The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Players, staff just can’t say enough about D-line leader
Key, his coaches laud Simpson for passion, savvy ‘at every level.’
In 2019, Makius Scott was part of a Boys & Girls Club that worked with the Atlanta Falcons. Scott, a senior at Gainesville High School at the time, got to be a ball boy for the Falcons and watched closely as Jess Simpson coached the team’s defensive line.
“The same intensity, the same loyalty. He cares for his guys; he always wants to get the job done. He’s a hands-on coach,” Scott said Thursday after Tech’s practice, its ninth of the spring. “We’re trying to be the best players we can be, and by him fixing our details and being precise in everything that we do, I just feel like it’s gonna take us, the whole D-line, to the next level, where we’re trying to get to. Just trying to get coached by him and do everything he says, because he knows what it looks like, he knows what it takes.”
Simpson is in his first season with the Tech coaching staff, a homecoming for a lifelong Atlantan who graduated 35 years ago from Marietta High School. The former Buford High School coach was at Duke for two years before Tech coach Brent Key came calling with an opportunity that Simpson said Thursday was “a no-brainer.”
Now a grandfather whose four children reside in metro Atlanta, Simpson is coaching Tech’s defensive line, with a focus on the team’s defensive tackles. He is charged with helping turn the Tech defensive line into a force in the ACC.
“This is a special place,” Simpson said. “Me growing up just (up) the road from here, well aware of this institution, this degree and this football program, the tradition here is very, very special. It goes way back.
“Coach Key and his vision, the excitement he’s created, being a Georgia Tech man — I think anytime a place has one of their own there, people just seem more excited, more invested. You can kinda feel the energy. You sense the arrow is up. This place is doing football right. So that’s a big deal for me.”
Simpson’s coaching journey began 30 years ago, when he returned to his alma mater as an assistant. Eleven years later he took over at Buford, where he won 164 games and seven state championships.
In the past seven years, Simpson has had two separate stints with the Falcons and two with the Miami Hurricanes before working alongside new Tech defensive coordinator Tyler Santucci at Duke. Simpson was one of the first hires Key made in the offseason when retooling his defensive coaching staff.
“He’s as respected as anyone there is out there as a defensive line coach,” Key said. “What people probably don’t know about him is just the relationships that he is able to have with those guys, the players, in the (meeting) room. And when you have those relationships you’re able to push them and able to do a lot of things with them and really push them out of their comfort zones. I thought that’s what we needed. But he’s also a very detailed coach. He’s coached at every level, had success at every level he has coached.
“Jess Simpson is a phenomenal teacher, he’s a phenomenal football coach, a phenomenal person.”
Simpson is one of four new Tech defensive assistants in 2024, and he’s working alongside Kyle Pope, the new outside linebackers and defensive ends coach. Pope said he often feels like one of the players himself as he questions Simpson and learns all he has to offer.
“Coach Simpson working with the inside and me having the edge guys, this is the most fun I’ve had as a coach,” Pope said. “You’re working with someone who is not just like-minded but someone who, every day, I can learn from. We can collaborate and work together, and we both have the same outcome that we’re trying to get: trying to get these guys to be the best they can be, and we want to see these guys win and we want to win with ’em.”
For the 2024 season, Tech’s defensive line will not be expected to be a strength of the team’s defense, although there is some depth and experience up front. Seniors Kevin Harris, Zeek Biggers and Scott were key contributors in 2023, and junior Eddie Kelly and sophomore Horace Lockett are back, too. The Jackets added Florida State transfer Ayo Tifase and Furman transfer Jack Barton to the DL group, and they should get back Sylvain Yondjouen, who missed the ’23 season with an injury, in time for the Aug. 24 opener.
They’re all being led by Simpson, who is strengthening his relationship with each player during the early months of his Tech tenure.
“He’s a great coach; he’s gonna push you, he’s gonna coach you right, but he’s gonna push you and teach you every technique, break down everything fundamentally wise,” said Biggers, who added that he meets with Simpson every day to watch both Tech and NFL video.
Said Harris: “Five-star coach right there. He’s an amazing coach. He’s been in the league, guys know his track record. He recruited me out of high school, so I have a great relationship with him. Everything he’s teaching me is familiar, and I think the guys are going to definitely have massive gains. Just being with him the last three weeks has been amazing, just seeing what he’s been able to with our D-line. Just, moving forward, that’s just gonna be a good foundation for our defense and our team.”
Simpson said when he first arrived at Tech he asked his linemen to take a leap of faith when it came to trusting him and in his teachings. He came back to that theme when discussing his recruiting efforts and how he has been on both sides of the table — recruiting prospects and having his own prospects recruited — and how that process is founded in trust.
It seems he has trust in himself that he made the right career move.
“I’m one of the luckiest people in the world,” he said. “I literally roll out of bed really early every day, and I absolutely love what I do. I love teaching, I love coaching, I love investing in young men.”