Brent Key Shares Update On When He Hopes to Complete His Defensive Staff

Key is in the process of hiring new members for the defensive side of the ball

Author:
Jackson Caudell
Publish date:
Jan 11, 2024 2:07 PM EST

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Brent Key is working on finalizing his defensive staff for the 2024 season and has made two hires on that side of the ball, bringing in former Duke and Miami assistant Jess Simpson and former Memphis defensive line coach Kyle Pope this week.

When doing a radio appearance on 680 The Fan this afternoon, Key was asked about the fluidity of the situation for hiring his defensive staff and this was his answer:

"Yeah, I would not say that it is fluid, I would say it is not like water it is more like a slow can of oil just kind of dripping out... We are really settling in to what we want to do and I am excited about the staff that we are putting together, here in the next few days, we should have everything completed. I have taken my time in this thing to really get this thing right and make sure these kids have the best opportunity to win and play really good football."

Earlier this week, John Brice at FootballScoop reported that Georgia Tech is going to hire Memphis defensive line coach and defensive run game coordinator Kyle Pope to be a defensive assistant. According to Brice's report, "Pope will continue to work with defensive linemen in his new role at Georgia Tech."

Former Memphis Defensive Line Coach Kyle Pope
Joe Rondone/The Commercial Appeal via Imagn Content Services, LLC

Before working at Memphis, Pope was a grad assistant at Alabama (2017-2018) working with the defensive line, and then was the linebackers coach at Liberty. He was a grad assistant at Alabama at the same time that Brent Key was the offensive line coach in Tuscaloosa.

Former Duke defensive line coach and co-defensive coordinator Jess Simpson is going to be joining the Yellow Jackets staff in a role to be announced at a later date.

Simpson was a fantastic high school head coach while he was at Buford from 2005-2016. He spent a year as a defensive assistant with the Atlanta Falcons before joining Mark Richt's staff at Miami in 2018. After a year with the Hurricanes, he returned to Atlanta to coach the Falcon's defensive line for two seasons before heading back to Miami for another year with the Hurricanes. After Manny Diaz was fired at Miami, Simpson joined Mike Elko's staff at Duke, where he was the co-defensive coordinator and defensive line coach for the past two seasons.