Georgia Tech’s win in Chapel Hill today was a roller coaster.
After North Carolina tied the score late in the fourth quarter, running back Jamal Haynes carried for a 68-yard touchdown with 16 seconds left, giving the Yellow Jackets a roaring victory. After the game, head coach Brent Key interviewed the media and here’s what he had to say.
“You won well.
I mean, you know, I’m just proud of the team that played 60 minutes. We pride ourselves on playing 60 minutes. We played 60 minutes and we got the ball back at the end less than a minute after our opponent kicked a field goal and we were able to do that, so we were trying to push it out there. We took two timeouts and tried to push it out with him playing in coverage and see if we could get advantageous field position where we could get into field goal range. I mean, he jumped out of there and made the cut. Oh, he’s gone. He left and ended up scoring a goal. Well, thank you for your hard work. It’s a good victory. Let’s have fun. But at the same time, there are a lot of things that need to be resolved in the game. That’s really true. We missed a field goal and allowed a touchdown on a punt return. There, we had to organize our reporting team and check with the people in charge to make sure we were doing the right thing. And we’re playing with the right sense of urgency that we need. But when Zach came in, he could be asked to do some things in the fourth quarter and I thought we could do it. So it was a field position game. David made some good punts. But at the same time, we also gave up major benefits. So, the match had its ups and downs. This is a conference road game and their performance at this point is not indicative of the talent of their team, but we came here to play 60 minutes and we played 60 minutes. I’m really happy for them and I’m happy for the team, so I’m happy for the win. ”
1. Regarding Haynes King’s injury situation…
“‘No, you’ll see something right away. He’s enjoying the win there.’
2. On the last drive…
“Yeah, that’s what I just said. I mean, you’re in that position, obviously, you already have overtime, right? You, you don’t want to give them the ball back. So We want to push it.” We had two timeouts, so if we run the ball, get back to the ball, run again and hit the timeout, we could get closer. Increase your throw percentage to get into field goal range. Use the final timeout three times. ”
3. Jamal Haynes’ TD run…
“Yeah, I mean, you really have to trust everyone to make the right reads, and that starts with coordination and getting calls. Limits, assignments, keys, progressions, reads, all those things. So trust all of them, put them in place and get out there.”
4. About Zack Pyron…
“Yeah, you know, I’ve said from the beginning, Zach, I’m proud of Zach, how much he’s grown as a football player, as a quarterback. But he loves to play, football. Loves to play the game, and, you know, he loves to play, to this point in the season, to have some of the best people on the field. You have to start working as a team.”
5. About what he said after the touchdown run…
“Everyone was trying to stay on the field. There were no penalties. Yeah, you didn’t want to give them more free yards. But I’ll leave that to me and Jamal.”
6. Stopped by the defense on the goal line…
“Yeah, you’re sitting there, but I think you’re going to like that five-minute, four-minute mark in the game. And you know, you’re playing odds on the game right now. When you should take a timeout, when you don’t take a timeout, when you get a stop, and at the same time, you want to put pressure on them to make a decision, you know, we almost got a fourth down stop there. , we held them to a field goal, and you know, guys, we couldn’t do that today. And we’re going to look at all the stats and stuff, but third down here. If you look at them, some of them were shortcuts.
7. About the seemingly broken play that led to Luke Harping’s catch-and-run, and whether or not it was staged…
“I agree with you. I agree with you. – Yeah, that was funky, okay.”
8. If this is a game that this team has won in the past…
“Hypothetically speaking, I’m glad we won. I’m glad we showed resilience and we talked before the game that our biggest challenge was ourselves. We played on the road, we came consistently, we did what we did. “Be especially consistent,” and won a close game. And although we gave ourselves the best today, in the end our better team won. ”
9. Regarding the offensive game plan going forward…
“That’s the crazy thing. I mean, we always talk about taking what they give us. We didn’t necessarily go into the game with this plan, right? And it’s just an adjustment. It’s about that first quarter to see what they’re doing.” And we hit some shots down the field. They were in the playoffs trying to get us to play and set everything up in front of them at times, and when you look at it, you can see the team playing quarter coverage and trying to play. So far, they’ve been going downhill. So the ball was a symbol of the running back. And the running back had the ball today. And they’re still sitting there waiting for confirmation, so we knew they wanted to keep it in front of them. We have to be able to take what they give us and change it, and that’s where the run game came from. ”
10. In run defense against Omarion Hampton…
“Yeah, the guy on the right, he’s half in front. Yeah, half in front. Oh yeah, you’re good at long runs, 71 yards right now. And he’s a big, strong kid. He’s good. He was a really good running back, but you know the defense, I think Kyle played really well as a run, but we were like that for the most part, but that game was against the run. It was. I mean, those can be the difference, and in a conference game or a one-score game, which is exactly what it ended up being, those one big plays can definitely be the difference. ”
11. About the three bags and two takeaways…
“Yeah, that’s what you want. So if you emphasize things like that, they’ll start showing up in the game. And whether you emphasize them or not, they’ll start showing up in the game. It doesn’t appear. So it’s the same thing. So we’ve emphasized stealing the ball, we’ve emphasized pass rush. I think they got a little greedy with the pass rush at the end and left big scenes for the quarterback run. Rather than being able to get a first down in this critical situation with a quarterback scramble, you can hoard it and go to the next down without having a sack. ”
