ATLANTA- The elephant in the room during Brent Key's Tuesday media avail was the status of star quarterback Haynes King for Saturday's game at Virginia Tech. King missed his first game in two seasons on the Flats last Saturday with an undisclosed injury.
Key responded to a report from a 247Sports reporter covering Virginia Tech that declared King was out for the game against the Hokies.
"Haynes is still day to day," Key said. "Mike (Flynn) told me before we came down there that there was some report that someone said he is not playing. There is one person in this entire stratosphere or universe, something only Shane Kimbrough (GT grad and NASA astronaut) would know of that makes that call and that's myself. There has been zero call made on that, zero. He is day-to-day."
Sophomore quarterback Zach Pyron started for the first time since 2022 against Notre Dame last week and true freshman Aaron Philo assumed the QB2 duties for the game. Key said they are preparing all of their quarterbacks for Virginia Tech.
"Are we preparing other guys to play? Yes. Have we ruled (King) out? No. You heard it from the horse's mouth right there."
Key said he was pleased with Pyron's performance in King's place on Saturday. Pyron threw for 269 yards and one touchdown but two interceptions, including a pick-six, against the highly-rated Irish defense.
"Zach is full of grit and toughness and wills people around him to play that way. He started off hot, really hot and I thought Buster (Faulkner) did a really good job of getting a rhythm going and completing passes early to move us down the field," Key said. "I was very proud of the way he went in and performed. That is not saying the 72 plays were perfect, there are things we got to do better, but the guy made his first start in two years and gave us what he has."
