Don’t talk to Brent Key about games Tech is ‘supposed to win’

In the aftermath of winning another game as a double-digit underdog, Georgia Tech coach Brent Key coach was pressed as to how he gets his team to now go defeat a similar, if not inferior, team after such a resounding victory?

“That right there is the narrative that is created that our players have to listen to every single day,” Key stumped Saturday after beating No. 17 North Carolina. “When you talk about external distractions that our players have to hear, that they have to listen to, that we spend so much of every day fighting those things back down because, ‘Oh you’re supposed to win this game and you’re not supposed to win this game.’ Who says that? I don’t know.

“All I do, I watch film. The more we can get our guys to listen to what we say, to understand what we say is true - you watch tape and then that’s what you judge it off of.”

Key and his Yellow Jackets (4-4, 3-2 ACC) have twice made headlines this season with exhilarating upsets over teams inside the top 25, the second of which came Saturday at Bobby Dodd Stadium where they knocked off the Tar Heels in a 46-42 shootout. The triumph got Tech back to .500, reignited the team’s bowl hopes and moved it into a fourth-place tie in the ACC standings.

Yet it will be déjà vu for Key and his program this week at it prepares to play at Virginia at 2 p.m. Saturday. The Jackets have already enjoyed the pats on the back from winning its home debut over South Carolina State, a road win at Wake Forest to start conference play and an upset of Miami thanks to a miraculous final few seconds. Yet after each of those victories they have come out for their next opportunity and fallen flat in their efforts to create a winning streak.

So as frustrating as the so-called narrative may be for Tech, it has been the author of its own script by alternating losses and wins through eight games.

“Now you’ve got to put two games together. Now you’ve got to put three games together. That’s the way it is,” Key said. “There’ll be no difference going in there (Sunday) than it was going in this week. When you go in there after a win – there’s just as many mistakes out there tonight as there was in the last game. They’ll be very easy to see and find. We can’t get it twisted just because the scoreboard ended up in our favor tonight.”

Tech begins the month of November very much alive to make the postseason for the first time since 2018, also the last year it was able to win four games before the third month of the season. It got there thanks to an entertaining performance against UNC in which it put up 635 yards of total offense, scored 22 points in the fourth quarter to come back from 11 down, got inspired play from quarterback Haynes King, running back Dontae Smith, receivers Mailk Rutherford and Eric Singleton and tight end Brett Seither.

The team’s defense wasn’t great but bowed up when it mattered most against the high-octane UNC offense. It held the Tar Heels to seven points in the period (which came in the first four minutes), got two third down stops, held North Carolina to a field goal attempt (which it missed) and forced what amounted to a game-winning turnover.

“We came together as a defense this week. I feel like we got closer this week. Seeing everything pay off just makes me happy. It makes us feel like we’re working for something. All this work not for nothing,” Tech defensive back Ahmari Harvey said. “We came together, we watched film together, we bonded closer from the DBs to the D-line to the linebackers. It wasn’t just the secondary. D-line was forcing pressure, they started to stop the run game which allowed us on the back end to play together, play strong.

“We’d been watching film all week, this is a very talented group, one of the best quarterbacks in the country and I’m just glad we got the job done.”

Tech faces a Virginia team that, at 2-6, will be fighting Saturday to keep its slim bowl hopes alive. Fight is something the Cavaliers have shown a lot of throughout much of the season, however.

Coach Tony Elliott’s team lost by a point to undefeated and No. 23 James Madison in September. It lost back-to-back games to North Carolina State and Boston College, respectively, by a total of six points later that month. In October, UVA beat William and Mary, upset a ranked North Carolina team on the road and then took Miami to overtime before losing by three.

“I watched Virginia on tape all (last) week,” Key said. “I think that’s enough to worry about. I watched ‘em on tape just beat the team (UNC) that we beat out there.”

Tech needs to win at least two of its final four games of the regular season to be eligible for a bowl game. After the trip to Virginia, the Jackets go to Clemson (4-4, 2-4 ACC) and then return home to host Syracuse (4-4, 0-4 ACC) in their ACC finale. No. 1-ranked Georgia (8-0) comes to Bobby Dodd Stadium on Nov. 25.

Against those four teams, can Key’s finally break the spell of following a win with a loss?

“We’ve talked about establishing an identity. We’ve talked about every game defines you one way or the other. It’s our choice how a game defines us,” Key said. “We’ve got to make that same decision (Sunday) when we get in – how this game’s going to define us? No different than we did last week. And when we walk in the meeting room (Sunday) of how that game’s going to define us and what we’re going to take from this game to move forward.