Georgia Tech defensive coordinator Andrew Thacker has three new assistant coaches and a new structure for coaching responsibilities. With the regime of coach Geoff Collins potentially at stake, Thacker is counting on it to help produce improvement after overseeing a unit that last season ranked at the bottom among FBS teams.
The changes have been made to enable players to communicate better on the field in order to play as a coordinated unit. Thacker’s first public comments since the end of last season stressed that poor communication was a significant problem.
“Organizationally, I’d say the biggest pieces that’s created is cohesion as a defensive line unit and cohesion as a (defensive back) unit,” Thacker said Tuesday after the team’s fourth session of spring practice. “It wasn’t to reassign just to mix things up to mix things up. That was the goal.”
Where previously the secondary and defensive line were both coached by two coaches – the secondary by Nathan Burton (safeties) and Jeff Popovich (cornerbacks) and the line by Larry Knight (defensive line) and Marco Coleman (defensive ends/outside linebackers) – the two groups are now under one coach each.
With Burton and Popovich having been dismissed and Coleman having left to coach the defensive line at Michigan State, Knight coaches the defensive line and new hire Travares Tillman oversees the secondary. Knight will have help from David Turner, hired to fill Coleman’s spot. Turner’s title is assistant head coach (defense) and defensive run-game coordinator. The way that Turner and Knight have taken turns coaching the defensive tackles and defensive ends in practice indicates the two will work more in collaboration.
With the secondary, Collins identified poor communication between the safeties and cornerbacks as being a problem as far back as last offseason. The defense ranking last in FBS in defensive passing efficiency and giving up 52 pass plays of 20 yards or more (tied for 119th in FBS) were results of those issues (though hardly the only factors).
“I don't know how to (give the defense a grade). We didn't meet the standard. It's like, ‘Did you meet it or not?' We didn't."
“The big piece for us looking forward in reorganizing is to try to have one voice in that (secondary meeting) room,” Thacker said. “We feel like one of the errors that we need to most improve upon is communication on the back end. So guys having more cohesion, guys meeting together, we feel like that is something that can create a solution.”
Tillman, a former Tech safety, is starting only his third season as an on-field position coach at the college level. He also has the largest position group on the defense, coaching the cornerbacks, safeties and nickel backs.
“I think there’s always a different vantage point when you’ve played at Georgia Tech, you’ve been a second-round draft pick, you’ve been an All-ACC guy, you’ve played in the NFL,” Thacker said. “I think before coach Tillman ever stepped through the door, I think the guys respected that because so many of them, that’s where they’re trying to get to.”
Jason Semore had been on Collins’ staff in 2019 and 2020 as a defensive analyst before going to Valdosta State to be its defensive coordinator last season. He has taken over the linebacker group, which Thacker had coached since coming to Tech with Collins from Temple.
“I think he’s an elite coach, I think he’s an elite man and a lot of the guys inside of that (football) building were excited about that hire,” Thacker said. “Very unknown to the outside world, but there are a lot of guys that had good relationships, really respected him.”
Turner has coached at the college level for 36 years, including 19 of the past 20 in the SEC. He has coached 15 players who went on to be NFL draft picks.
“I think similar to coach Tillman in the way he’s a former player who played in the NFL and so many guys have seen where he’s been, I think the level of player and the level that coach Turner has coached at, at such a high level for so long, those guys had an opportunity to see him through a different lens and just bring in an immediate level of respect because he’s had to dive in quickly,” Thacker said.
Thacker said that being freed of position-coaching responsibilities will give him a different vantage point in preparing the defense. In practice thus far this spring, he has been joining different position groups during practice as opposed to working solely with linebackers.
He called it “trial and error” as the team goes through the spring. It is different from the norm, in which a coordinator normally has a position to coach, too.
“It was the No. 1 goal – cohesion of units – and then let’s work from there and let’s make it work,” Thacker said. “And in the process, let’s figure this thing out through spring ball where we can best fit each other in literally each individual period of the practice before we ever get to any type of game planning or game-day scenarios right there.”
Collins will be more committed to helping the defense, Thacker said, as Collins also has asserted.
Collins is “taking a concerted effort to make sure that he is available more than he’s ever been for the defensive (meeting) room,” Thacker said. “I have a tremendous amount of respect for him. Whatever your opinion is, I think he’s one of the elite defensive coaches in the country, and when he’s fully invested, it is a great service to us.”
However improved the process and operations are, Thacker and his staff will need to develop a new set of playmakers. The Jackets defense has lost nine players who started at least six games last season and eight of the top 11 tacklers.
Thus far, defensive tackle Makius Scott, defensive end Noah Collins, linebacker Charlie Thomas and defensive backs Derrik Allen, Jaylon King, Myles Sims and Zamari Walton are among those who have started spring practice well.
Thacker said of him and his staff that “we desperately want to put out a product that we’re proud of” and recognized that last year’s defense was not that at all.
“I don’t know how to (give the defense a grade),” he said. “We didn’t meet the standard. It’s like, ‘Did you meet it or not?’ We didn’t.”
That said, he spoke of his investment at Tech and intention to work harder and find new ways to help his players succeed on the field. After not meeting the standard a year ago (for that matter, the first two seasons weren’t especially successful, either), Thacker expressed his eagerness to lead a reshaped defense through the rest of spring practice and the season ahead.
“I’m really excited about what they’re trying to do right now,” Thacker said. “It’s our job to get ‘em out there in the right place and the right spot playing at a high level. I’m excited about the opportunity. I’m very, very appreciative to be here.”
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