Georgia Tech coach Brent Key is off the grid.
“I have no social media,” Key said. “I have not turned on the TV at all. I know zero going on other than what’s going on in this building with this football team. … I had them turn the TVs off this morning in the cafeteria and the locker room.”
After Saturday’s victory against then-No. 17 North Carolina, he didn’t turn on ACC Network or follow the coverage. Any outside information about the night came from his wife, who showed him a video of the student section after the game, and Georgia Tech Athletics.
That doesn’t mean Key was unaware of the excitement surrounding the Yellow Jackets’ upset win. He praised the student section, calling it the “most electric” environment he’s seen at Bobby Dodd Stadium. Key also made cameos in multiple players’ postgame interviews, jumping in to shout-out his team.
Key and his Jackets spent late Saturday night and early Sunday morning reveling in their victory. Students swarmed the field postgame, surrounding the football team. Players celebrated in the locker room and spoke with enthusiasm about the environment postgame. Fans kept cheering as they left the stadium.
That was a joyous moment for Tech. But Key and his players are ready to turn the page.
Quarterback Haynes King already had reflected some on his play after Saturday’s game. King graded himself at a B-plus, which he said was because of his interception and seven incompletions on 30 attempts. There’s always room for improvement each week, King said.
Key said leaving the game behind is easy, but distractions and inconsistencies during the week can be difficult. The approach to a new weeks starts with him, he said.
“You want the team to feed off of you as the head coach,” Key said. “If you were around (Tuesday) morning, around 7:30 or 8:00, you wouldn’t have seen anything about that game.”
During Sunday’s team meeting, Key spoke with his team about a formula: event plus response equals outcome. The event many are focused on right now is Tech’s inability to win back-to-back games, Key said. He said his players likely would be asked about this after the North Carolina game, so he wanted to address it.
“I said, ‘That isn’t the event, and we are not going to respond to any event that’s in the past because you can’t change that event,’” Key said. “‘You can’t do anything about it. There’s nothing that can be done about it. We can sit here and have hypothetical conversations about those things and never have the truth.’”
Key said he told his players they can’t control the past, but they can control their preparation for their next matchup through emphasizing practice, their study of the opponent, nutrition and sleep habits.
There is something the Jackets want to hang on to from the North Carolina contest: consistency. Although Tech had scoring outbursts in the second and fourth quarter, they generally kept pace with the Tar Heels the entire game.
Running back Dontae Smith said he thought the Jackets “finally” put together a full game Saturday, taking things quarter by quarter.
Key said each game means nothing for the following week. However, he said Saturday’s performance showed the team that they can do things such as run the ball well. He said this raised some questions.
“How do you want to be viewed consistently over time now?” Key said. “How do you want us to be seen? Do you want to us to be seen as we did (that) then, but not now? It’s consistency. We’ve got to continue to get to it,” Key said. “That’s a work in progress, and we’re working every day on it.”
