Former Duke Co-DC and DL coach Jess Simpson has been hired as a member of the Georgia Tech staff. Thought of as one of the best DL coaches in the country, speciifcally at evaluating talent and developing, Simpson got his start in the industry at his alma mater, Marietta HS, and built his way up from there.
Stops at Buford and East Paulding prior to his first chance as a head coach, Simpson took over the Buford program in 2005 after a stint as the coordinator of strength and speed and DC.
He made an unprecedented jump from the HS ranks to the NFL back in 2016, leaving local power Buford for a job with the Atlanta Falcons. While with the Falcons, Simpson was able to work closely with DL Grady Jarrett, among several others.
Simpson, though, is best known for his time at Buford HS, a pipeline that he has tapped back into, signing nationally-coveted DL Jalar Holley from the school back in the 2019 class while at Miami. He left the world of Georgia High School Football with a total of 10 state championships, 7 of them coming as a head coach.
Simpson is well-respected throughout the state, and has relationships with not only coaches from the area, but trainers as well. HS coaches in the state of Georgia are encouraged by this pull by Georgia Tech head coach Brent Key, and are also watching closely to see what happens with the opening at DB coach and the DC job.
Throughout his time as an assistant, Simpson has been able to outlast programs such as Alabama, Florida, Florida State, Georgia, Georgia Tech, and several others to win key recruiting battles.
His biggest recruiting wins thus far include Nyjalik Kelly, Jason Blissett, Cameron Williams, and Jahfari Harvey, among others. Simpson also signed several 5.7 recruits as well.
While his territory is obviously yet to be determined, it is pretty clear that Simpson's strongest recruiting results thus far have come in the state of Georgia and Florida.
Given the amount of talent in the 2025 class in-state, this move couldn't come at a better time for Key and Georgia Tech. Simpson already had offers out to 2025 guys such as-
Prince Avenue Christian DL Christian Garrett
Roswell EDGE Kobby Sakyi-Prah
Jefferson EDGE Kelan Butler
Ware County EDGE Jamar Birden
Langston Hughes DT Tavaris Dice
Calvary Day DT Walter Mathis
Buford DT Nicco Maggio
Sprayberry DB Mark Manfred
Buford also has a pretty strong next two classes as a school alone, a school that Georgia Tech hasn't signed a recruit out of since Jalen Huff back in the 2020 class. Some notable names-
-2025-
LB Mantrez Walker
DB Devin Williams
LB Kenyon Rivera
LB AJ Holloway
-2026-
LB CJ Sibley
OL Ben Mubenga
DE James Morrow
DB Nassir McCoy
DE Bryce Perry-Wright
In the world of recruiting, the transfer portal has become essentially free agency for college athletics. For Simpson, this means that he may have the chance to add some of his former players at both Duke and Miami in his position room pending the actual assignment to DL coach. Remember that in transfer portal recruiting, there is nothing equal to an "NLI" meaning that there is nothing binding the portal player to the schools they are committed to.
Duke defensive players in the transfer portal-
DE RJ Oben (committed to Notre Dame)
DT Aeneas Peebles (committed to VT)
DE Ryan Smith (uncommitted, Georgia native)
Other notable players in the transfer portal-
Miami EDGE Jahfari Harvey (committed to SMU)
Miami DL Chantz Williams
Simpson is also responsible for landing Penn transfer DL Will Seiler, a Georgia native. His name is one to watch closely, but just how closely is yet to be determined. If he does in-fact end up coaching the defensive line, Peebles, Seiler, Harvey, etc. could come back into the picture.
Once a decision on a defensive coordinator becomes official, we will take a closer look at the typical body types that Simpson has gone after in his career. At that time we can also take a look at any other former Duke or Miami players recruited by Simpson that are in the portal.
Notable stats from the Simpson-led DL at Duke the last two seasons-
2023- 42.5 TFL, 17.5 sacks
2022- 33.5 TFL, 17 sacks
Stops at Buford and East Paulding prior to his first chance as a head coach, Simpson took over the Buford program in 2005 after a stint as the coordinator of strength and speed and DC.
He made an unprecedented jump from the HS ranks to the NFL back in 2016, leaving local power Buford for a job with the Atlanta Falcons. While with the Falcons, Simpson was able to work closely with DL Grady Jarrett, among several others.
Simpson, though, is best known for his time at Buford HS, a pipeline that he has tapped back into, signing nationally-coveted DL Jalar Holley from the school back in the 2019 class while at Miami. He left the world of Georgia High School Football with a total of 10 state championships, 7 of them coming as a head coach.
Simpson is well-respected throughout the state, and has relationships with not only coaches from the area, but trainers as well. HS coaches in the state of Georgia are encouraged by this pull by Georgia Tech head coach Brent Key, and are also watching closely to see what happens with the opening at DB coach and the DC job.
Throughout his time as an assistant, Simpson has been able to outlast programs such as Alabama, Florida, Florida State, Georgia, Georgia Tech, and several others to win key recruiting battles.
His biggest recruiting wins thus far include Nyjalik Kelly, Jason Blissett, Cameron Williams, and Jahfari Harvey, among others. Simpson also signed several 5.7 recruits as well.
While his territory is obviously yet to be determined, it is pretty clear that Simpson's strongest recruiting results thus far have come in the state of Georgia and Florida.
Given the amount of talent in the 2025 class in-state, this move couldn't come at a better time for Key and Georgia Tech. Simpson already had offers out to 2025 guys such as-
Prince Avenue Christian DL Christian Garrett
Roswell EDGE Kobby Sakyi-Prah
Jefferson EDGE Kelan Butler
Ware County EDGE Jamar Birden
Langston Hughes DT Tavaris Dice
Calvary Day DT Walter Mathis
Buford DT Nicco Maggio
Sprayberry DB Mark Manfred
Buford also has a pretty strong next two classes as a school alone, a school that Georgia Tech hasn't signed a recruit out of since Jalen Huff back in the 2020 class. Some notable names-
-2025-
LB Mantrez Walker
DB Devin Williams
LB Kenyon Rivera
LB AJ Holloway
-2026-
LB CJ Sibley
OL Ben Mubenga
DE James Morrow
DB Nassir McCoy
DE Bryce Perry-Wright
In the world of recruiting, the transfer portal has become essentially free agency for college athletics. For Simpson, this means that he may have the chance to add some of his former players at both Duke and Miami in his position room pending the actual assignment to DL coach. Remember that in transfer portal recruiting, there is nothing equal to an "NLI" meaning that there is nothing binding the portal player to the schools they are committed to.
Duke defensive players in the transfer portal-
DE RJ Oben (committed to Notre Dame)
DT Aeneas Peebles (committed to VT)
DE Ryan Smith (uncommitted, Georgia native)
Other notable players in the transfer portal-
Miami EDGE Jahfari Harvey (committed to SMU)
Miami DL Chantz Williams
Simpson is also responsible for landing Penn transfer DL Will Seiler, a Georgia native. His name is one to watch closely, but just how closely is yet to be determined. If he does in-fact end up coaching the defensive line, Peebles, Seiler, Harvey, etc. could come back into the picture.
Once a decision on a defensive coordinator becomes official, we will take a closer look at the typical body types that Simpson has gone after in his career. At that time we can also take a look at any other former Duke or Miami players recruited by Simpson that are in the portal.
Notable stats from the Simpson-led DL at Duke the last two seasons-
2023- 42.5 TFL, 17.5 sacks
2022- 33.5 TFL, 17 sacks
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