Georgia Tech defensive line coach Jess Simpson seems excited about his first season on The Flats.
Among the jobs on his resume, Simpson was a highly successful head coach at Buford High School (with a 164-12 record) and an assistant with the Falcons. After arriving at Tech in late December, one of his first objectives was to win the trust of the players he was inheriting.
“When I first got here, I asked these guys to take a leap of faith and trust us, and they bought in,” Simpson said. “You know we went through spring and guys see themselves improving, that always helps. They get to know you, and they know you love them and care about them.”
With Simpson adjusting to his new team, the team has been adjusting to him and gaining the benefits he offers.
In an interview on ACC Network, Yellow Jackets defensive lineman Zeek Biggers said, “He (Simpson) has brought so much knowledge to the game, it’s amazing. Every day, I just go in there and meet with him just listening to everything he says ‘cause you miss one thing (laughing), it’s like you missed so many lessons in one thing.”
Biggers continued, “Just the way he’s making us work, detailing our work. Just breaking down every little hip, taking the hip pressure, just everything. He’s just detailing it and breaking it down, and it’s making the game so much easier and smoother for us.”
Simpson is a native of Marietta and was a Falcons defensive assistant in 2017 and 2019-20. He also has coached at Duke and Miami.
“He’s been a great coach. I got a glimpse of a little experience back in like 2019 with the Falcons,” defensive lineman Makius Scott said. “I got to ball boy for the Falcons, so I got a little taste of what he’s like. Being hands-on has been great, like everything really just (what you) wish for, like really.”
One thing that Simpson tries to achieve is to take advantage of every moment of a practice.
“I know every moment in practice is a teachable moment to me. I play center in the walk-throughs because I want the backup defensive tackle standing next to me, the other two tackles standing in front of me, and every rep we are literally taking mental reps and talking through, and I just don’t want to waste a second.”
Simpson focuses on highlighting the theme of competition for the team, emphasizing that a player has to earn his spot.
“There’s a lot of guys getting ready to play and a lot of guys competing for snaps,” he said, “and if you look around and you hesitate or you wait for a second, somebody’s gonna pass you up.”
When discussing the depth of Tech’s defensive line, Simpson believes that it ultimately will take a lot of teamwork to get the team to where it needs to be.
“One of the beauties of ball is it takes all of us, and there’s gonna be times when somebody gets nicked or somebody gets injured,” Simpson said. “It’s going to take more than what they can even see right now.
He added: “I think they’re getting a vision for that, of what it could look like and how many guys we could play. If I had six guys ready to play or five guys ready to play, that’s a pretty deep tackle (group).”
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