Quotes from Georgia Tech head coach Brent Key's time at the podium at ACC Kickoff

Georgia Tech sent its contingent to Charlotte, N.C. on Wednesday for the annual ACC Kickoff with that group including head coach Brent Key and players Haynes King, Kyle Efford and Malik Rutherford.

Each of that foursome got their time at the podium to talk about the Jackets and answer questions from the media.

Key, who is heading into his third full season as head coach after being interim in 2022, was first up, and here’s the full transcript of what he had to say:

KEY’s opening statement: “What’s up, everybody? Question I probably get asked the most is why Georgia Tech. I wanted to come up here and just give a few reasons why Georgia Tech is the place it is to me, to these guys here. Some of the things we’ve accomplished, first back-to-back winning seasons and bowl appearances in over a decade at our school, 5-0 at home last year, largely in part because of our fan base and the reenergized students in our student section and the how they really are a part of our team on game day.

The last two media days we’ve come up here we’ve been picked to finish 12th and 10th in the conference and we’ve finished fourth, one of only two teams to finish fourth in the league in the last two years, us and Louisville. We had multiple wins last year over top 10 teams for the first time in program history. But on top of that, we had our third consecutive semester of over a 3.0 GPA with a 3.03. It was the highest in the history of the football program, and that’s at Georgia Tech.

We’re building a new football building that will be completed next March. We’ll be able to move in in the middle of March of next year, and that’s to be followed by a massive stadium renovation of Bobby Dodd Stadium. We’re the top program in the country in terms of our investment in how we use sports, science and technology and the cutting edge that we are with that, which you would expect nothing less from a place like Georgia Tech.

The Atlanta business community and how they’ve embraced our team and embraced our programs and all of our athletics programs in our entire school, and we know moving forward how important that’s going to be in the landscape of college football with the real NIL opportunities, sponsorships, job opportunities when these guys are done playing. Our 5th Quarter Program, which is our life after football program that we have. It really sets these guys up for when they are done playing football and prepares them for that life. To be in the state of Georgia with the outstanding high school coaches that are there in our life, our lifeline of recruiting and the relationships we have there and the support we have from them. And at the end of the day, Georgia Tech is a place where you can come to be a first-round pick and a CEO.

That’s why Georgia Tech is important to me. That’s why it’s important to these guys. My belief in those things, and that’s important. Talking about football and really to recap a little bit of last year, we took a big step forward last season. Really, the last two years we have. But we ended the season with two very disappointing losses that we felt like we had an opportunity to win. But we know at this point we’ve established an identity of this football team, and that’s not going to change. We know who we are as a football team. Everyone in the country knows who we are as a football team, and we embrace that.

You sign up to play a game with Georgia Tech and people know what they’re going to get. They know what they’re in store for. That’s something that we’ve worked extremely hard to build over the last two years, the identity that we have as a team.

Look, we’re going to celebrate that. We’re going to embrace that and make sure that we enjoy the fruits of the labor it’s taken to put that together because it’s not going to stop.

You come to Georgia Tech, you have no choice but to be a part of that identity as a football player.

So when people talk about our identity, yeah, we get excited about it, but that’s done nothing to guarantee us anything during the season. To celebrate an identity just gives you a chance and an opportunity at the end of the year to be able to possibly celebrate more things. We’ve got a ways to go. We’re working to continue to close that gap that we’ve been working for the last two seasons.

After the season is over, you move into the off-season and you start addressing the things that you have to address to make yourself a better program. That starts with roster retention, roster additions, how you might make some adjustments and tweaks within how you build your roster to be able to win games that you have to win at all points in the season, increasing your depth as a football team, staffing, staff retention, staff adjustments, staff additions, upgrades.

Then it really goes to the players and what they do in the off-season with our strength and conditioning staff, our athletic training staff, our nutrition and dieticians. What they’ve done with these guys and how they’ve worked them really from the beginning of January up until this point now, where now, AJ Artis, our strength coach, they can hand them over to the coaches. What they’ve done with these guys to build them into who they are has been great, but really the best part of the off-season is we’re not just a bunch of teammates running around. These guys have built a bond and a brotherhood, friendships, relationships, that when they go out on that field, they are truly willing to lay it on the line for each other. That doesn’t come by just saying it or talking about it. There’s a lot of action and work that takes place to make that happen.

Looking forward to this year. We’ve got a great opportunity in front of us. We really do. It’s not about other people’s expectations that matter. Only expectations that matter are ours. Nothing externally should ever trump what our internal expectations are for ourselves.

When you look at returning players on our team, we have 18 players returning that have started football games for us, 27 seniors on our team, which in this day and age that says a lot. It says a lot about the guys that wanted to stay here and be a part of this. We return 87 percent of our passing yards, 84 percent of our rushing yards.

You look at some of the guys we brought with us today. Haynes King, our quarterback, his pass production numbers, when you look at the yards, touchdowns, completion percentage, lack of interceptions, he’s one of the best in modern college football history in what he was able to do last year.

Offensive linemen, Red, Keylan Rutledge. He had All-American recognition last year. First time that a non-specialist at Georgia Tech has been named and All-American since 2014, and that was Shaq Mason. Malik, little Energizer Bunny. People don’t know, he’s been Georgia Tech’s most productive wide receiver in terms of receptions, single season and career, since Calvin Johnson.

Kyle doesn’t have his neck roll on today, but Kyle Efford, he’s a big part of, if not the biggest part of the reason we had the biggest turnaround in run defense that we’ve ever had. I think it’s 30 years that that type of turnaround has happened. We’ve still got a lot of work to do to continue to improve as a football team.

We brought transfers in this year. We retained our roster. These guys all had opportunities to go other places. That’s the nature of the beast, but they chose to be here, and I’m indebted to these guys for that.

Transfers we brought in, we had a certain approach we wanted to look at when we brought in transfers. We wanted to sign guys as transfers to fill gaps and holes that had proven production at other colleges. We did not want to bring guys in that had been sitting on the bench. We wanted guys that had production at other places. To be able to fill holes. We brought in the Ivy League Offensive Player of the Year, Malachi Hosley, running back. Southern Conference Defensive Player of the Year, Brayden Manley. All-American wide receiver in Eric Rivers. Two conference — his teammate Dean Patterson, another wide receiver All-Conference USA guy. Freshman All-American DB in Daiquan White. Starting SEC defensive tackle, who returned back to where he started because he wanted to be with us, wanted to finish where he started. A lot of those were reasons why the outlook is very positive.

But we can sit up here as head coaches and talk about the season, but none of us really have any idea how it’s going to unfold. We can’t control that. All we can control is the work we put in, how we prepare, how we build our team, and how we play for each other.

I’m extremely excited about this season coming up. I’m extremely excited about these guys we were able to bring with us today, as well as all the other guys on the football team. And with that, we’ll leave it open for any questions.”

Question: What were some of the factors that led to the Georgia game being played at Mercedes-Benz Stadium this year instead of at The Flats?

KEY: “Those are way above my pay grade. I couldn’t care less. We could go play in Piedmont Park. I couldn’t give a crap where we play.”

Question: How much do you think the on-field performance of your team has impacted the ability to attract Georgia’s top talent and keeping them in state?

KEY: “Yeah, that’s something we set out in the very beginning is to recruit the best players for Georgia Tech. All that starts in Atlanta, and then in the state of Georgia, and then it works out to Florida, South Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, and through Louisiana, and maybe every now and then we’ll find somebody from a little small town in East Texas, Longview.”

Question: Haynes King, just what you’ve seen from him, be it injuries, going back out on to the field, being relentless, willing to play through something. What his leadership has shown you, not just in word but also in deed?

KEY: “I don’t have enough time to talk about what he’s done for the football team, how he plays the game. I can tell you one story that probably just encompasses everything about Haynes King. Two seasons ago we were playing in a bowl game and it was towards the end of the game, and I don’t know if many people know this, but we were playing against UCF in the bowl. Haynes had an opportunity in that football game to break four all-time single-season passing records at Georgia Tech. Like close. And at the end of the game we ran the ball 27 straight times, and he was saying, run it again, run it again. He was telling Buster, run it again, run it again, because he knew that was the way to break their will. When you’ve got a guy like that that puts the team above himself and is willing to lay it on the line for his teammates, everybody else is going to run through a wall for him.”

Question: Quick question about opening games, and I know forever you’re getting ready for teams that have a different look from the previous year, but nowadays it’s even more pronounced with the changes. But specifics about Colorado, different quarterback and a lot of different faces, but the quarterback — new quarterback had played at Liberty before. When you’re getting ready for this game, are you going to watch some Liberty? Are you going to be watching what Colorado did to get prepared for the opener in Boulder?

KEY: “I’m probably the worst person to ask that because I watch a lot of film. I’ve watched their last two years’ seasons, every offense, defense, special teams, every game the last two years. I think I’ve watched them twice now. Their transfer players, probably about three quarters of the way through watching the film of where they’ve come from, regardless of who may or may not be a starter, if they have an opportunity to be, and you piece it together. But when you go into a first game, you’re only as good as your base offense, defense and kicking game. It’s about a game of adjustments by coaches, but you’re as good as your base fundamentals.”

Question: Last year at Florida State, you guys put the ACC on notice by upsetting them and you’ve got Boulder coming up this away opener for you guys. Deion Sanders, we know what kind of spotlight he brings being in Boulder the last two years and the Deion effect. How are you going to prepare your guys mentally being under that type of microscope on a national level?

KEY: “Yeah, we’ve played a lot of games on the national level in the last two years and on the national stage, and that’s what we want to do. We want to play games that are on the national stage. We want to play games that the public has a chance to see our brand of football and who we are as a team, and that’s what we’re going to continue to look to do when we play those games.

We’re excited to go play Colorado. It’s an opportunity to settle the 1990 National Championship. Look, to be honest, Deion was one of my heroes growing up as a kid. I played baseball and football. It was Deion and Bo Jackson. Pretty cool thing.”

Question: Buster Faulkner, the news came out he was extended this morning. What has he meant to this program and what does it mean that he’s going to be around The Flats for the foreseeable future?

KEY: “Yeah, first off, Buster is not only an extremely respected football coach, but he’s a very dear friend. Him and his family, they’re very close. I entrust him with the offense. I entrust him with putting a plan together. We converse a lot and talk a lot. He’s one of the closest confidants I have on the entire staff with a lot of things. But at the end of the day, I trust Buster Faulkner.

Look, what transpired with that, that just is another sign that shows the commitment that starts with Dr. Cabrera, with his commitment to Georgia Tech athletics and his commitment to Georgia Tech football, and giving us the resources to compete with anybody out there, anybody in the country.

I can’t thank him enough for allowing those things to continue to happen. But at the same time, it’s no different than I talk to the players about all the time. There’s one thing to walk in somebody’s office and ask them for an increase in NIL or go out and earn it, and we’re very transparent when it comes to these things. I want people to earn what they get, earn what they go out and receive, not just have it given to them. We talk about that.

To have a coach mimic that same thing, there’s not anybody up here that’s going to disagree. He’s the best play caller in the country. Talk about getting the ball in the hands of different guys, and we’ve got a lot of really good skill players on offense this year. Everybody talks about running the football, by the way. We’re throwing the ball 70 to 75 times a game this year, at minimum (laughter).

But I’m excited for him, excited for the opportunity, but more excited for these players to be able to have continuity on the staff. Continuity on your team, retention of your team, your roster, continuity on your coaching staff. That shows stability of a program.”