Kyle Pope Discusses How He Landed Georgia Tech Job and Relationship With Brent Key

Jackson Caudell | Apr 5, 2024

Memphis Tigers Defensive Line Coach Kyle Pope yells out to his players as they hold football / Joe Rondone/The Commercial Appeal via

Georgia Tech's defense is undergoing some big changes this offseason and spring.

After finishing near the bottom of the ACC in several defensive categories, Brent Key opted to shake up his defensive staff. He brought in Tyler Santucci (defensive coordinator) and Jess Simpson (defensive line coach) from Duke, Kyle Pope (outside linebackers/edge) from Memphis, and Cory Peoples from Georgia State. You can't fix every problem in a single spring, but Georgia Tech is hoping to identify some playmakers this spring.

While Key might have hired Pope from Memphis, the connection they have goes back to when both coaches were in Tuscaloosa, working for Nick Saban. Yesterday after practice, Pope talked about their time at Alabama together and what led to him taking the Georgia Tech job this offseason:

"Man, yeah, that was uh... the biggest key. We worked together at Bama. Had a really good relationship there. I know he came here to Georgia Tech, and coming here to coach here was a great thing and us having that relationship, it built, and everything was able to line up together and work out for us. So I was excited, beyond excited to be able to have the opportunity to come and be here at Georgia Tech with Coach Key, knowing we go way back and get that thing going again."

Pope also talked about the philosophy and mantra that he wants to bring to the defense at Georgia Tech:

"It's fast and violent. violent. It's fast and violent. We break every mean down with that, we finish every practice with that, and that's how we attack the field. That's how we play. When you turn the film on and see those guys coming off the edge and playing on the edge, want to say, "Hey, they play fast and they play violent," and that's our mantra."

Georgia Tech needs to identify guys on the edge to help the pass rush improve. The Yellow Jackets are losing their top five players who got sacks last season, but Pope spoke highly of two players yesterday. Kevin Harris might be the veteran of the group, but Pope also talked about freshman edge Jordan Boyd as someone who is performing well this spring:

"Well definitely right now just been the first time me and Kevin working together I'm excited about it. I'm definitely seeing a lot of hard work from him, athletic ability, explosive kid and right now I'm excited just to continue to work I keep chopping away with him. I think he has great, great ability, so it's on me to continue to work and get that ability out of him, but he's been very coachable, been able to lean on him, him able to lean on me and it's been good. I'm very excited about Kevin. He's done well so far in the spring, just got to finish it."

"Jordan Boyd, man, he shows a lot of flashes. I mean, it's a young kid that comes in, you look at his GPS numbers and it's like, oh my gosh. I forget sometimes he still should be in a math class in high school, but man, that kid has a lot of potential and it's a very nice future with that kid. And he comes on the field, he's still learning, of course, he still has the new guy mistakes, but the effort that he shows and the willingness that he has makes up for a lot of those things, man. So Jordan shows flashes and he shows us, and also he wants to get better every day. And that's the biggest thing with him. He wants to be on the field, he wants to get better, he wants to get better. learn right now. He's just an open book, man."