ATLANTA- Georgia Tech football entered the final stretch before the annual spring game on Saturday with a morning practice in shells. The Jackets will have a walk-through on Friday ahead of the White and Gold game at 1 pm on Saturday in Bobby Dodd Stadium.
Defensive line coach Jess Simpson, defensive ends and outside linebackers coach Kyle Pope and defensive linemen Brayden Manley and Jason Moore spoke with the media after practice.
Pope’s room has undergone the biggest transition in the offseason, with just two returning players from 2024 in sophomores Jordan Boyd and Amontrae Bradford. He said he has enjoyed the challenge of integrating new players into the rotation this spring.
“We definitely have a lot of new faces with youth in our group. I think the development has gotten there from practice one to practice 13 today. I think the guys have gotten better,” Pope said. “There is a nice consistency from different guys in the room that makes it complete, and that is what I like about it.”
Pope on Brayden Manley, he is definitely a guy who has flashed for us and the way he looked at him as a portal recruit was could he play for GT? He was a ball player and played against some big teams including Alabama and played versus top talent and wants to work and he is excited about that. He shows up day in and day out and wants to be better and be coached up and he has brought something different to that room and he is fighting his tail off this spring.
Pope said this group is different and more fun because he can take the weight off them and handle things and he just wants them to go play. He said that Brayden or Amontrae Bradford or Ronald Triplette or freaking Andre Fuller or Christian Garrett who should both be still in high school, he tells them just go play ball and let me be the coach and handle the Xs and Os and the technique. If you come to work every day I’ll pick up the rest of the slack and we will meet in the middle and get this thing done.
I asked about Triplette who isn’t the most impressive guy physically, he said he is “Mr. Get it Done” and he does whatever needs to be done whether it is run or pass. He has been a pleasant surprise. He doesn’t look the part, he isn’t an action figure type guy, but once you line up in front of him you understand Ronald Triplette came to play. He is doing a hell of a job this spring and he is excited about the dynamic he brings to the room. He is the oldest guy in the room too.
Pope on Bradford, he has great size and length and you can see him freaking run and fly and his athletic ability standouts. He is focused on the details of the game now and getting him to focus on that and not just relying on his athletic ability has been a focus for him and getting into the details of the playbook and different techniques. He is flashing more now and he is asking more from him now too. He was a special teams guy last year and now he is fighting to contribute to the team.
I asked about Andre Fuller and Christian Garrett’s progress at DE and Pope said that they were both top players in the state for a reason coming out of high and they have dynamic athletic ability and are they are ready to go and play despite being young. He has to remind himself they should still be in a HS math class right now but they came in early and are picking things up and taking advantage of the reps they are getting.
I asked Pope about Blake Gideon and he said BG has been fun and he came to him and Jess and told them he liked what they are doing up front and he wanted to build around that and he trusts them to build it the right way. He said that BG comes with a fire and wants the D to be violent and competitive and they haven’t missed a beat with BG as DC.
Pope said that Darius Eubanks has been a great addition at LB as well, he brings the best of both worlds because he has experience coaching the backend and he knows the front as well so he can talk to Pope in his language about stuff.
Jess Simpson was next and I asked him about the reset in the room this year with so many younger guys. Simpson said that a coach told him long ago if you are not coaching next year’s team you are going to be in trouble and they worked on that last year. He said that JJ van den Berg and Jason Moore are the two bell cow leaders of the room and they’ve been there and done it and are incredible leaders and he said he has told parents if your kids get to spend a year here with those two watching how they live their lives and watching how they treat people and compete and their toughness they are great examples and have made it a blast. He said that Matthew Alexander has had a good spring and transitioned to GT well and he likes his attitude a lot and he has been a great teammate and picked it up fast.
On Landen Marshall’s improvement, Simpson said he has made a huge jump and they saw a little bit of it at the end of last season, but in Jacket Drills in February and March he could see a real different in his intent and confidence. His conditioning has improved and he has taken that into spring ball. Landen is a really good athlete and very coordinated and he is developing but linemen are slow cooking in development. It isn’t a week or two or a month or two, it takes years of stacking these reps and understanding what the picture looks like and how am I supposed to play these blocks, the muscle memory of it and the coordinator that is required to execute and to move a blocker and as a pass rusher all the coordination. You don’t see these guys catching balls but they are just as skilled as a skill position player and he has shown flashes this spring of the player he can be.
On mixing and matching pairings, he is a big believer in that. He wants his guys to play 20-40 snaps max and communication is big with the DLs. He likes to have a five to six-man rotation and then you can play winning football. He said a kid can’t play 60-65 snaps at a high level because their tongue will be hanging out of their mouth whether that is in HS, college of the NFL, you have to manage reps and that is something they take a lot of pride in as a unit and he wants to get more guys in there.
Chad asked if he has four or six guys to rotate yet, he said they are teetering on it. He wants that incremental improvement each day and he feels like he has some guys who can be ready and they’ve made some progress but they have some ways to go at the same time with the young guys.
I asked how Derry Norris and Blake Belin are coming along and Simpson said that Derry had the best practice of the spring today. He said one of the things he talks about with the young guys is making a new mistake. Making the same mistake over and over is not growth but fixing that mistake and making a new one is and that is exciting to se as a coach. He said he challenged them to write down something from day one and write it down again today five weeks later and write it so many times it is yours. He siad that Blake and Derry should be in high school right now and they are asking them to prepare like a pro and go through that process and watch the older guys do that and understand that attention to detail that is required to do that and do it again and again whether you are hurt or injured or tired or it becomes mundane. The kids are starting to learn what is required from them to be good. Winning is in the details and winning is not easy.
I asked Jess about Blake Gideon and their relationship and he said that he feels like he has had a ton of year ones with the DC in the last 10 years but they are all fun and he has learned something from every one of them. He thinks about it from the leadership aspect and how do we do this as good as we can it and year one accelerators. Blake was really clear when he got here that he liked what they were doing upfront on the DL and he didn’t want to change it but just add some tweaks, it isn’t the exact same thing, but it is very close. He moved Blake in with his family for the first month he was on the job to saturate himself in conversations and communication with Blake and have you made the call before? What do you call this? How have you coached this situation before? It’s all about spending as much time as they can together for five weeks and watching film of what GT is doing, game film from last year and stuff from Texas. It is kind of like an all-day coaching clinic. That accelerated their relationship and they can support the heck out of Blake now and his relationship with the players and understand what they are doing and why they are changing this. He said that is big for him.
Simpson said he has known Blake for a long time and he was tight with Will Muschamp and Will and Mike Muschamp are mutual friends so he had a good idea of who Blake was as a person and as a coach. He said he thinks the players have learned the new system faster than he thought it could be taught and that is a credit to the kids. It has been a great transition but they still have miles to go to get to where they want to be in year one of this defense, but these last five weeks have been great and he is fired up about going into the summer.
Defensive line coach Jess Simpson, defensive ends and outside linebackers coach Kyle Pope and defensive linemen Brayden Manley and Jason Moore spoke with the media after practice.
Pope’s room has undergone the biggest transition in the offseason, with just two returning players from 2024 in sophomores Jordan Boyd and Amontrae Bradford. He said he has enjoyed the challenge of integrating new players into the rotation this spring.
“We definitely have a lot of new faces with youth in our group. I think the development has gotten there from practice one to practice 13 today. I think the guys have gotten better,” Pope said. “There is a nice consistency from different guys in the room that makes it complete, and that is what I like about it.”
Pope on Brayden Manley, he is definitely a guy who has flashed for us and the way he looked at him as a portal recruit was could he play for GT? He was a ball player and played against some big teams including Alabama and played versus top talent and wants to work and he is excited about that. He shows up day in and day out and wants to be better and be coached up and he has brought something different to that room and he is fighting his tail off this spring.
Pope said this group is different and more fun because he can take the weight off them and handle things and he just wants them to go play. He said that Brayden or Amontrae Bradford or Ronald Triplette or freaking Andre Fuller or Christian Garrett who should both be still in high school, he tells them just go play ball and let me be the coach and handle the Xs and Os and the technique. If you come to work every day I’ll pick up the rest of the slack and we will meet in the middle and get this thing done.
I asked about Triplette who isn’t the most impressive guy physically, he said he is “Mr. Get it Done” and he does whatever needs to be done whether it is run or pass. He has been a pleasant surprise. He doesn’t look the part, he isn’t an action figure type guy, but once you line up in front of him you understand Ronald Triplette came to play. He is doing a hell of a job this spring and he is excited about the dynamic he brings to the room. He is the oldest guy in the room too.
Pope on Bradford, he has great size and length and you can see him freaking run and fly and his athletic ability standouts. He is focused on the details of the game now and getting him to focus on that and not just relying on his athletic ability has been a focus for him and getting into the details of the playbook and different techniques. He is flashing more now and he is asking more from him now too. He was a special teams guy last year and now he is fighting to contribute to the team.
I asked about Andre Fuller and Christian Garrett’s progress at DE and Pope said that they were both top players in the state for a reason coming out of high and they have dynamic athletic ability and are they are ready to go and play despite being young. He has to remind himself they should still be in a HS math class right now but they came in early and are picking things up and taking advantage of the reps they are getting.
I asked Pope about Blake Gideon and he said BG has been fun and he came to him and Jess and told them he liked what they are doing up front and he wanted to build around that and he trusts them to build it the right way. He said that BG comes with a fire and wants the D to be violent and competitive and they haven’t missed a beat with BG as DC.
Pope said that Darius Eubanks has been a great addition at LB as well, he brings the best of both worlds because he has experience coaching the backend and he knows the front as well so he can talk to Pope in his language about stuff.
Jess Simpson was next and I asked him about the reset in the room this year with so many younger guys. Simpson said that a coach told him long ago if you are not coaching next year’s team you are going to be in trouble and they worked on that last year. He said that JJ van den Berg and Jason Moore are the two bell cow leaders of the room and they’ve been there and done it and are incredible leaders and he said he has told parents if your kids get to spend a year here with those two watching how they live their lives and watching how they treat people and compete and their toughness they are great examples and have made it a blast. He said that Matthew Alexander has had a good spring and transitioned to GT well and he likes his attitude a lot and he has been a great teammate and picked it up fast.
On Landen Marshall’s improvement, Simpson said he has made a huge jump and they saw a little bit of it at the end of last season, but in Jacket Drills in February and March he could see a real different in his intent and confidence. His conditioning has improved and he has taken that into spring ball. Landen is a really good athlete and very coordinated and he is developing but linemen are slow cooking in development. It isn’t a week or two or a month or two, it takes years of stacking these reps and understanding what the picture looks like and how am I supposed to play these blocks, the muscle memory of it and the coordinator that is required to execute and to move a blocker and as a pass rusher all the coordination. You don’t see these guys catching balls but they are just as skilled as a skill position player and he has shown flashes this spring of the player he can be.
On mixing and matching pairings, he is a big believer in that. He wants his guys to play 20-40 snaps max and communication is big with the DLs. He likes to have a five to six-man rotation and then you can play winning football. He said a kid can’t play 60-65 snaps at a high level because their tongue will be hanging out of their mouth whether that is in HS, college of the NFL, you have to manage reps and that is something they take a lot of pride in as a unit and he wants to get more guys in there.
Chad asked if he has four or six guys to rotate yet, he said they are teetering on it. He wants that incremental improvement each day and he feels like he has some guys who can be ready and they’ve made some progress but they have some ways to go at the same time with the young guys.
I asked how Derry Norris and Blake Belin are coming along and Simpson said that Derry had the best practice of the spring today. He said one of the things he talks about with the young guys is making a new mistake. Making the same mistake over and over is not growth but fixing that mistake and making a new one is and that is exciting to se as a coach. He said he challenged them to write down something from day one and write it down again today five weeks later and write it so many times it is yours. He siad that Blake and Derry should be in high school right now and they are asking them to prepare like a pro and go through that process and watch the older guys do that and understand that attention to detail that is required to do that and do it again and again whether you are hurt or injured or tired or it becomes mundane. The kids are starting to learn what is required from them to be good. Winning is in the details and winning is not easy.
I asked Jess about Blake Gideon and their relationship and he said that he feels like he has had a ton of year ones with the DC in the last 10 years but they are all fun and he has learned something from every one of them. He thinks about it from the leadership aspect and how do we do this as good as we can it and year one accelerators. Blake was really clear when he got here that he liked what they were doing upfront on the DL and he didn’t want to change it but just add some tweaks, it isn’t the exact same thing, but it is very close. He moved Blake in with his family for the first month he was on the job to saturate himself in conversations and communication with Blake and have you made the call before? What do you call this? How have you coached this situation before? It’s all about spending as much time as they can together for five weeks and watching film of what GT is doing, game film from last year and stuff from Texas. It is kind of like an all-day coaching clinic. That accelerated their relationship and they can support the heck out of Blake now and his relationship with the players and understand what they are doing and why they are changing this. He said that is big for him.
Simpson said he has known Blake for a long time and he was tight with Will Muschamp and Will and Mike Muschamp are mutual friends so he had a good idea of who Blake was as a person and as a coach. He said he thinks the players have learned the new system faster than he thought it could be taught and that is a credit to the kids. It has been a great transition but they still have miles to go to get to where they want to be in year one of this defense, but these last five weeks have been great and he is fired up about going into the summer.
