ATLANTA- Georgia Tech continued spring practice on Thursday enjoying the mild spring weather in the city. After practice, new linebackers coach Darius Eubanks, tight end coach Nathan Brock and transfer tight end J.T. Byrne and linebacker E.J. Lightsey spoke to the media for the first time this year.
Eubanks was added to the staff following the departure of defensive coordinator and linebackers coach Tyler Santucci to the NFL and the hiring of defensive coordinator Blake Gideon who spent the majority of his career as a defensive backs coach. Gideon floats on staff, meaning he does not have a specific position that he coaches, which allows Eubanks, a former NFL linebacker, to lead that group.
Eubanks, who came to Tech from his alma mater, Georgia Southern, has been enjoying the challenge of being on a new staff under a new defensive coordinator and the benefit of having a very experienced linebacker room to coach.
“Having a new scheme, there is always going to be a learning curve, but when you've got guys that have played a lot of ball they catch on fast so it’s been a smooth transition,” Eubanks said. “I think we are getting better as players and also as coaches and I’ve been enjoying my time here. I have a really good group and I’ve been blessed to be here.”
Eubanks said that he has multiple connections with people at Tech including Cory Peoples who he coached with before and the big thing was just getting a chance to get in front of Coach Key. He had just made the transition to coaching LBs at GSU after coaching DBs early on and he was really excited to get the opportunity to coach LBs here.
He said playing in the NFL has helped him a lot and he often will post up behind the linebackers so he can see what they are seeing to coach them through scenarios and is working on training their eyes and how they took this drop, I need to exit or use this angle of departure and having played the position gives him a huge head start on coaching all of that.
Eubanks on how he plans to rotate his LBs, he said he feels like they have five guys right now they can go out and win with and if it is ends up being five guys he wants to play all five guys as long as they can execute. He wants them to fly around, swarm to the ball, tackle and execute at a high level while communicating at a high level. He said right now they might even have six guys he would be comfortable playing in a game.
Eubanks on Tah’j Butler, he played over 100 snaps last year and has some experience and there are a lot of older guys in the room, but he has experience too even though he is only 18 right now and enrolled at 17 last year and was very young. He said that Butler is now 6’2” and 225 and you think he is just 18 and what is he going to be when he gets older. He said his job with Butler is to simplify the game so he can play fast. He said he loves having young bucks like that to coach and his job is to make him the best he can be over the next 2-3 years to max out his potential.
I asked him about EJ Lightey and he said that he is a little reserved and he is trying to teach him to be more vocal and be more of a leader out there and he is taking that coaching and working on it. Being the MIKE LB you have to be the heartbeat of the room and he is doing a good job of being more vocal.
On this being his first P4 gig, Eubanks said that nothing is different, but he feels like he is becoming a better coach from learning this scheme and learning from Coach Gideon and Coach Simpson and Coach Pope and how they do things up front and how the backend works.
Eubanks said he has been rolling all the LBs in different combinations to see how they work together and how they communicate. He doesn’t want it all on one linebacker to be that voice back there, they all have to get used to it and talk.
I asked him what he has learned from working with Coach Gideon so far and he said that it is really interesting how they use the LBs in coverage and they’ll hook and play cover three, curl flat droppers, run through players and other coverages and he has learned more in three weeks as far as coverages goes compared to his previous six years as an assistant coach. They spent a big chunk of today just working on every type of zone drop possible.
Nate Brock was up next he said their view on the TE position as a whole is it is a spot to create mismatches for the offense and they’ve done it in a lot of different ways so far and done a good job of developing guys to do that and getting guys on the field with different skillsets. He said now they have a lot of room compared to when he first got to GT and worked with the TEs. Right now his goal is to make all of them the total package so they are not one dimensional personnel.
On the evolving TE room with the new additions, Brock said they’ve done a good job of evaluating the right fits for the offense and the mentality piece of it and how are they wired? Are they hard workers? Do they care about football? Do they care about their teammates? Then from there can we develop them? Like JT does a great job for us and he is starting to be more vocal, but he is also focused on himself and the guys are focused on self-betterment. There is no depth chart everybody is playing and getting reps. Luke Harpring for example can still develop and he is going with the ones, twos and threes. Everybody is going with everyone to built that comfortability with each other. He loves being at Georgia Tech and continuing to get them in the right direction.
On the success of the TE position helping sell GT to recruits, Brock said that even young guys on the road it helped, the two guys over the last two years Jackson Hawes and Dylan Leonard and even Luke Benson who also did a great job for us, it goes back to that mentality and mindset piece. They brought Jackson Hawes in from the Ivy League and he wanted to take another step in his development and people see that success and it helps them get JT Byrne who was in the league with GT and they saw on crossover film and he wanted to come because of how they developed Hawes.
I asked him about Brett Seither and how they are keeping him engaged when he is limited coming off his knee injury, Brock said that Brett has done a great job of staying engaged and being vocal in that room and he has been at GT for a while now and he is able to help coach guys on the field and he is really fired up to get it going again and get back healthy from his injury.
I asked about Harpring and Brock said that he has that opportunity to compete and he does really well playing in space and being a younger guy he still needs to lock in on the details and alignments and hand placement but he is still developing. He played mostly DE in HS and he is still learning some of the nuances of the position but he has a bright future and is doing a great job and they are excited to see how he helps them win this year.
Eubanks was added to the staff following the departure of defensive coordinator and linebackers coach Tyler Santucci to the NFL and the hiring of defensive coordinator Blake Gideon who spent the majority of his career as a defensive backs coach. Gideon floats on staff, meaning he does not have a specific position that he coaches, which allows Eubanks, a former NFL linebacker, to lead that group.
Eubanks, who came to Tech from his alma mater, Georgia Southern, has been enjoying the challenge of being on a new staff under a new defensive coordinator and the benefit of having a very experienced linebacker room to coach.
“Having a new scheme, there is always going to be a learning curve, but when you've got guys that have played a lot of ball they catch on fast so it’s been a smooth transition,” Eubanks said. “I think we are getting better as players and also as coaches and I’ve been enjoying my time here. I have a really good group and I’ve been blessed to be here.”
Eubanks said that he has multiple connections with people at Tech including Cory Peoples who he coached with before and the big thing was just getting a chance to get in front of Coach Key. He had just made the transition to coaching LBs at GSU after coaching DBs early on and he was really excited to get the opportunity to coach LBs here.
He said playing in the NFL has helped him a lot and he often will post up behind the linebackers so he can see what they are seeing to coach them through scenarios and is working on training their eyes and how they took this drop, I need to exit or use this angle of departure and having played the position gives him a huge head start on coaching all of that.
Eubanks on how he plans to rotate his LBs, he said he feels like they have five guys right now they can go out and win with and if it is ends up being five guys he wants to play all five guys as long as they can execute. He wants them to fly around, swarm to the ball, tackle and execute at a high level while communicating at a high level. He said right now they might even have six guys he would be comfortable playing in a game.
Eubanks on Tah’j Butler, he played over 100 snaps last year and has some experience and there are a lot of older guys in the room, but he has experience too even though he is only 18 right now and enrolled at 17 last year and was very young. He said that Butler is now 6’2” and 225 and you think he is just 18 and what is he going to be when he gets older. He said his job with Butler is to simplify the game so he can play fast. He said he loves having young bucks like that to coach and his job is to make him the best he can be over the next 2-3 years to max out his potential.
I asked him about EJ Lightey and he said that he is a little reserved and he is trying to teach him to be more vocal and be more of a leader out there and he is taking that coaching and working on it. Being the MIKE LB you have to be the heartbeat of the room and he is doing a good job of being more vocal.
On this being his first P4 gig, Eubanks said that nothing is different, but he feels like he is becoming a better coach from learning this scheme and learning from Coach Gideon and Coach Simpson and Coach Pope and how they do things up front and how the backend works.
Eubanks said he has been rolling all the LBs in different combinations to see how they work together and how they communicate. He doesn’t want it all on one linebacker to be that voice back there, they all have to get used to it and talk.
I asked him what he has learned from working with Coach Gideon so far and he said that it is really interesting how they use the LBs in coverage and they’ll hook and play cover three, curl flat droppers, run through players and other coverages and he has learned more in three weeks as far as coverages goes compared to his previous six years as an assistant coach. They spent a big chunk of today just working on every type of zone drop possible.
Nate Brock was up next he said their view on the TE position as a whole is it is a spot to create mismatches for the offense and they’ve done it in a lot of different ways so far and done a good job of developing guys to do that and getting guys on the field with different skillsets. He said now they have a lot of room compared to when he first got to GT and worked with the TEs. Right now his goal is to make all of them the total package so they are not one dimensional personnel.
On the evolving TE room with the new additions, Brock said they’ve done a good job of evaluating the right fits for the offense and the mentality piece of it and how are they wired? Are they hard workers? Do they care about football? Do they care about their teammates? Then from there can we develop them? Like JT does a great job for us and he is starting to be more vocal, but he is also focused on himself and the guys are focused on self-betterment. There is no depth chart everybody is playing and getting reps. Luke Harpring for example can still develop and he is going with the ones, twos and threes. Everybody is going with everyone to built that comfortability with each other. He loves being at Georgia Tech and continuing to get them in the right direction.
On the success of the TE position helping sell GT to recruits, Brock said that even young guys on the road it helped, the two guys over the last two years Jackson Hawes and Dylan Leonard and even Luke Benson who also did a great job for us, it goes back to that mentality and mindset piece. They brought Jackson Hawes in from the Ivy League and he wanted to take another step in his development and people see that success and it helps them get JT Byrne who was in the league with GT and they saw on crossover film and he wanted to come because of how they developed Hawes.
I asked him about Brett Seither and how they are keeping him engaged when he is limited coming off his knee injury, Brock said that Brett has done a great job of staying engaged and being vocal in that room and he has been at GT for a while now and he is able to help coach guys on the field and he is really fired up to get it going again and get back healthy from his injury.
I asked about Harpring and Brock said that he has that opportunity to compete and he does really well playing in space and being a younger guy he still needs to lock in on the details and alignments and hand placement but he is still developing. He played mostly DE in HS and he is still learning some of the nuances of the position but he has a bright future and is doing a great job and they are excited to see how he helps them win this year.
