When Galveston (Texas) Ball five-star safety Jonah Williams announced his public commitment Saturday evening to the University of Texas, it was the first time Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian heard the news. Sure, there were rumblings behind the scenes, and no question he and the Texas staff were confident, but Williams didn’t want to share the good news until he announced his commitment live to the world.
Williams, the No. 7 overall player in the class of 2025, chose Texas over just about every offer in America. The finalists included the Longhorns, LSU, Texas A&M, Oregon, and USC. Down the stretch, he was considering all five programs. He was unsure exactly what he wanted to do. In the end, he wanted to say in the Lone Star State to play for Sarkisian and safeties coach Blake Gideon.
Brent Key never wavered his confidence in Georgia Tech. Despite giving up a quick touchdown on the opening drive of the season against No. 10 Florida State, the Yellow Jackets responded, stunning the reigning ACC champions with a walk-off 44-yard field goal as time expired to secure an upset win Saturday at Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Ireland. Key, a second-year head coach at Georgia Tech, had voiced his belief in his team all week leading up to the first game of the new campaign.
“You got to have confidence in your players,” Key said postgame. “You can’t just say that you have confidence in them all week and then get scared that they’re not going to do their job when the game’s on the line.”
Key seems to have the right approach as a head coach in big moments, improving to 5-0 against nationally ranked ACC opponents dating back to his time as the interim in the second half of the 2022 season.
Below are highlights from what Key said postgame after Georgia Tech upset Florida State to kick off the 2024 college football season:
Opening statement:
“Really excited for the players and what they were able to accomplish tonight. We set our goals going into the season and they really have nothing to do with the outcome of the football game. We all know that’s what we want to occur, but our goal is to go out and play as hard as we can possibly play. Not look at the scoreboard. A lot of times people here that and think it’s kind of coach talk, but it’s starting to be ingrained in who we are and they’re starting to understand that, the players are. Happy for Georgia Tech, the fans, the alumni, everybody out there that came to support us here. It was a special game for the ACC. It was a really good game in the league to have the defending conference champs on the stage tonight in the ACC and to be able to showcase what the league is — competitive, good football.
“I know we have a really good marketing slogan in our league. It talks about the league of the quarterback and whatnot. I think you can add the line of scrimmage to that too. That’s where big games are won, at the line of scrimmage. Really proud of the offensive line. Shocking there, right. Really proud of those guys and how they were prepared.
“The defense, once they settled in — Tyler Santucci — and I haven’t said a word about it, I’ve kind of just told our team, really that’s what matters is our team. We’re not trying to prove anything to anyone. We’re not trying to go out and impress people. All we’re doing is trying to play as hard as we can possibly play together as a team, as a family we have in that locker room. I was confident this week. I was confident because of the plan that was put together and the progress I’ve seen made really from the start of the year until now. Really proud of the way those guys settled in after that first drive. Tyler was able to settle them down with some calls and we were able to play assignment football, get off blocks and I thought they were playing fast.
“So, again, we didn’t turn the ball over. We had three penalties, one of them on Romello (Height), he comes through, comes free, gets the unfortunate face mask. It wasn’t anything intentional. It was the way it came across. We just got to coach him to keep those hands lower so that doesn’t happen. Then LaMiles (Brooks) had the [defensive pass interference] on the deep ball. And then we had one false start on the offensive line. All in all it was a clean game for the first game of the season and that’s what you want to be able to see. You want to limit your mistakes and self defeating errors. We want to play for 60 minutes. We want to build a tough, disciplined football team that’s committed to themselves individually and in the team.
“We talk about execution with our football team. What execution is, that’s the confidence to go make a play. Whether you’re a quarterback, whether you’re an offensive lineman and the ball is on the 1-yard line and they’re going to run behind you. Whether you’re a corner making a play on a ball in a man-to-man situation or you’re a kicker at the end of the game to win the football game.
“We had our final walkthrough yesterday and the last play we had in the walk through was a field goal. I stopped it and said, ‘Guys, this game’s gonna come down to a field goal. This is your last rep of perfection before we go into the game.’ Total confidence in Aidan Birr. What a football player he is. What a football player. I don’t say that lightly now. He’s a football player. He’s on leadership. He does that all the time. Missed one earlier, a long one. You talk about ice in his veins. He came up to me and said, ‘Yeah, coach, I’m good. I don’t care where the ball is. Just put it down and I’m gonna make it.’ The confidence for him.
“Again, credit to Mike Norvell for having his team come over here and prepared to play a football game. But, really happy for our people. Really happy for the ACC and what this league and for other people to see that as well. …”
On confidence in defensive coordinator Tyler Santucci:
“Tyler talked to the defense last night and he said 166 days ago they started a journey and he told them their only goal was to be the best version of the 2024 Georgia Tech defense that they could be. Not to be anything more than that. Last night was the first meeting that I sat in with the full defense, and that was an intentional thing. I wanted those guys to understand the confidence that I had in Tyler Santucci and his staff. And last night I sat in that meeting and I stood up when it was over and I told those guys, ‘I cannot wait for y’all to go out on that field and play together as one.’ And we talked about there’s going to be setbacks, there’s going to be obstacles to overcome. It’s not about that. It’s about playing the next play. Success and failure are really one in the same, they can both be distractions to you. You got to stay in the moment, play the next play and I thought that’s what they did tonight. Huge credit to Tyler and his staff and the plan they put together. A plan is great, but you don’t build that type of resiliency early and it starts throughout the whole year. So, really happy to have him part of Georgia Tech.”
On decision to decline holding penalty early and manifestation of that confidence in the defense:
“Yeah, and it was really kind of that no-man’s land on the field too. You have to know your team, but you also have to know your opponent. You have to know what your opponent’s tendencies are. You have to know how they play the game. I won’t get into everything about it, but that’s part of the football game. That’s a roll the dice deal there now, right? I mean, ask a hundred experts on it you’d probably get 50-50. You back them up or you take away the down. I thought right there that eliminating the down was the best decision.”
On not making a big deal about game being played in Dublin, Ireland:
“… I’m sitting here in Dublin, Ireland, right now and I couldn’t tell you the difference if I’m sitting in Tallahassee, Florida, or Atlanta, Georgia, or Chapel Hill. When you are really coaching a team and training a team to be in the moment where their feet are, it doesn’t matter where you play. It doesn’t matter how you get there. Once you’re there, you’re there. Thursday was a Thursday. No different than a Thursday at home. Friday was a Friday. No different than a Friday at home. Saturday is game day, right. Tomorrow we’ll travel back. Really the only difference is we’ll travel tomorrow morning as opposed to tonight. Tomorrow, I mean, we’ll be at practice. We’ll be practicing and working out tomorrow.
“So, we came over here 10 years ago and played a football game — first of all, I want to say to this entire country, wow, what a difference that time span has made in the love of the game, the understanding of the game, people embracing the game. Huge, huge and credit to the people that have been putting this game on and how they have increased the popularity of it throughout the country.
“But when we came over 10 years ago we did a lot of the things, we went to the old jail, we went to Guinness, we did a lot of those things. I changed that mentality. We were able to see the place, interact with the people. I told them before the game, I said, ‘Hey, we’ll come back another time and do those things.’ They’re probably going to hold me to it now though.”
On running back Chad Alexander:
“He’s really a great example of who we are as a football team. We got a lot of guys that aren’t big enough, maybe fast enough, might have been overlooked at another school and decided to come here. They just — that’s who we are. That’s who these guys are building themselves into. Chad (Alexander) is 185 pounds, now he does run 10.3, he can roll now. But it wasn’t that that was impressive. He was running between the tackles and pushing the pile. Just the resiliency that he showed and the toughness that he showed, that was his first carry in a football game tonight. He’s getting positive yards, he’s falling forward. Those are the same things we saw in the scrimmages. I told the team this isn’t their first game of the season. Y’all have played against each other twice already. We know who we are. Now it’s time to have the confidence to go out and play. But that’s what he was doing all preseason camp.”
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