It was an incredible day today at Bobby Dodd Stadium as Georgia Tech pulled off a huge upset over No. 4 Miami today. It made the Yellow Jackets bowl eligible for the second straight season and gave them their first top five win since 2009.

After the game, Yellow Jackets head coach Brent Key spoke to the media and here is everything he had to say.

“Just a good football game. You believe in running the ball and stopping the run, time of possession, things like that. It still works. First of all, I just wanted to say this praise to the coaching staff. We talking about the players all the time and rightly so, credit to this coaching staff and the game plans they put together. Free football, we knew what we had to play, we knew we had to do to win, okay, I was in front of the team on Sunday night after practice. You know, when I knelt before them, I mean, I was talking about the capacity to, you know, what is your maximum capacity, you know, can you increase your capacity from week to week? We’re doing a 10% increase in our capacity during the week and the way we, there was a look in their eyes, that’s why we talked behind the doors all week about a quiet confidence And if we just went there and we did our job and we played four separate quarters, right? We played one game at a time in those quarters, came back at halftime and really reset it like it was a new football game. And we knew we had to play 60 minutes. And we succeeded. Good staff put together, or a good plan drawn up by the staff. Children played their best. Once again we had to deal with some setbacks and some injuries. And it’s like I said before: you are affected by such injuries and setbacks. No one really cares. They really don’t. And when that happens, the standard of how you play and the standard of winning doesn’t change. I think they understand that now. They played that way, three defenses, big fourth down stops. I held them to one score in the red zone, I think we were 4-4. It probably says 4 -5, it was 4 -4 with the knee, right? So really 4-4 in the red area, situational football, we did very well. Uh, in the match. Um, guys play. They play. They didn’t blink an eye. They didn’t blink. They didn’t budge. The game plan was executed. They believed in the plan and were able to execute it.”

1. When they knew they had to build this kind of game plan around Haynes King…

“Look, we were hoping Haynes would be able to play in the game, but we really didn’t know anything about him. I mean, we practiced yesterday. And I mean, we’re still waiting to see where he was.” pre-match warm-ups and what he might do. We knew we had to put the game together. We’ve done that before. And those guys, you saw that early in the game. It was kind of the flow of the guys coming in and out and getting that going. But they were able to get in there and get the power. You know the unselfish play of guys on the offensive end when you’re in a game like that, and that’s the game. plan you gotta play to win and you know they could, blocking receivers at the rim you know you’re getting touches you know you’re running the ball you know when you know it’s time for some big third down- catches, we are able to convert them and make sure they are like that.

2. About the play of the defensive line…

“Yes, they could put pressure on him (Cam Ward). They could influence him. Still, he’s a tough guy to bring down. He’s one of the most talented players in the country. He’s got good weapons on the outside. for him, you know, but they were able to get back there and impact them and take different paths, especially on third downs I also thought it was really good to mix some of the zones and man’s some of the blitzes and the drops. And it was a good plan, but it was executed. That’s what was important.

3. About the defense’s ability to close games…

“That’s what you want to do. I mean, regardless of the attack, the defense or the penalties on the field, you want to be able to finish the game. And we did that again last trip. But like I said , the defense didn’t bat an eyelid. They took advantage of the opportunity to go out and win the football game for us.”

4. About Haynes King and what he could do today…

‘We don’t have enough time during the day. No way. Haynes King is special in many ways.”

5. Jamal Haynes who set the tone with his big runs early in the match…

“Yeah, anytime you break off a 60-yard or 65-yard run, it’s big. I think it, like anything else, did what we knew we could do. And we had a plan, we could get on it going out and executing. We had confidence in the plan. That showed early on, and often that happens early on. It gives confidence to the boys, a lot of confidence to the boys.”

6. On what makes Haynes King so special…

“Look at the game. I mean, I’m not going to get emotional here right now. That kid, we didn’t know yesterday if he was going to play. He went out there and forced himself to do what he carried the ball 20 times for a hundred.” yards over a hundred yards rushing. It’s pretty special in my eyes. There is no way he missed this game. No matter what we kept saying, man look if he could do it. He said he was going through it, but he had to protect the good guys from themselves.

7. About Aaron Philo’s play…

“He’s going to be a good player. He’s going to be special. He’s got a lot of talent. You know, you can get him in the game and make him execute, you know, after the first few drives. We knew how to put the game together They were able to go out unselfishly and both play.”

8. On what the win means for the program…

“I mean, you saw the students, you saw the fans. I mean, that’s what it’s special for, it’s special for those people, it’s special for the kids in that locker room, special for the, I mean, I’ve been Two years now from the point of view of the administration and how they have worked, what they have done every day. This is a sleepless job and there are a lot of people involved that allow us to get those opportunities and enjoy them on those. moments. on Saturday. And to do it here at home for our fans, for our students, that was special.”

9. On what the victory meant for homecoming…

“That’s why it’s coming home, and I can say we had the choice of who you choose or whatever. I mean, it’s fun. Any time you get the alumni at former, former players to come back, uh, people they care about and the school, uh, people who have benefited from graduating here, uh, show them and that’s what I want people to see. We had good children. We have good guys on this team now. They worked really hard all week, uh, not just in practice, but academically, uh, they put out the best version of themselves. And they’re tech guys, and that’s what we want here. And that’s what I want people to see: these guys, every bit of grit and strength that this place teaches you, that’s what they go for.”

10. On limiting Miami Receiver Xavier Restrepo…

“Yeah, no strep was a great recipient. I mean, for a kid I mean he’s been in Miami for how many years now, five years for whatever it is. It’s like you’re saying he has to be 35 years old now his, that kid is a great football player, I mean his routes, understand leverage and coverage and build his hands to contort his body to make plays. He’s a great football player for that football team, and he would be for any team .He’s going to have a long career in this game we knew we had to do some things to limit that, eight targets, four receptions. We had a plan in place, and we could… we had to… right before the game, we had to make an adjustment within that plan based on the availability of playing opportunities, and we did that, and those guys executed.”

11. On coach Kyle Pope’s injury and Tyler Santucci’s game plan for the defense…

“Well, I mean, the results speak for themselves, you know, but we still have a long way to go. That’s, you know, building up the defenses, having all the, you know, the different answers to different things, you know, continuing with, you know, the recruiting, which is so important and vital to us, you know, but week after week we’ve shown so much improvement against a run defense of 88 yards rushing and for a team that just, you know, averaged just under 200 rushing. You have to make teams one-dimensional and we can do that. We had a plan to take certain players out of the game, from a schematic standpoint. I’m very pleased with Tooch and the staff and what they were able to do.

I don’t want to say anything until I find out exactly what he is or isn’t like. He went to the box and continued coaching. I had something. I was going to say it was pretty funny, but you guys probably wouldn’t think so. it was funny, i think i was mean, i’ve never seen that happen. I don’t think either of you know that both knees went down, so I don’t know, like all injuries. I’ll check the injury report tomorrow and see how he’s doing, but hopefully he’s okay, but he didn’t miss this one either. Thank you.”