Tech Talk: Can Key and Colleagues Engineer a Win in Tallahassee?
3-4 and 2-1. Those are the numbers that pertain respectively to the Georgia Tech’s overall record in 2022 and then the record under interim coach Brent Key. Tech has five games left. Three of those are definitely winnable. The game against UNC currently looks to be a tall reach. The finale against UGA is a mountain too high. If Tech could somehow get 3 wins to finish 6-6, Brent Key will have acquitted himself in extremely fine fashion from the 1-3 start under Geoff Collins.
But that is a big “if”. Tech struggled mightily with QB Zach Gibson at the helm vs. Virginia following Jeff Sims’ departure in the 2nd quarter with an injury. Key and his staff have since said that a 3rd QB, freshman Zach Pyron, will definitely see the field on Saturday in Tallahassee. That’s in addition to the current back-up Gibson, who will likely start. Sims himself is listed as day-to-day. That uncertainty befits the situation. By stating now that multiple quarterbacks will play on Saturday Key tells us that each will get meaningful reps in practice this week. And all of that information points to a new angle of strategy by Brent Key –bring out the whole tool belt.
What stood out in Tech’s loss to a mediocre Virginia team was not just the utter absence of any 2nd half success by the Yellow Jacket offense. Also notable was the apparent lack of any offensive improvisation by Tech’s coaches. Play after play, series after series saw the Jackets dropping Gibson back to pass, yielding mostly incompletions and sacks.
Many suspect that any chance Key had to win the full time head coaching job went out the window with last week’s loss. Whether that’s accurate or not, he has nothing to lose by trying any and all strategies to eke out a win on Saturday. And oddly, that seeming desperation may in fact be the secret to coaching success. One time they used Dontae Smith from the wildcat formation, with modest– but not negative– results.
Why not more of that approach?After all, one of the biggest advantages any offense has in the game of football is the element of the unknown. And if you forfeit that element, you cede a significant advantage. Granted, some offenses can afford to do just that. They may have vastly superior personnel. Or they may run a system that can often succeed without regard to the defense’s foreknowledge of the play about to unfold (triple option, anyone?)
A football offense that can simply exert its will on an opponent can be an awesome thing to watch, akin to a power pitcher in baseball mowing down batters with just his fastball. But that awe is borne of the fact that dominance at that level is very hard to do. And therefore it is rare. Thus the need to be somewhat unpredictable. Keep the defense guessing. Or as Brent Key said last week post-game, avoid becoming one-dimensional.
Tech’s chance to win this weekend will depend on a much higher level of creativity by the offensive coaching staff. Of course, the plan must still be well- executed. But without creativity, clean execution alone will again be ineffective.
Brent Key has had the appellation “interim head coach” attached to his name for about 4 weeks now. The Institute puts the emphasis on the word “interim”. Everywhere you see or hear his name, the interim descriptor is attached. It seems overstated. Aren’t we all interim in one way or another?
Presumably, in his own head, Key emphasizes the “head coach” portion of his title, which is more fitting. After all, interim or not, he is the man who gets to/ has to call the shots. He said that last week’s loss was “on him”. That’s the right thing to say, and not just because it sounds good. But because it is true. What he can make of that ownership– whether it becomes an opportunity or a burden– will be on display this week. Recall that his predecessor said similar things after many a loss. But during Geoff Collins’ tenure , the team’s performance rarely changed. So the “it’s on me” proclamation took on the air of a weekly recitation of sorts….something you make sure to add as a matter of course to your post-game remarks after each loss. No matter how Tech’s season goes forward from here, Key’s obvious awareness of this very situation, along with his genuine desire to do something different in an effort to get a better result, adds a glimmer of hope to his team’s prospect as they take on a middling FSU team.
Las Vegas is literally betting against Key. His Tech team is a 24 point road underdog. That fat number springs from the flat performance Tech coaches and players gave last week in Atlanta. Tech’s chances to do better — to win–hinge on Key’s commitment to follow his instincts to deploy all available means to this challenge. After all, his instincts are ultimately the ones that count. Brent Key is the Head Coach of football at the Georgia Institute of Technology .
Patrick Conarro
RamblinSports.com