Everything From Georgia Tech Head Coach Brent Key After Yellow Jackets First Practice

It was the first full day of Fall Camp today for Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets took the field and are one month away from their season opener against Colorado. After practice today, Georgia Tech head coach Brent Key met with the media and here is everything that he had to say.

Opening Statement...

"First off, you know, I just want to comment on what he's (Colorado head coach Deion Sanders) going through. I just really wish him full recovery, speedy But we really just admire the courage it takes to come out and talk about that in public and really encourage other people and encourage other people to get themselves checked and tested. I mean, it hits home with a lot of people, I'm sure. So, you know, really look forward to him being on another sideline in a month from now. And man, gosh, just a terrible situation, but glad to see he's really pushed through it, you know, the really gritting the toughness that he has. I mean, that's why the team plays the way they do. So, you know, wish him a speedy recovery. And then actually, Mike, when they're talking, you know, I want to make sure I talked about the, he was kind of filling me in a little bit on the update on what happened in New York and the office building there and just, you know, my sympathy for myself and everybody here goes out to all those affected and you and just another hard tragedy there. So I want to make sure to comment on both of those things first. Those hit home pretty close.

So it's good to be back out on the field. We've got things we've got to accomplish to this training camp. We had a really good summer, a 10 week session this summer. And now it's time to go through four weeks of training camp, three of them and the midst of it, and then one week of game prep. We got a long way to go. We got a chance to have a good football team. But there's no short cuts. And I told the team afterwards, there's a right way to do things and a wrong way to do things, and there's no in between here. And everybody's held accountable to that. Everybody's held at that same expectation, the same standard, whatever you want to call it. And that's my job to make sure they're held to that. And we're not slacking off at all, we got to get the most out of everybody out there, every opportunity we get. So obviously it was a little warm out there today. But two of our first three games, we're playing in the same type of conditions here at home. So we got to get used to it. We got to get prepared for it. We got to practice in it so we can be able to play on it. Why do we do certain things? Well, that's why you play football.

So football, you run, You hit, you wear pads, you practice, you play, play at 12 o 'clock, play at 3 o 'clock. So, you know, we're always talking about shrinking that gap between practice and games and that's what that's all about. So, really the objectives going into camp this year for us were really to develop, continue to develop overall toughness of our football team, you know, the mental toughness and the physical toughness that goes in it, goes into, to be in the type of team we want to be. To, you to really establish our core foundation of discipline. Everybody here is disciplined and discipline is not punishment. Punishment is punishment, discipline is discipline. Discipline is the choice that everybody makes. Really, the 22 hours that you're not on the field during training camp is when discipline really matters the most. How you're taking care of your body, how you're hydrating, how you're getting your rest, how you're studying your playbook, all those things. We want to be a team that excels in our fundamentals, you know, our fundamental techniques for each position played, you know, I want to make sure throughout all practice that the individuals carry over into the group periods and the group periods carry over into the team periods. And then, you know, the month from now, we'll start carrying those over into games, but we want to be a, you know, have strong fundamentals and let that be one of the things that separates us from other football teams, You know to come together as a team, you know, and that's everybody's players. It's coaches staff members You know equipment managers and your trainers, video. It doesn't matter. We got to come together to it as a team and everybody understands their role in the program and everybody understand how important their individual role is in the program all right, because we couldn't do what we do if one person decides not to do their job or not do it the best they can so you know, coming together as a full team, you know, that that's really important. And then, you know, developing trust between players and coaches, you know, players understand why coaches are on it, why they demand it be done a certain way. Coaches understand why I'm on them, you know, demand it to be a certain way. There's got to be a trust factor there.

There's got to be a trust that, and trust is built over the course of time. It's built with relationships more so than time on the field. And you got to have those because, you because our job as coaches is to push people and keep them safe while we're doing it. And they've got to trust us that we've got their best interest and we're going to put them in the best position to be able to have success during the season. And then we want to be the best conditioned team on the field every game we play. And that's not just your cardiovascular, not just your physical shape you're in, but also the best mentally conditioned team of any team that we play all year. So those are really the things we're working towards this year. You know, It's been a long off -season, I'd say, of working these things, but now it's time to put it all together and start to tie that bow around the top of it and put ourselves in a position to play football games."

1. On the depth and experience of this team...

"Well, I mean, really that's something that started three years ago, two and a half years ago in recruiting is, not just bringing a player in because it's the best player you can bring in. You just have to be conscious of what class they are, the spacing between guys at certain positions. You don't want to get a situation where every position is four or five or six guys leave in that year, right? You got to be able to develop guys in your program, your fourth safety, your fifth safety, your seventh, eighth offensive linemen. Those guys that have been been here in the program, been here for two years, three years to be able to retain those guys. That was really important for us. Then from January all the way until May, our approach in the portal was we wanted to take guys that had proven experience and proven track records of production and improvement through play on the field. We didn't want to take guys that might have been such and such coming out of high school or one year and then sitting on the bench somewhere and didn't really get the time. So we addressed all those needs. Obviously the NFL model is the top 10 players in the team and how they're ranked and by certain teams, pretty much the same eight to 10 and all of them. But there's also 52 guys on the team, right? Colleges are still over 100 guys on football team. You got to develop those guys. So it's just as important really to elevate that bottom third of your roster every year. That bottom the 25 -30 because if you're elevating that now you're elevating the rest of your team as well. So you know really a double -edged approach we took there with you know increasing and retain or acquiring retaining you know some of those top positions on team but also improving really the bottom third of the roster."

2. On the spring transfer additions to the secondary...

"Yeah, we just have underwear on right now, so it's tough to really tell what they're doing, but we do have some depth back there. We've, we've got depth, we've got depth that's played. Like I said, it's played in football games, shown improvement in football games, not just going to practice for two years somewhere. Guys that have had action been productive, we're gonna have really good competition there. And look, you have guys that are back that are starters, that means that they have experience in your program. That doesn't always necessarily mean they're the best players that position on the team. My job as the head coach is to make sure the best player at each position is on the field play."

3. On the health of the team heading into camp...

"No, I mean, we talked about Chad in the spring time. Chad will be out part of the season this year, but I don't know when to expect him back. He's way ahead of schedule, way ahead of progress. He's actually, you know, he's made so much improvement this offseason. You know, but, you know, that could be something, could be October, I don't know, could be September. He's way ahead of schedule on that. So, but again, that's why we increased the depth of that position. You know, we've got seven scholarship guys there at that position and at the running back spot. And it's important we use those guys multiple with the way we use them, not the way we practice. All of a sudden, one guy rolls an ankle, one guy gets twisted up in a helmet, comes off, and you're down at the bottom of the depth chart. So in my mind, whoever ends up being the third, fourth, fifth running back, those guys are just important as one and two You're going to play a lot of football this year."

4. On the internal expectations of the team...

"Well, that's why they're internal expectations because they stay internal. Seriously, It's internal or external. Y 'all's job is external, our job's internal. I mean, they're high. They're very high. And that's all I'll say is that, no matter what the external expectations are, they should never be higher than what your internal expectations are of yourself."

5. On the quarterback room...

"We got a really good quarterback room. And I think the last eight months, they've taken a huge step forward just because of competition. And look, you don't play quarterback at this level and be able to play at the level our guys have played at. If that's not a constant drive for you to become better every day. I don't believe in guys plateau out or top out or you know reach their potential or you know I actually believe everybody can work to be better every day and look you know work to be better and improve yourself if you're getting worse so there's so many small things they can work on that's everybody."

6. On the defense...

"Obviously, they have a lot of work to do at this point right now. Yeah, what we're really going to tell is the week starts to end in the beginning of the next week, things will start to shake themselves out. But it was noticeable the speed on defense, hands on the ball, tight coverage, transitioning coverage, guys transitioning to the football. We, as a team, we got to do a much better job of running to the ball, you know, that sun beating down on us a little bit today. Put some, put some heavy weights on their, on their shoulders. But we got to push through that. You know, that's the job of the coaches, that's the job of the players, to push through those things while at the same time taking care of our guys and making sure they're in a good position and healthy out there. But just nature of the defense, too. That was a big thing when we made the transition in January. We wanted to simplify some things for a few spots. And Kyle talked about that at media day last week. And have guys that can fly around the football, have multiple hands on the ball, disrupt the opponent's offense, get hands on the football, get turnovers, create disruption in the front end. I was pleased with all three of those things, really, today. But like I said, we've got a long way to go. But we are a faster defense, for sure."

7. On the confidence of the team...

"That's great to hear because, you know, confidence is something that it's hard to come by a lot of times. You know, so many individuals are insecure, not confident themselves. And, you know, a lot of that is part of the external factors that are out there in the world. You know, to have a group of guys that does have confidence but not arrogance. You know, I try to portray that as well with the team, because I want them to be confident, right? Look, you know, we got good football players, right? We got good football players that work their butts off. So, you know, they should have confidence, right? If you don't have confidence, I mean, there's, there's, you got zero chance. And all these things we talk about, I mean, they're not, they're not giving us any reason to celebrate. They just give you an opportunity, a chance to be able to put it all together and celebrate it into the year, so I think it's a really good thing."

8. On Marshall Nichols and the punt team...

"I hope so. I hope so. I can't do it. You don't have any eligibility left. I don't know if you fit in uniform. But he's pretty good. He's pretty good at changing some things for us."

9. On the depth of the receiver room...

"Yeah, more bodies, that's for sure. That was another thing we talked about, transferring and building the roster out this offseason, that we knew we had to add bodies at certain skill spots. You know, for practice matters, building more guys in the field practice than at once, because also if you run out of numbers at one position, well, well, now that affects maybe if you run out receivers that affects the O -line who need those reps and it all just starts to unravel so addressing the needs of some of those reps and it all just starts to unravel so addressing the needs of some of those positions and look, there's a whole big book of reasons why we you know added different body types and different positions at different positions."

10. On what he has learned about himself as he prepares for year three on the job...

"You know, that's probably a better question to ask somebody else about me, but you know, there's so much. You know, I say it like this, You go through year one and you make all the decisions and you do all the things you do. Of course you think it's the right thing or you wouldn't be doing it, right? Well then year two you realize how messed up you were and how bad you screwed those a lot of those things up. Well then when you're sitting there in year two you can choose to ignore that and just going about the way you know going about your day and in the business or you can adjust and fix those things that you realize that weren't right in year but therefore, that makes year one again, almost like year two, almost like a new year one, because you're putting all of it back together. And then by that third year, I told the staff, and I told the players on the team, I mean, I feel it's focused and clear, headed and almost like blinders on right now with the missions in front of us. And it'll become more and more that way with more experience, the ability to anticipate things, kind of quiet the noise that goes around every day and focus on what's really important. So, yeah, it's pretty cool to sit there and think of it now, and I'll go back and look at my notes from a year ago or two years ago. And you see really how things have changed and how I've changed. And the coaches have changed. We've all evolved and adapted and become better version of ourselves."