Georgia Tech’s Brent Key Gives Belichick-like Presser Ahead of Clemson Showdown

If you were expecting bulletin-board material from Brent Key this week, you came to the wrong press room.

Georgia Tech’s head coach kept things short, direct, and almost Belichick-like as he previewed Saturday’s noon kickoff against Clemson in Atlanta. When asked about Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik, Key didn’t wax poetic: “He can run and throw, he’s got experience, got a good scheme, good coaches. Well-coached, good football player.”

Pressed on the rivalry history — Clemson has beaten Tech every year since 2014 — Key gave no opening: “Every game’s a challenge, and this is the next challenge. It’s a big one.”

Even when asked about his relationship with Dabo Swinney, Key stuck to the script: “Kind of normal like most of the other coaches… He’s a good man, good football coach, respect him a lot.”

It was all business. Very Belichick.

Georgia Tech will need to match Clemson’s physicality in the trenches. Key was asked about that challenge. His answer? “Every week’s a big challenge.”

The only “target,” as Key put it in his opening statement, is Clemson: “Mission hasn’t changed for this football team. This target’s a big one, biggest one up to this point. Big challenge for us.”

Ironically, the Tigers have an October 4 trip to Chapel Hill looming as well. That game against North Carolina means a meeting with Bill Belichick himself, now head coach of the Tar Heels. The parallels were easy to see: Key’s no-nonsense approach this week could have been lifted straight from Belichick’s own podium.

I guess this was a tune-up for us media types that will cover North Carolina next month.

Perhaps the funniest moment of the whole thing was when one media member who covers the Yellow Jacket beat is heard on a hot mic saying, “I guess I should have went home,” instead of staying for that short-and-sweet presser.

Kickoff between the two teams is set for Saturday at 12:00 p.m. in Bobby Dodd Stadium.