Charlotte, NC—-You can smell it in the air, college football is knocking at our door and you better be ready for some great ACC play this year.
Tuesday was the first day of the 2023 ACC Media Days and the last head coach to speak was Georgia Tech’s head coach Brent Key.
Key fielded questions from the media and discussed a variety of topics about his program. Here is some of the things he had to say about his program.
In regard to the summer program and preparation for the upcoming season.
“I feel like it’s going well. I think probably better to ask these guys how they feel as far as their strength and conditioning and those things. But really all these things, do we know now? We have a gut feeling, but really we’ll find out day six of preseason camp. We’ll find out day 12. We’ll find out in the fourth quarter of game one really how all that has improved and where we’re at as far as our stamina and toughness and endurance and strength level and can we sustain those things.”
In regard to his accomplishment of turning the team around
“Find the right the way. I was extremely proud of those guys for some of the things they overcame, the way they worked. But there’s not one of these guys right here, not one guy on our team that tells you that 4-4 is acceptable. Let’s be real. We finished 4-4. That’s .500. That doesn’t get you anything in this game nowadays.
“It really doesn’t. That’s why I’m saying, we have a long way to go. We have a lot to improve on. Was there momentum last year? Yeah. It’s a new staff. It’s new people. But what I do know is that when I look in that team room and I sit in front of these guys and I look out and I know what they have beneath them, I know the grit that they have, I know they’re smart, I know they’re intelligent, I know they can do those things.”
It’s been two years since the NCAA lifted the ban on name, image, and likeness [NIL] compensation for student-athletes, but there are great concerns regarding this widespread amongst college coaches.
Pittsburgh head coach Pat Narduzzi addressed this issue on Wednesday at ACC Football Kickoff, said schools should have a “lid” on NIL deals — similar to a salary cap in professional sports — to curb competitive advantages for schools with huge alumni bases.
Narduzzi made it clear where Pitt stands on size concerns for alumni groups and how that can affect NIL collectives. He also emphasized the impacts of the transfer portal, which undergraduates can use to change institutions once without penalty.
“We’re going to have small class sizes and we’re going to small alumni groups as they matriculate through the University of Pittsburgh,” Narduzzi said. “So I think there’s got to be a lid on the [NIL deals]. If you’re going to leave the transfer portal open, there’s got to be a salary cap so people can’t go overspend.”
Narduzzi becomes the latest coach to voice concerns at the football media days. Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin shared the same sentiment of his own at SEC Media Days, telling reporters the current framework of NIL rules is detrimental to the future of college football.
Because of college coaches concerns may have prompted the potential for federal legislation aimed at solving issues from the current framework of NIL rules as it is written. Narduzzi’s “lid” suggestion comes less than 24 hours after Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville and West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin issues a bill that, if passed, would require more transparency on NIL deals across the country. The bill also included a provision requiring student-athletes to spent three years of residency at an institution before transferring without penalty.
