’s excited about.”
To this point, it would seem Key’s message has been received well. For instance, the Jackets started the game Saturday against Miami poorly, falling behind 14-0 in the second quarter. The Hurricanes were driving to potentially take a three-score lead. But a sack by nickel back K.J. Wallace led to an intentional-grounding penalty that turned the flow of the game. The Jackets scored a touchdown before halftime and kept Miami scoreless through three quarters to stay in the game.
Late in the third quarter, Tech was driving for a potential game-tying touchdown when quarterback Zach Pyron broke his collarbone fighting for extra yards. Even after Pyron stayed in the game for the next play and threw an interception, the Jackets defense forced a punt on the ensuing Hurricanes drive, giving the offense another chance to tie the score.
Another interception, this time thrown by Zach Gibson, gave the Hurricanes a short field, and they exploited it to take a 21-7 lead that effectively ended the game about midway through the fourth quarter. A less-inspired team might not have fought as hard.
It was similar the week before, when the offense and defense combined to rally from a 27-16 fourth-quarter deficit to beat Virginia Tech 28-27.
Guard Pierce Quick said that Key referenced two touchdown runs that Pyron made, one at the end of the Jackets’ 41-16 loss to Florida State and the other the game-winning score against the Hokies. The two plays were identical in terms of the fight that Pyron showed to get into the end zone, though one was inconsequential in one game’s outcome and decided it in the other.
“He’s running hard no matter what the score is,” Quick said. “He’s a competitor, and he’s trying to win, and that’s how all of us need to be.”
That said, North Carolina figures to be a far more unyielding opponent than either Virginia Tech or Miami. And the Jackets (4-6, 3-4 ACC) will face the Tar Heels (9-1, 6-0) without Sims and Pyron. Key announced Tuesday that Sims will not be with the team for practice or meetings indefinitely as he rehabilitates a foot sprain.
It leaves leadership of the offense to Gibson, who as yet has not proved himself an effective pilot of the Tech offense. But practice has continued to be intense. Key came late to his weekly news conference, he said, because the “good on good” portion of practice (when the offensive and defensive starters scrimmage against each other, an element that Key has augmented since becoming the interim coach) had gone long.
“I think practice this week has been the same as every other week,” Quick said. “The intensity out there has been the same. Everybody’s locked in, and honestly, if somebody’s not locked in, if you don’t want to be here, you don’t have to be here, so it’s up to you.”
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