As Georgia Tech prepares for the season, the assistant coach with the weightiest challenge could be defensive line coach Mike Pelton. He is having to develop starters to replace Jeremiah Attaochu, Euclid Cummings and Emmanuel Dieke, all of whom are in NFL camps this summer.
Further, since the end of last season, the line lost seven players with eligibility remaining because of transfers and other issues, such as the academic ineligibility of Jabari Hunt-Days, who had a promising spring at defensive end. Pelton spoke with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Tuesday about the progress of his charges.
Q: Give me an update on your guys. How you feel like things are progressing.
A: It's about the same. They're up and down. Nothing's really changed. They're working and showing some flashes. Second week, you've got to grind through this, though.
Q: Do you feel better now than you did at the start of camp?
A: You know what? I don't know if you feel better, but I'm seeing some things that I need to see. I just have to see it on a more consistent basis.
Q: KeShun (Freeman, the early-enrollee freshman slated to start at rush defensive end), what can you say about how he’s developing?
A: He's a freshman, and he's showing that he's a freshman. And, saying that, in the spring, we didn't do quite as much, but now we're throwing the whole book at him. He's still KeShun. At the same time, he's still a freshman. He hasn't done it. I've got to constantly remind myself. (Between) what I saw (in the spring) and what he really is, you've got to give him that learning curve just like the rest of them. He's learning. He's having his ups and downs, and that's about all you can ask of him. But he's going in the right direction.
Q: Obviously, Kenderius (Whitehead, the transfer from Georgia Military College, who had hoped to play immediately but will have to sit out the year) isn’t going to play this year, but how has he responded to that?
A: Great attitude. Great attitude, knowing he needs to work. He knows his fundamentals are behind, but he's really, really behind with that. That's what we've been working on, just trying to break what he's learned and just trying to teach him the base fundamentals, just get him as good as he can fundamentally until he goes and helps the offense (on the defensive scout team).
Q: Had he been eligible, could he have contributed?
A: He probably would have been able to contribute somewhere, but it'd have been a fight, because all those guys are competing. He'd have had to beat out some guys. It would have been a good competition. It would have been interesting to see if he and Jabari could have really competed. It would have been interesting.
Q: People are always interested in Francis (Kallon, who played one season at Central Gwinnett High after moving from England). How is he coming along?
A: You know what? He's showing flashes. But Francis, it's the same story. He's got to be consistent, and he's been more consistent this camp. You want to get more longevity. You see it a day and you see it two days, and then he goes back to his old ways. I will say he has come far, but he's got a long way to go. He's got a long way to go.
Q: How are you handling the lack of depth and not having a lot of guys, in terms of just having bodies for practice?
A: You know what? I work with what's there. I just work with what's there. You don't really get into (the numbers). You just prepare the guys that you have. A lot of guys are playing a lot of different positions. I really don't even think about it because I just coach the ones that are there and try to (prepare) the ones that are going to be out there and give them a chance.
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