ATLANTA- Georgia Tech returned practice field after a mandatory day off on Monday to begin preparations for Georgia State. Head football coach Brent Key spoke to the media after practice and shared some thoughts on his team going into the first of two in-state tilts coming off an emotional win over #10 Florida State in Ireland.
The Jackets come into game number two a little banged up after losing backup running back Trey Cooley on the opening FSU kickoff of the game. Projected starting defensive tackle Horace Lockett arrived in Ireland with a cast on his arm from an undisclosed injury and was dressed in Ireland, but did not play. Beyond that Key said his team has a lot of guys dinged after a very physical game with the Noles.
"We are banged up," Key said. "It was a physical football game and that is going to happen week in and week out. A lot of guys weren't able to go today so hopefully we will get them back tomorrow and hopefully by Thursday I can address a little bit more of where we are at as a team as far as injuries go. We are hoping to get them all back, but it is highly unlikely we will so we've got to prepare everybody."One of the core principles of Key's program has been building a solid three-deep on both sides of the ball and he said he is confident that he will have options if key players are out or unavailable on Saturday."
The reason why we practice the way we do is to be able to have the twos and threes get work. Guys who weren't able to play on Saturday will play, but we are not going to force somebody back sooner than they can be. We are banged up now and a lot of guys who played and finished that game are kind of walking wounded right now," he said.
Tuesday's practice was an opportunity for some of the second-string and third-string players to get reps with the first-team offense and defense.
"It was good today to have guys out there that had been taking a lot of reps with the twos and threes and sometimes special teams reps. Those can become game reps and help. The depth is important and we've continued to increase our depth by the acquisition of talent, but then you truly increase your depth by also developing those guys and that is what we have done over the course of the last eight or nine months," Key said. "When one person goes down, you want to have that mentality on the team that it is the next man up and you are not going to miss a beat."
