Georgia Tech secondary looks like a strength for 2025 season

Daniels played nearly 500 snaps for Tech’s defense in 2024, logging plays at free safety, strong safety and cornerback. His versatility is something defensive backs coach Cory Peoples, cornerbacks coach Kobie Jones and defensive coordinator Blake Gideon (a former safety at Texas) are looking for in all of Tech’s defensive backs.

Peoples said Tech’s spring practice, which continues with a scrimmage Saturday at Bobby Dodd Stadium, is a valuable time to develop that versatility in the secondary.

“The great thing about it, when you get injuries, you get to see some other guys move around. It kind of helps your depth, so we can move a lot of guys from inside to outside,” Peoples said. “We don’t really do just stationary positions, we make sure all our guys play everything. You might play field safety one day, you might play boundary safety one day. Take a guy like (senior) Rodney Shelley who is one of the best cover guys, put him inside any time we want and I think he can get it done.”

Shelley, Daniels, cornerback Ahmari Harvey, safety Clayton Powell-Lee and nickel back Syeed Gibbs make up the core of Tech’s back end, which will continue to deploy two safeties, two cornerbacks and a nickel back in Gideon’s defense.

Zachary Tobe, D.J. Moore, Daiquan White (an Eastern Michigan transfer), Elgin Sessions (a freshman), Nehemiah Chandler (a redshirt freshman), Kelvin Hill (an Alabama-Birmingham transfer) and Tae Harris are among the Jackets in the two-deep rotation this spring.

Jones, in his first season coaching the group, said he has been impressed with the unit’s willingness to go all-out.

“Those guys play with tremendous effort. They play hard. And that was the thing I was expecting when I got here. And that’s the thing they do. They play hard, they play extremely hard,” Jones said. “Obviously, we gotta clean up technique and some of that stuff, but as a coach, you don’t coach effort. Those guys either got it or they don’t, right? That’s the one thing I haven’t really had to coach as much. Those guys are going hard, they give great effort.

“So that’s the biggest thing. What I’d seen on film is what I’m getting right now. We’ll clean up the rest of the stuff and play with better technique, but the effort is there, the tenacity that they play with is there.”

Tech’s secondary, while solid in 2024, still has room to improve in 2025. The Jackets ranked 14th in the ACC and 100th nationally in passing efficiency defense and interceped only five passes, tied for the fourth fewest nationally.

With all its returning pieces, and the addition of some transfers and notable recruits (including Harris, Sessions and Jayden Barr), the Jackets sound confident they can make those improvements.

“We got depth, and that’s the biggest thing,” Peoples said. “When somebody goes down, you want to be able to plug and play. We got some guys back there who’s getting better every day from playing different positions. A lot of depth from playing nickel to playing corner. That’s very helpful.”