The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets lost an incredible game with the Georgia Bulldogs on Black Friday. The loss was the program's seventh in a row in that rivalry, but it also highlighted the traits of a team moving in the right direction.
Head coach Brent Key joined The Steakhouse to discuss the fallout, plus some of the lessons he and his team learned from that wild game.
The loss in eight overtimes was a heartbreaker for the Yellow Jackets, but it's not something the Georgia Tech head coach wants to forget. He told the show that in the time since, he's watched the final five minutes 10 separate times.
Why?
"I never want to forget what it felt like," he said. "I never want that pain and emotional feeling to leave my body, of what it felt like after that game."
The result coming in the way it did would likely shatter the resilience of most teams -- but not Georgia Tech. Key has developed one critical attribute which will prevent that from happening to his squad: accountability.
"I stood in front of our team and said, 'Guys, I don't want to hear one thing about refs,'" Key told The Steakhouse. "We had opportunities in all three phases to win that football game, and we didn't. I'm the head coach, I'm the leader and that's on me. I take responsibility for it...
"When I said that to the team, numerous guys on the team said, 'Nah coach, no it's not. That's on us.' Now you know we've got something special, [because] you've got accountability built within your football team."
In Key's second full season, the Yellow Jackets will be playing in a bowl game over consecutive seasons for the first time in a decade and they capped off a second straight winning season in ACC play. Under his leadership, the program is clearly moving in the right direction.