It is Notre Dame week for the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets and they were back on the practice field today getting prepared for the No. 12 Fighting Irish. After practice, head coach Brent Key spoke to the media and here is everything that he had to say.

Opening Statement…

“All right, the first thing I want to do is talk about the passing of the receiver at UNC. I was made aware of it after I spoke to you, you, guys, spoke to the press on Saturday after the game. Otherwise, I would have said something then. But I mean, just want to send all of our condolences to the UNC football family and to the crowd family and the passing and what a horrible thing to go through. And just to be a part of So the game where they did honor him and his family. Just a tragic loss and hearts and prayers of everybody here at Georgia Tech go out to the UNC football family. So again, I found out right after I came out of press on Saturday. So just jumping backward now, talking about the game.

It is always good to come out of a road game, in conference road game with the win, I mean they have a talented roster, and they played 60 minutes, I think our team played 60 minutes, but it made way to many mistakes in the game to be able to have continued success and what I did after the mistakes in the game to be able I have continued success in what I did after the game, watching the game at home, come in the next morning. I really challenged everybody, the staff, players. I told them this. I said, let’s take the game from yesterday, UNC game. Take the scoreboard out of the equation. Take outcome out. Take that out of the picture. What’s the difference between the UNC game and the Louisville game. If you take the scoreboard out, what’s the difference in the two? And that’s the way we have to look at things when we come out of games. And we talk about being in the same mentality of adjustments and corrections and improvement and getting better every game. Well, if you look at those two games, the only difference is one of them we could have won, one of them we could have lost. Okay, so I think that’s a powerful message that I was able to put it in that respect to the team and to the coaching staff In order to really to bear down to be able to go back to work this week clean up the things from from the game on Saturday you know, there’s there’s things we have to clean up in in play and there’s things out of play that we have to clean up and that goes back to me. I take responsibility for those things same thing with the staff, but the great thing about this team and the staff is we have other guys that take ownership and know we got to get those things corrected and cleaned up and we have so you know, we got a big game this weekend on Saturday, and I’m not gonna sit here and say it’s not a big game I’m not gonna give you coach speak and say that it’s just the next game on the schedule and all games are big games I mean, this is a this is a really big game. This is a really big opportunity for this program.

But with all opportunities come challenges. And the opportunity is Saturday, but the challenge is right now. The challenge is today. The challenge is tomorrow. The challenge is in our preparation, in our detail, in our focus, and in our toughness, and how we prepare this week to be able to go into the game and play for a full 60 minutes, which I feel 100 % confident our team will continue to do that. But we’ve got to continue to improve on the execution and the decision-making within game, say the line of fire, and within the plays. So we’ve improved some, but then some, there are critical times that we have those things, and we’ve got to continue to improve on that. Starting on Sunday, and then obviously on the field today, I thought we had a good practice today. It went a little bit longer And then we have, we’ll cut back a little bit more tomorrow to balance it out. So we’re excited to play and we’ve got to prepare this week. And in order, we’ve got to prepare in a big way in order to play a big game. It is what it is. So the talented football team, we’re getting ready to play. So Marcus has done a really good job there. He’s been there for three years now. And his tenacity as a player, when he was a player, and as a defensive coach, you see that in the team. They are in the top, you know, the top, I think almost every defensive category, you know, they’re going to run the football. They’re a run-first team. Got a really good quarterback. He’s good at throwing the football as well as good, good with his feet. Very similar to our quarterback in what he does and what he can do. Probably a little more designed quarterback runs in the open field on normal downs than us. But they have a, they have a big offensive line. they’re young, they have some guys in there that are getting, you know, playing for the first time this season. You see them each week come together more and more, and become more of a cohesive unit. So we’re excited to play them. We’re excited to, you know, play at Mercedes-Benz and excited to have our fans there, excited to have our student body come over and, you know, mile down the road and be able to be a part of the outcome of this game. And I know they will. We’re excited about it, and can’t wait to go play. We’ve got a lot of work between now and then to get done.”

1. On Notre Dame’s Defense…

“They’ve got good players and a good scheme. They’re not an ultra -complicated scheme. They have enough compliments within their scheme to where it looks the same than they’ll blitz out of or send pressure out of it, tweaks in the coverage. But at the end of the day, they’re going to line up, play four down, and then they’re going to play man coverage and challenge you at the receiver’s spot, make you throw on time, try to limit the run game with the extra hat in the box. And they got good players doing it. So obviously, you know, the head coach is a defensive coach, but they have one of the better defense coordinators in the country, and Al Golden, you know, calling the defense. And, you know, I don’t know him personally, But people I’m very close to that I respect a lot and know played for him and know what type of coach he is. And you see the tenacity and the defense and then take on that personality as well.”

2. On Haynes King…

“Yeah, he’s day to day. We’ve got a lot of guys that are banged up right now. Played a physical game, 60 minute game game on Saturday. That’s what this time of year is. This time of year is everybody’s playing in September and early September. Everybody’s rocking and rolling and expecting the best. And then if you still get to the point we are right now in the season and you have things to play for, that’s a blessing. And it’s what we want. But are we banged up? Yeah, we’re banged up. And we have several guys who will be day to day. We’ll make a decision at game time when they go or not.”

3. On what stood out to him about playing against Notre Dame when he was a player…

“Yeah, well, I mean, that’s 27 years ago. So I don’t think any of the players are the same, Bob Davey’s not on the sideline. So you’re going back to the mystique of Notre Dame, aren’t you? You’re going back to the rivalry of what you’re 27 years. Well, that was my first start ever. I was a red shirt freshman, went up there and first game I ever played in. Yeah, it was a lot of memories. I can’t tell you the second, third, fourth, fifth, 10th, 30th. I can tell you the first and the last. And I can tell you what would have been probably the fourth, which was the Gator Bowl in ’98. So we were one -and -one as when I was a player versus them, one time up there, one time in the bowl game. Then having seen them on film a lot, we played against them a couple of times since then, but it’s a big game. And look, their brand does a lot for It carries a lot of weight when I say it does a lot for them. It doesn’t play the game for them, but it does bring fans. They travel well. They’re going to have a lot of fans wherever they play. It’s a historic brand. You think college football, you think Notre Dame. Well, historically, you think college football, you think Georgia Tech. And that’s our job right now is to make Georgia Tech now in the present, as well as in the past. But no, that’s what’s what’s a big game. They’re going to have good players year in and year out. They’re going to have a good team year in and year out. They’ve got really good coaches, they’re well -coached. They try to limit mistakes like everyone does and not beat themselves, but it’s a great opportunity when you play a game like this, it really is.”

4. On Luke Harpring stepping up on Saturday…

“Yeah, I think we have five tight ends on the roster. I think seven of them are hurt right now. So we’re able to dig down deep in there It’s– that’s pretty cool to see a number 15 Harpring running around on an athletic field here at Georgia Tech. He’s a talented young man. He, you know, I almost said Matt. Luke is, Luke’s very talented. Really excited we were able to get him to be a part of our program. We had him in camp for several years and really saw him grow up from a, you know, 6 ‘285 pound, you know, sophomore in high school to, you know, now 6 ‘3″, 225 pound, you know, tight end that he is, that it’s very versatile. You know, I thought the coolest thing about him was he got in the game, and the game wasn’t too big for him. You see a lot of guys get in the game and they have bright eyes and it starts moving too fast. It wasn’t that way at all for him. I thought he played really well. But a big reason for that is that’s why you get young guys and freshmen in early in the season on special teams when you can. Because you never know how injuries are going to happen down the road. Even though you might not plan on playing early on, Everyone’s got to be ready mentally to be able to play. I’ve said it before that freshman that play as freshman don’t act like a freshman. They don’t. You can’t come in and be doing what a lot of freshmen across the country are doing right now and expect to be able to play and have success. And I think he’s done that well.”

5. On getting to play in Mercedes Benz…

“Yeah, I think I believe there’s a year or two years left on the contract. Whatever it is left on the contract, that was way before me. That was way before me. But it’s one of the greatest stadiums in the world. It’s a great venue to play a game in. You talk about the side lines are good, the field is good, just everything about it, the facilities, the locker rooms. It’s great for the fans, the venue for the fans. It was pretty cool. You talk about history to play Notre Dame. I was in the first game in Mercedes -Benz. What was that? 2017? We opened up the Mercedes -Benz. So we had a lot of chances to play in there. Going to games there. Concerts. Soccer. But it’s a great venue. Excited to be able to play and be a part of it.”

6. On having a common opponent with Notre Dame (Louisville)…

“No, we watch every team they played this year. We broke down every game this year, last year, going back probably five years of different things. And we look at every bit of film. We don’t look at necessarily the common teams that have been played. If they’ve played seven games, we watch their seven games of film. This day and age in college football. I mean, if you just, it’s usually Saturday night before I get a chance to look at the scrupes from the week or from the day. I mean, you line up in any given weekend anybody can beat anybody. That’s what makes it fun. I think you know the parity right now in college football is what’s making it you know such a great sport for the fans. It’s also great for players and for the coaches to be able to you know have it that way.”

7. On being 8-4 in one-score games…

“Yeah, wish it was better than 8-4. We talk a lot about identity of a team, you know, I don’t think the identity is just one thing or two things. You can keep adding to it. I firmly believe that the identity of this football team is it’s a four -quarter team. They’re gonna play regardless of the scoreboard. They don’t let those things affect them. Now there’s other things that affect have affected us that we’ve got to continue to work on. But to play physical, play tough, enjoy playing that way play through adversity and play for an entire football game that that’s that’s a trait on this team that I don’t want to change and we gotta continue to elevate it.”

8. On playing Georgia in Mercedes Benz Stadium next year…

“How many days away? Come on. Come on, Chad. You know me better than that. Not at all. I’m just, I’m excited to be able to get a deal done and be able to be beneficial for us.”

9. On Kyle Efford and his personal foul penalty on Saturday…

“Yeah, well, obviously it wasn’t targeting. Kyle’s a great kid, anybody that knows Kyle knows what type of unbelievable person he is and how much he loves playing the game and how much he cares for his teammates. He also cares for the people he plays against and he meant he meant no ill-will towards that, but not for a second am I going to try to tone down the way Kyle plays the game. But that goes back to what I said about the decisions within play, being able to make smart decisions within play, not get tunnel vision on one thing. And we’ve talked a long, long time about it. We did. There are several instances that have come up in the last couple weeks of things, not necessarily that exact same thing, but that we’ve got to do a better job of making those in -game in -play decisions.”

10. On Tyler Santucci and if him having to gameplan for Notre Dame last year helps…

“I mean, not really. I don’t think so. I mean, there’s a lot of teams we play year in and year out, and it’s you start And you start back, it’s base ground zero on Sunday when we start preparing for teams. It doesn’t matter if you’ve played against players on that team or coached against players on that team or played against a certain team or coached against them in the past. I mean, the past is just as the past. And we’re looking at what’s relevant now. I mean, schemes change. Coaches change. Players change. So week in and week out, people are going to make tweaks to their scheme as well, so I don’t think it really has an impact on one way or the other.”

11. On if they are working to get the special teams errors fixed…

“Yes sir. Yes, sir. Yeah, that Not to the expectation that I have, that Ricky has, that any one of the staff has, and that our team has. And its been very much so addressed, and very much so a lot of work already into making sure that does not happen again.”