Georgia Tech Football Notes and Quotes 11/1
ATLANTA- Georgia Tech continued preparations for Virginia Tech on Tuesday with a long practice session that pushed back head coach Brent Key's media availability. Following practice, Key spoke about the challenges facing his team in Blacksburg this weekend against a stingy Hokies defense and the status of his quarterback room.
Starting quarterback Jeff Sims was back at full speed on Tuesday per Key as he recovers from double foot injuries suffered in the Duke and Virginia games. Freshman quarterback Zach Pyron who played well in the second half of the Florida State game was also a full go. The Jackets listed Sims as quarterback #1 on the depth chart released on Tuesday with Pyron as #2 and Zach Gibson and Taisun Phommachanh listed as co-third-string quarterbacks.
"Jeff was out there practicing, dressed out and a full go for every team period, 7v7s, he is good to go and the same with Zach (Pyron)," Key said. "We are preparing all those guys to be able to go and play in the game and it is really no different than any other week. Right now it is full speed ahead with Jeff being the quarterback."
Adding Sims back to the mix should help the struggling Tech ground game as well.
"Anytime you have the element of option whether it is a designed quarterback run with an element of option it takes one person out of the equation when there is one person to read and that is as old school as football is. The option is the great equalizer and that is the beauty of having Jeff in there, he is an eliminator of one player on the read or the different types of bluff options we have in the plan."
Key said that Sims also opens up the outside run game and loosens up the middle of defenses with his running ability.
"When you start talking about the perimeter, sideline to sideline not playing in a phone booth, you start seeing those edge blitzes and run blitzes become wider and the defense is even more spread out and that does open up the inside now, and inside run lanes and it opens holes in there," Key said.
"We have to put this game behind us and we didn't play as well as we can possibly play and we came in yesterday and sat down with the team to get that game put behind us and learn from that game moving forward no different than any of the last four weeks," Key said. "The only thing you can do about the past is to learn from it and use it as something to help you in the future. Everyone in that room should be pissed and pissed for different reasons. People are pissed we lost the game, and people are pissed they didn't get the result they wanted on that day. Everything can be a wound or a sore, you've got to get that fixed ASAP and move on to the next opponent."
Looking at Virginia Tech this week, Key said he sees a really good defensive team under first-year coach Brent Pry.
'You see a team that I think in almost every category is in the top 40 or top 50 defensively in the country," Key said. "They are fourth in the country in creating what we call havoc plays or negative plays forced by the front. They are 50% blitzing with a five-man zone pressure and they are going to slant and angle the defensive line and break off the edge to create disruption. That is why they are up there in the country in those categories."