Georgia Tech’s defensive line has been retooled and refurbished this offseason, and it may be the key to the Yellow Jackets making any sort of improvement on defense in 2024.
Tech was the nation’s third-worst team at stopping the run in 2023, allowing 221.3 yards per game. It ranked 105th with only 21 sacks over 13 games (and eight of those 21 came in one outing at Wake Forest). According to Pro Football Focus, Tech’s run defense graded at 63.6, tied for 111th nationally.
The 3,067 rushing yards allowed by Tech’s defense marked the second time in the past three seasons the Jackets have given up at least 3,000 yards on the ground.
So Tech coach Brent Key virtually made wholesale changes with the defensive front, first bringing in defensive line coach Jess Simpson and Kyle Pope to coach the defensive ends. Tech also added Romello Height (6-foot-3, 240 pounds) from Southern California, Thomas Gore (6-0, 290) from Miami and Jordan van den Berg (6-3, 305) from Penn State to supplement the team’s depth.
That trio has joined forces with a handful of returning playmakers giving Simpson some pieces to work with during preseason practice.
“I think the theme in our (meeting) room, easily, is competition,” Simpson said Wednesday. “There’s a lot of guys getting ready to play and a lot of guys competing for snaps. If you look around and you hesitate and you wait a second, someone is gonna pass you up.
“I think any coach in the country will tell you if you have good competition in your room during summer camp, it’s a great thing for your room and your defense.”
Simpson came to Tech from Duke alongside first-year Tech coordinator Tyler Santucci. They inherited a roster that includes veteran defensive linemen Makius Scott, Kevin Harris, Horace Lockett, Joshua Robinson, Zeek Biggers and Sylvain Yondjouen (who missed the 2023 season because of injury).
That group has been challenged by the three transfers, a challenge Simpson and Santucci hopes translates to production.
“You talk about the D-line and being able to roll one, two, three groups out there that compete,” Santucci said. “I think competition brings out the best in everyone, and I think you see that. The older guys competing with guys that have come in, talking to each other, challenging each other, and I think that that’s so healthy for the defense, for the unit and I think that’ll bring out the best in them.”
Some of Tech’s top defensive linemen from the 2023 squad departed in the offseason leaving big holes to fill. Kyle Kennard (six sacks, 54 tackles) transferred to South Carolina, D’Quan Douse (two sacks, 35 tackles) headed to Michigan State and Eddie Kelly (1.5 sacks, 38 tackles) went to Missouri.
Tech picked up Amontrae Bradford (6-5, 250) from Statesboro, Uche Iloh (6-5, 275) from McIntosh High, Landen Marshall (6-2, 285) from Andalusia, Alabama, and Jordan Boyd (6-3, 260) from Beech Island, South Carolina, to help make up for some of those losses.
So with those freshmen, some solid transfers and the veteran returners, and with Simpson and Santucci leading the way, Tech hopes it has in place what will be a vastly improved defensive front, a front that will need to rely on more than only a few playmakers.
“I told ‘em (Wednesday), ‘Guys, one of the beauties of ball is it takes all of us. And there’s gonna be times when someone gets nicked and somebody gets injured, somebody’s over there cramping,’” Simpson said. “It’s gonna take more than they can even see right now. I think they’re getting a vision for that of what it could look like, how many guys we could play. If I had six guys ready to play, five guys ready to play, that’s a pretty deep D-tackle (group).”
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