Georgia
Everything From Brent Key After Georgia Tech’s 48-36 Loss to NC State
Georgia Tech is undefeated no more.
The Yellow Jackets took their first loss of the season tonight when they dropped a 48-36 shootout to NC State. Georgia Tech could not find a way to get a stop, giving up nearly 600 yards of offense in the loss.
After the game, Yellow Jackets head coach Brent Key spoke with the media and here is everything that he had to say:
“Congrats to a well -played game by Dave and his team. They lined up and physically kicked our ass in a lot of ways. It is what it is. That’s on me, right? I’ll take responsibility for it, right? We’re going into a bye-week this week, and we’ve got work to do. We have three games remaining, and everything that we have wanted to do is still in front of us. It’s our choice and our decision, right, how we respond to this outcome.”
“Yeah, I mean, I could say a lot of things right now. But at the end of the day, like I said, we’ve got a lot of work to do. We’ve got to get corrected. Yeah, I mean, we’ve got to be able to take something away. You know, and, you know, I mean, they had, what, 200, you know, when Duke Scott had a great game, 243, yeah. So we weren’t taking the run away, you know, The noticeable thing, you know, there were a lot of hidden yardage in there that two yards, five yards, four yards that were, you know, missed tackles, you know, getting knocked back. But then, like I said, we’ve got to improve, and we will. I won’t make the excuses.”
“No, look, you know, it’s, first off, I don’t know if we put enough gas in the gas tank. I mean, that was, if you want to talk about that, but no, it’s, uh, there’s no excuses, Chad. There’s not. We have guys, you know, whether if the guys down, someone else has to step up and then they have to make plays. And, uh, well, you got to finish blocks. You got to, uh, you got to get off blocks. You got to run. You got to catch. All in all, uh, you don’t, uh, you don’t, you don’t have to so all in all, you don’t win with one phase of the game. You don’t lose with one phase of the game. When you win and you play complimentary football, same thing here. I mean, all three phases, we’ve got to improve. We’ve got to correct mistakes, and then we’ve got to.”
“Yeah, I mean, they scored. So obviously it was the execution, but it was really flipped. I mean, we weren’t consistent enough in the red zone. We had, you get the ball down to the one -yard line. You got to go to put it in offensively. You know, and those mistakes were self -defeating mistakes. So then on the defensive We, you know, they, they push us around, right? And that’s why I said, we got our butts kicked and that’s what you look at. And they’re able to run it in like that, down in their type, you know, or a, you know, second and seven to third and four to first down, you know, those types of plays, you know, we’ve got to do a lot better job. I’ve got to do a lot better job. All right?”
“Yeah, I mean, obviously, when you come off the field after a loss, I mean, no one’s happy. And he’s dejected as anybody. But I looked at the, you know, statistically what he did. I mean, statistically had a good game. But Haynes King doesn’t care about that. Haynes King, he’s a winner, he wants to win.”
“You know, we’re sitting in there wanting to take the clock down, right? And, you know, we’re getting that long situation. And then we get a sack right there, right? Yeah, it was a sack. Had a sack, got a little of it back, got in the field goal range for a long field goal. Missed field goal left a minute and the clock. Yeah, I mean, you know, middle eight was factors.”
“Yeah, he got banged up. I don’t know the status I’ll know after the game. Or when we get back in there.”
“Yeah, we’re always looking at what we’re not doing well, what can be better, and looking to be a better version of ourselves the next week. And we didn’t do that this week. We’ve got a bye week to do that to improve. And every area of the program, you know, that’s looked at every Sunday. That’s no different than what we would normally do and that I would normally do”
“yeah it was 8:25 left, yeah it’s 8:25 left that’s you know was, Yeah, you’re in a two score game. You got a, if you go for it, what do we end up on the minus? Yeah, we got like five yards. We got a minus one on the first play, and then I think we got six yard gain, five or six yard gain on it. On the third down play, you know, if you go for it and don’t get it, now you’re really, it’s out of control. Punt it back. You got all three timeouts. You don’t start using the timeouts until you know you’re five minutes and you know if we get a stop there, a chance to get the ball back. But you got it. I would not, I don’t second guess that one bit. Not one bit. You know, and look, there’s a lot of it. When you make those decisions too, or how you’re moving the football, you know, and going in waves with how you’re moving it. And right then we had a couple pressures on the two, on the second, the third down play.”
NORCROSS, GEORGIA — Geoff Duncan, former Republican lieutenant governor of Georgia, won’t stop apologizing.
He’s sorry for supporting the state’s 2019 “heartbeat bill,” which bans abortion at around six weeks, after a fetal heartbeat is detected. He’s sorry for facilitating the passage of a “constitutional carry” bill in 2022, which allows most people to carry a concealed handgun with no license or background check. He’s also sorry for opposing Medicaid expansion, arguing at the time that it was not fiscally responsible.
“I’m sorry for those positions and any harm that they may have done,” Duncan told me.
Duncan first rose to prominence as one of the Republicans who resisted President Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn Joe Biden’s narrow 2020 win in Georgia. Duncan has been speaking out against what he calls Trump’s “toxic” and “dangerous” Republican Party since leaving office in 2023, and even endorsed Kamala Harris and spoke at the Democratic National Convention in 2024. After being excommunicated from the Georgia Republican Party in January 2025, Duncan switched parties in August. He is now running for governor as a Democrat in what will be one of the most closely watched races in the midterms.
Georgia Tech didn’t let the weekend get away.
The No. 2 Yellow Jackets were flying high with a 13-game win streak heading into the weekend showdown against No. 3 North Carolina. The Tar Heels took the first two games, but Tech salvaged the finale 5-2 on Sunday.
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CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – No. 2 Georgia Tech got back to its winning ways, defeating No. 3 North Carolina (33-7-1, 15-6 ACC) by a final score of 5-2 from Boshamer Stadium in Chapel Hill, N.C. The Yellow Jackets (32-7, 16-5 ACC) held UNC in check from the third inning on, using 6.1 scoreless innings from Caden Gaudette and Mason Patel to salvage the series and collect its 10th Top 15 victory of the season for this first time this century.
After both teams traded runs in the first inning, the Jackets struck for three runs on three hits in the third. The inning started with a leadoff double from Drew Burress who was quickly brought to the plate by a single from Jarren Advincula. Vahn Lackey drew a walk off a full count before Kent Schmidt connected for an RBI double, bringing in Advincula for what would become the game-winning run. Lackey made it a three-run inning when he scored on an RBI groundout by Ryan Zuckerman. UNC would work the bases loaded and score a run in the bottom of the inning before Gaudette entered the game and induced an inning ending groundout. UNC wouldn’t get another runner into scoring position until the eight inning as Gaudette and Patel slammed the door on any potential comeback.
QUICK HITS: TEAM
- The Jackets improve to 32-7, the best start to a season since 2010. Tech is 16-5 in ACC play, the best start since 2011.
- Tech has won 32 of its first 39 games for only the 6th time in the program’s 131 seasons: 2010, 2003 2002, 1997, 1993 and now 2026.
- James Ramsey owns the best record by any GT head coach in his first season through 39 games (32-7).
- The Jackets improve to 8-1 in nationally televised games this season.
- Tech has now won 10 games over Top 15 opponents for the first time this century.
- Tech has scored 417 runs through their first 39 games. It’s the most runs Georgia Tech has recorded after 39 games in the program’s 131-year history and the most runs any Power 4 team has scored through 39 games in the BBCOR era (since 2011).
- The Jackets scoring average now stands at 10.7 runs/game this season. The program record is 10.3, set back in 1984.
- GT is outscoring its opponents 417-174, that +243 margin is the highest through 39 games in program history.
- The bullpen delivered 6.1 scoreless innings, marking the 15th scoreless outing of the season and second of the weekend.
QUICK HITS: THE BATS
- Junior Drew Burress produced his 17th multi-hit game of the season, going 2-for-5 with a double and two runs scored.
- He has scored 51 runs this season, one shy of Vahn Lackey for the most on the team. Burress has scored 201 runs over his career, tied with Danny Payne (2005-07) for the 11th most in Georgia Tech history.
- He becomes the first Yellow Jacket in the BBCOR era to record 200+ runs over a career.
- Junior Kent Schmidt went 2-for-4 with a go-ahead RBI double and a shift-beating bunt.
- He leads the team with 26 RBI in ACC play and has delivered 35 for the season.
- Schmidt has now collected extra base hits in three straight games for the first time this season and third time in his GT career.
- He finishes the series with a .500 average, going 4-for-8 with two doubles, a home run, three RBI, two runs scored and three walks
- Junior Jarren Advincula recorded his 24th multi-hit game of the season, going 2-for-5 with an RBI and a run scored.
- He leads the ACC with 68 hits this season, averaging 1.7 hits per game and putting him on pace for 94 hits over the course of the regular season. With potential postseason games, that would put him in striking distance of being the first 100-hit player at GT since 2005 (Wes Hodges & Tyler Greene).
- He drove in his 45th RBI of the season, the third most on the team behind Vahn Lackey and Ryan Zuckerman.
- Junior Ryan Zuckerman became the first Jacket to reach 50 RBI when he drove in Lackey for the fourth run of the game.
- Sophomore Caleb Daniel came off the bench in the 5th inning and blooped an RBI double, it was his 24th RBI of the season and his 5th as a pinch hitter.
QUICK HITS: THE ARMS
- Sophomore Jackson Blakely made his sixth consecutive weekend start, pitching 2.2 innings with two earned runs allowed and three strikeouts.
- He has only allowed runs in only three of his eight appearances this season (37.1 innings) this season.
- His ERA stands at 2.65, the lowest among all starting pitchers on the roster.
- R-junior Caden Gaudette made his team-leading 16th appearance of the season and 2nd of the weekend, pitching 2.1 scoreless innings.
- He entered the game with a two-run lead (4-2) and the bases loaded with two outs before inducing an inning ending groundout to short.
- Gaudette lowers his ERA to 2.86 in 22.0 innings of work.
- The man they call “Rock” pitched a total of 3.1 innings this weekend, allowing only one hit with four strikeouts.
- He has now pitched as many innings this season as he had in his previous two years combined (22.0) while allowing less than half as many earned runs (7 in 2026, 15 in 2024-25) and exactly half as many hits (12 in 2026, 24 in 2024-25).
- Mason Patel got the ball to start the 6th inning, keeping the score at 5-2 for the final four frames and collecting his fourth save of the season.
- Since recovering from an injury that saw him miss 20 days, Patel has made six appearances out of the bullpen, pitching 13.2 scoreless innings with a victory and four saves.
- Over the last two seasons, Patel has made 29 appearances out of the bullpen, posting 12 wins and nine saves.
- This was his longest relief appearance of the season (4.0 innings) after pitching at least 3.0 innings in 15 of his 23 appearances during his All-American season last year.
Up Next
Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate. Tuesday at 7 pm at Truist Park. Tickets are available HERE with all proceeds benefiting the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.
Full Steam Ahead
Full Steam Ahead is a $500 million fundraising initiative to achieve Georgia Tech athletics’ goal of competing for championships at the highest level in the next era of intercollegiate athletics. The initiative will fund transformative projects for Tech athletics, including renovations of Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field (the historic home of Georgia Tech football), the Zelnak Basketball Center (the practice and training facility for Tech basketball) and O’Keefe Gymnasium (the venerable home of Yellow Jackets volleyball), as well as additional projects and initiatives to further advance Georgia Tech athletics through program wide-operational support. All members of the Georgia Tech community are invited to visit atfund.org/FullSteamAhead for full details and renderings of the renovation projects, as well as to learn about opportunities to contribute online.
For the latest information on the Georgia Tech baseball team, follow us on X (@GTBaseball), Facebook, Instagram (@gt_baseball) or visit us at www.ramblinwreck.com.
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