Everything From Andrew Thacker's Post-Practice Availability

Georgia Tech D-Coordinator Andrew Thacker addressed the media Monday

Jackson Caudell | Mar 28, 2023

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Georgia Tech held another spring practice on Monday and afterward, defensive coordinator Andrew Thacker was made available to the media and here is everything that he had to say:

1. On what he learned during the final eight games with Brent Key as head coach and being co-defensive coordinator with Kevin Sherrer...

"I think Coach Key made some really tough decisions and he did a great job of building the staff. You are speaking specifically to the defensive staff, we brought in a ton of quality. You mentioned Coach Sherrer and having the co-defensive coordinator title and what I can learn from him and the value that he brings to the defense, that is hard to be measured right now. Someone who has been defensive coordinator at SEC schools, who has coached in the NFL, the knowledge and the wisdom he brings and having gone through the fire and to my and the staffs advantage as far.

As for the rest of the staff, having Marco Coleman back, had the chance to work with Marco multiple times, just a Georgia Tech legend. I will say this with respect to Marco, how he has developed as a coach has been impressive. Only been away for a year and having the opportunity to have a full defensive line at Michigan State and then now taking the full defensive line over here. I have been impressed with Marco as a peer in how he has developed as a coach. I know he was a great player, a legend and all that, I think he is an elite coach right now.

And I have to mention it, the opportunity for Coach Key to structure this staff, with having Brian Baker on the staff, that is a game changer for us. Brian Baker's humility to come here, he has 20 years of NFL experience and having an off-the-field role and just what he adds to the development of the defensive line and Coach Coleman and using each other as a benefit has been huge for us. Inside the staff room and the knowledge I am gaining from those guys is huge, catering our offense to their style have been some of the changes. I gotta keep going full circle, obviously Till (Defensive backs coach Travares Tillman and we had the opportunity to work through eight games with Coach Key this past season.

While the offense is almost, outside of (Chris) Weinke, is completely new. We have gone through some battle, we have gone through some adversity through the course of the season and you build toughness through those moments and you build trust or distrust and fortunate for us, our trust, which has been longstanding those last eight games and the complement that I can give Coach Key for my own benefit was trusting me to have control of the defense and giving me parameters and giving me guidelines on what his vision was and what he wanted, but also letting us as a defensive staff have some freedom to see what that looks like. Very complementary of him and his head coaching style and I am very thankful for the trust that he has put into us.

I will go back, he made some tough decisions with the staff, he really did. I do know when he made decisions to create this staff it was to put it in his own image and what he wants this program to look like and what he obviously wants the defense to look like and I am thankful and incredibly thankful to still be here and be a part of it.

2. On the new defensive transfers...

"College football has changed, by the minute. You are now managing rosters truly and it is getting closer and closer to a pro model to mange your roster right now so Coach Key had to make some tough decisions. To answer your question, I don't feel like we were overly active in the portal relative to what is out there on defense. We thought we had some maturity and some experience in the defensive backfield, we bring four of those five guys back, we have to build depth and some confidence and playing at a high level early in camp because of the experience that they have in the system.

On the defensive line, Keion is getting all kinds of hype about being a potential first-round draft pick so we are losing our most explosive and dynamic player, but we have seven of the eight rotational guys back if not more and the only guy we brought in was ET, he came over from Clemson and it is new to him. He is a graduate senior that played some pass rush situational downs there and we are going to ask him to be an every down guy here and still have that third down skill set.

As we all know, our linebacker room was very much run by Charlie Thomas and Ace Eley, miss those guys dearly, they had unbelievable careers here and it was awesome to enjoy the arc of their career, but they are gone. They were undoubtedly the leaders of the linebacker room and the defense so that is where he thought we had a maturity and a leadership void, we have a talented room, I want to make sure I say that with some young guys that have opportunities to step up but we felt like we needed to have more competition in that room than any other.

We were able to bring in Andre (White Jr) and Braelen (Oliver) from Texas A&M and Minnesota and that was where we spent the majority of our time. They have an opporutnity to compete.

It is too early for me to stamp someone in the context of that this is day four and day one coming off of a long spring break so mistakes were aplenty as we were building things together but that is where we needed competition in a room. I am proud of them and their hard work during the offseason. They are graduate transfers who have played a bunch of downs in college football and they have been a part of winning programs so they have experience. I appreciate the way they have come in with humility with a new team, although they are older in the group, they understand they have to earn the respect of the room and that is the approach they have taken so far."

3. On the safety trio of Jaylon King, LaMiles Brooks, and Clayton Powell-Lee...

"So Jaylon King was our starter last season and I believe it was game five against Pittsburgh in the middle of game five where he broke his leg and had what I thought was a pretty dang serious injury so I am impressed that he is back in spring ball right now. That created an opportunity and sure enough, Clayton Powell-Lee was the next man up and played at an incredibly high level and got a lot of accolades and played at a high level and can be one of our most dynamic players on defense so it is a luxury.

Anytime that you can talk about depth charts and starters, some guys can get into their feelings, but that group has humility right now and we can use that to our advantage. You mentioned the safeties, the other part of that is the nickleback position. So K.J. Wallace would probably be listed as the starting nickle positon right now, but LaMiles Brooks in multiple games kicked down to that position so you are talking about having four guys with experience for three spots so we are able to cross-train those guys and use them in that way.

A tangible example would be being at North Carolina this past season, K.J. Wallace goes down and we slide LaMiles Brooks down to that position at nickel. That is the group that has the most maturity right now."

4. On getting more pass rush from the edge guys...

"Yeah, I'll give you names. Noah Collins, Kyle Kennard, and Kevin Harris have an opportunity to have real downs and have some experience. They are literally in a three-headed competition. At some point they have been with every group in first, second, or third string. This offseason is huge as far as them understanding the position and I would argue that one of the most complex positions is the rush position as far as what we ask them to do.

From the defensive line, hand-in-the-ground mechanics and they are involved in coverage so there is a lot that goes into and I think their development is going to come off the field and I think Marco Coleman, with Brian Baker in the room, knowing where to place their eyes and knowing before the play happens and I have seen that that progress in the first four days and they are playing at a higher level so if we give them a chance to do that then that production will come through but that is a spot by structure of the defense that should create TFL and set up pass rushing situations and then we put more on them in the complexity of the defense and ask them to be coverage guys as well."

5. On the cornerback position after Myles Sims...

"Myles has been banged up but he had a chance to play today so obviously he has a ton of experience for us going back three or four years now. Kenan Johnson has been behind and another one that I want to make sure that I bring up is Kenyatta Watson and Rodney Shelley is playing the slot nickel position so it is corner and we have the nickel position, we also see the nickel as a corner/slot guy. For example, Rodney is playing outside of the slot corner right now because there are more jobs to be able to do and you can learn the complexities of the defense and then to kick back out and know the complexity of the defense and do a better job but maybe a tougher technique.

So there is some competition outside of that spot, Kenyatta has the most experience and played the most downs, and Kenan Johnson, I would compliment him on his first four days, he has put some good tape out there."

6. On the transition of the nickel position...

"It is very personnel driven for the offense. As they put skill on the field, we want to put wide receiver driven skill on the field. If they put big personnel on the field, AKA, two tight ends or an extra fullback, then we want to match that skill with a bigger SAM linebacker."

7. On what kind of knowledge that Kevin Sherrer brings to the defense...

"When we had the conversation of him coming in, I would say that the biggest thing that he tried to impress on me in our first conversation is his approach to having humility coming in, coming in to support this staff, support this team and the way he supports me. The biggest compliment that I can give him as a man is that he has come in and has been true to that. Another thing that he has said is if you want to know the truth, then ask me the question. If you do not want to know the truth, then do not ask me the question. So every once in a while I don't ask him the question because I don't want to hear the truth, but I can't compliment his humility enough.

His resume speaks for itself and the experience to be a power five coordinator at such a high level and to be the places that he has been and the defenses that he has been exposed to being in the NFL.

Tangible examples, he comes from such a defensive background and the tree that he is from and all of his experience, his nuance to the defense in ways. Sometimes it can be a linebacker path and his idea of what that is supposed to look like and articulate to the guys to make them know it better. Ok, let's watch the offseason and see how this can make us better. Some stuff about blitz paths and and then its really been a huge benefit to me, even though he is coaching linebackers, hey this is what coverage mechanics we used, here is a route that we were exposed to and we gave up an explosive play, what are some solutions to this route and what mechanics can we use, what communication can we make that we haven't in the past.

He has brought a tremendous amount of nuancing the defenses in those ways."

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