Earlier this season, Taye Seymore was asked if he expected to get as much playing time throughout the early stages of his college career as he has had to this point. The 6-foot, 200-pound defensive back didn’t log a whole lot of reps as a freshman before becoming an integral part of the Georgia Tech defense in 2024.
Not short on confidence, Seymore admitted he didn’t exactly see that path playing out the way it has so far.
“Nah, the goal was to come in and play as a freshman,” he said. “But if things don’t go my way I would still keep my head down and work and grind for whatever it is, special teams or anything. Really it was just keeping my head down — and to not get in my head, too. Just stay on the grind.”
The grind has paid off for Seymore, even if that pay off may have come a little later than he had originally hoped.
Seymore goes into Thursday’s game against North Carolina State (7:30 p.m., ESPN) with the fifth-most snaps played out of any Yellow Jacket defender. Primarily playing the safety role, his improvement since arriving on campus in 2023 is a big reason why he was able to move up the depth chart and be counted on in crucial situations behind starting safeties LaMiles Brooks and Clayton Powell-Lee.
“I’m really proud of (Seymore),” Tech coach Brent Key said in October after Seymore was named a captain ahead of Tech’s matchup at North Carolina. “Wow, he’s really improving each week. You talk about another guy that just loves to play football. It’s been good to see his improvement.”
Seymore came to Georgia from Fort Walton Beach, Fla. It was there that his father, Albert Seymore, died in a motorcycle wreck in 2011, a life-changing event that made the Seymore family look for a fresh start elsewhere.
They found a favorable landing spot in Douglasville where Seymore grew up playing youth football and basketball. The Seymores moved again to Lithia Springs where Seymore began his prep career (mostly at linebacker) before his mother, Kristan Seymore, took a new job in the South Atlanta High School district.
Kenyatta Watson, Tech’s former director of scouting, first got in touch with Seymore in 2022 about the possibility of playing for the Jackets. Seymore mostly had scholarship offers from Group of Five programs and was already committed to East Carolina.
“It was a hard process for me, because me being confident in myself, I felt like I should have something bigger,” Seymore said of the recruiting process. “It really just helped me keep my head down and just grind for more, even if it wasn’t coming I was still working for it, hoping. Eventually it happened.
“I was excited (about Tech), but I had to really take some time to think about it because I had already committed to ECU. It took a while to make a decision.”
Seymore eventually did commit and sign with Tech in December of 2022. But his rookie season with the Jackets saw him mostly playing special teams where he got 111 snaps over 10 games. On defense, Seymore played against South Carolina State, Virginia and Clemson and recorded a total of five tackles.
“It was a bit hard for me, just getting the pace of everything. And really, the plays. The plays are what really told on me a lot,” Seymore said of the 2023 season. “Learning the plays and how to adjust off plays and really to have a quick mind too because you gotta be a quick thinker when stuff is happening. (Powell-Lee) and (Brooks) help me a lot with that, help me get my mind right and what to do and what not to do and how to go about college football.”
The limited play for Seymore only increased his drive to see the field more. So in the offseason he committed himself to improvement and was determined to crack the lineup despite being behind two upperclassmen in Brooks and Powell-Lee.
Seymore’s time to shine came Sept. 7 at Syracuse when Brooks left that contest early due to injury. He finished with a career-high 10 tackles and proved he could be a reliable playmaker moving forward.
“I think I said in fall camp, just the way he was flying around, that’s his biggest attribute is how fast he can play. He’s a very fast kid,” Brooks said. “He was real determined in the offseason, and as the season has progressed, just really trying to learn the defense, getting things down, asking questions to guys like myself, (Powell-Lee). To kind of see him play the way he’s played this season has been real exciting to watch. He’s for sure the future.”
Seymore, 20, has made 46 tackles — three for a loss — and broken up two passes this season. His best game of the year, according to Pro Football Focus, came against Duke when he had an overall grade of 78.6 and a coverage grade of 79.1.
Off the field, Seymore is majoring in business and hopes to own his own company one day. But he hopes that aspiration is put to the side for the foreseeable future while he chases down his dream of playing in the NFL.
Until then he’s focused on ending his sophomore season, and his entire Tech career, on a high note.
“I feel like I’ve grown tremendously. I feel like I got more confident with me knowing the defense and just being able to have the ability to go out there and play and compete with other guys,” he said. “It’s been a good year so far and the coaches have really let me know ahead of time before coming into my sophomore year that I was gonna be a key to the defense and they was gonna need me to step up in order for us to take the step that we needed. I took that as a job and I went and worked hard for it and I took the steps.”
