ATLANTA- Georgia Tech football dodged bad weather for the last practice before spring break begins on the Flats with a two-hour Friday morning session outside. Light rain fell across the city, but Georgia Tech football coach Brent Key and his players powered through the rain before a 10-day break. After practice, new Jackets' defensive coordinator Tyler Santucci made his media debut and talked about his new defensive and his linebacker position group.
Santucci described his new defensive scheme.
"We play with five DBs, two high safeties, a nickel and two corners. We play with two linebackers, a buck linebacker and a Mike linebacker and then we play with four defensive linemen, one is a rush, one is a tackle, one is a nose and one is an end," Santucci said. "We have the personnel that we need here and we have the right body types and we have the right people, we just have to continue to grow."
In his room, Santucci has three new players, two transfers and a true freshman, E.J. Lightsey (UGA transfer), Jackson Hamilton (Louisville transfer) and Tah'j Butler (true freshman) and he is excited about all three players.
"Jackson Hamilton has done some really good things on the field in the first three days. I think he has the ability to use his hands really well. He has short-area quickness and has explosion in his body. He has to continue to grow," Santucci said.
Lightsey has been recovering from an injury and limited so far in camp, but they are expecting him back later in camp.
"E.J. is slowly coming back and we will continue to work him making sure that we are urgent getting him back, but we don't rush him so he can get some quality reps this spring so he hasn't really been on the field yet," he said.
Butler has already impressed the new defensive staff in his first few practices out of high school.
"Tah'j is fun to coach. He is a fun kid to be around and he is running with the twos at times right now. I think he is picking it up and if even if he doesn't know what he is doing, he is going hard and he is going fast. He shows up to meetings and learns and gets a little better every day," he said.
Santucci said that the installation of the defense is a systematic process and is built around the players and they are in the infancy stages of it right now. He said the emphasis right now is how they go about their business, how they attend meetings and the intent when they approach things and cross the lines. How they play together and swarm to the football is critically important and the foundation of the defense. This is what we are doing and this is why we are doing it. He said right now his focus is on how they practice and how they pay attention in meetings and how they communicate with one another both visually and verbally. He wants to gather small wins in the things they are doing right now and putting guys into positions to have success.
Santucci said his initial conversations with Key were about the fact that he needed someone to run the defense, but also someone he felt comfortable with and foundationally they believe in a lot of the same things about what a football team is about. That is being tough, creating bonds that are meaningful for the rest of these kids' lives and coaches having bonds with each other too. He knew that Georgia Tech was near and dear to Coach Key's heart and that all combined brought him to GT.
On run defense, he said he is not sure what happened here a year ago other than you see things statistically, but to him, he starts everyone at square one and they have no preconceived notions on anyone or anything. He wants to build it from square one and they can't skip steps and can't cheat steps and they want to get it done in a timely manner. "It all starts with how they play, our effort that we play with and how we communicate, how we treat one another and how we care about one another and if we do those things I feel like we'll get to where we need to get to and hopefully that helps that problem," he said.
Santucci said the guys are eager to be coached and are willing to show up each and every day and be coached. They want to know the why and asked them why are they doing this? Those are his favorite guys to be around and the guys have shown up every day and not relented and that is all he can aks from day one. They are asking for some blind faith from the players and are getting it. They give them clear explanation and they understand it and take it and run with it.
Santucci said building relationships is a key piece of this and he has been working on that since January. Being around the guys at practice, at dinner or going to class to get on them or whatever. Coach Simpson (DL), Coach Pope (OLB/Rush), Coach Peoples (DB) and Coach Brumfield (CB/SPC) have a revolving open door to build experiences and relationships and just being present during voluntary honors so they see them around. He said that is critically important at this stage.
Santucci said that there is a lot of stress put on the LBs in this defense and they are starting to understand that and how important it is to communicate on the field. He said they need to learn quick and if you learn slow it can take you a while to catch up. Tren Tatum had a good two or three days and it is good to have him back and Kyle Efford back and they will continue to work.
Santucci said working at ND, Wake and Duke has helped him understand Georgia Tech and the type of athletes attracted to the school and also who to target in recruiting and you want the right type of kids at a place like this that is a top public university in the country academically and they can't shy away from that and are pretty frank when talking to kids and even the players on the team about their challenges academically and how they can help them or if they need extra time with tutors or whatever. Academics are very important to the players at GT and he wants to make sure they have the right experience so they can have a successful life not only a football career.
With the nickel, they have a lot of different shapes and sizes and it is their job to figure it out with the players. They are looking for short area quickness, good top end speed, good strength, the ability to fit the run and down the field ability on the ball in the air. They are looking for all of those things because it is a hybrid skill set where they play some corner, some safety, get down and play slot corner and get their nose in the run.
Santucci described his new defensive scheme.
"We play with five DBs, two high safeties, a nickel and two corners. We play with two linebackers, a buck linebacker and a Mike linebacker and then we play with four defensive linemen, one is a rush, one is a tackle, one is a nose and one is an end," Santucci said. "We have the personnel that we need here and we have the right body types and we have the right people, we just have to continue to grow."
In his room, Santucci has three new players, two transfers and a true freshman, E.J. Lightsey (UGA transfer), Jackson Hamilton (Louisville transfer) and Tah'j Butler (true freshman) and he is excited about all three players.
"Jackson Hamilton has done some really good things on the field in the first three days. I think he has the ability to use his hands really well. He has short-area quickness and has explosion in his body. He has to continue to grow," Santucci said.
Lightsey has been recovering from an injury and limited so far in camp, but they are expecting him back later in camp.
"E.J. is slowly coming back and we will continue to work him making sure that we are urgent getting him back, but we don't rush him so he can get some quality reps this spring so he hasn't really been on the field yet," he said.
Butler has already impressed the new defensive staff in his first few practices out of high school.
"Tah'j is fun to coach. He is a fun kid to be around and he is running with the twos at times right now. I think he is picking it up and if even if he doesn't know what he is doing, he is going hard and he is going fast. He shows up to meetings and learns and gets a little better every day," he said.
Santucci said that the installation of the defense is a systematic process and is built around the players and they are in the infancy stages of it right now. He said the emphasis right now is how they go about their business, how they attend meetings and the intent when they approach things and cross the lines. How they play together and swarm to the football is critically important and the foundation of the defense. This is what we are doing and this is why we are doing it. He said right now his focus is on how they practice and how they pay attention in meetings and how they communicate with one another both visually and verbally. He wants to gather small wins in the things they are doing right now and putting guys into positions to have success.
Santucci said his initial conversations with Key were about the fact that he needed someone to run the defense, but also someone he felt comfortable with and foundationally they believe in a lot of the same things about what a football team is about. That is being tough, creating bonds that are meaningful for the rest of these kids' lives and coaches having bonds with each other too. He knew that Georgia Tech was near and dear to Coach Key's heart and that all combined brought him to GT.
On run defense, he said he is not sure what happened here a year ago other than you see things statistically, but to him, he starts everyone at square one and they have no preconceived notions on anyone or anything. He wants to build it from square one and they can't skip steps and can't cheat steps and they want to get it done in a timely manner. "It all starts with how they play, our effort that we play with and how we communicate, how we treat one another and how we care about one another and if we do those things I feel like we'll get to where we need to get to and hopefully that helps that problem," he said.
Santucci said the guys are eager to be coached and are willing to show up each and every day and be coached. They want to know the why and asked them why are they doing this? Those are his favorite guys to be around and the guys have shown up every day and not relented and that is all he can aks from day one. They are asking for some blind faith from the players and are getting it. They give them clear explanation and they understand it and take it and run with it.
Santucci said building relationships is a key piece of this and he has been working on that since January. Being around the guys at practice, at dinner or going to class to get on them or whatever. Coach Simpson (DL), Coach Pope (OLB/Rush), Coach Peoples (DB) and Coach Brumfield (CB/SPC) have a revolving open door to build experiences and relationships and just being present during voluntary honors so they see them around. He said that is critically important at this stage.
Santucci said that there is a lot of stress put on the LBs in this defense and they are starting to understand that and how important it is to communicate on the field. He said they need to learn quick and if you learn slow it can take you a while to catch up. Tren Tatum had a good two or three days and it is good to have him back and Kyle Efford back and they will continue to work.
Santucci said working at ND, Wake and Duke has helped him understand Georgia Tech and the type of athletes attracted to the school and also who to target in recruiting and you want the right type of kids at a place like this that is a top public university in the country academically and they can't shy away from that and are pretty frank when talking to kids and even the players on the team about their challenges academically and how they can help them or if they need extra time with tutors or whatever. Academics are very important to the players at GT and he wants to make sure they have the right experience so they can have a successful life not only a football career.
With the nickel, they have a lot of different shapes and sizes and it is their job to figure it out with the players. They are looking for short area quickness, good top end speed, good strength, the ability to fit the run and down the field ability on the ball in the air. They are looking for all of those things because it is a hybrid skill set where they play some corner, some safety, get down and play slot corner and get their nose in the run.
