Everything From Georgia Tech DL Coach Jess Simpson After The Yellow Jackets' Monday Practice

Fall Practice rolled on for Georgia Tech on Monday, and the Yellow Jackets are now less than four weeks away from their season-opening game against Colorado. After practice, Georgia Tech's defensive line coach Jess Simpson met with the media, and here is everything that he had to say:

1. On What Akelo Stone Brings To The Team...

"Well, you know, that's two veterans and Matt and Akelo adding those guys to the room, you know, JJ and those guys that are here are leaders, you know, obviously they know the culture it's year two, what we're trying to do what we're trying to get accomplished. Jason Moore is just you know got a lot. He does a great job also to lead in the room. But Matt and Akelo have brought a couple of things, style of play, energy, they're vertical, they're attacking, they've got juice, they fit our system. I'm really excited they're here and having older guys helps. And it's a line of scrimmage deal and you can't have too many of them for sure. So excited about them and the young guys."

2. On True Freshman Christian Garett...

"Yeah, and that's the thing when we recruited him, we felt like he'd be a base in with three technique flags or even vice versa, depending on how his body changed and how he grew, you know, has some real twitch about him, got some natural pass rush, got some bend to him. So he's done a nice job along with Derry Norris. I was really, I think Derry probably had his best day of the summer today. I mean, these young guys, Blake, they got miles to go, but spent so much over spring, over summer, one week of camp to just see the small improvements every day. They've been very intentional and they're young, they're gonna have hard days too. They've had a few of them already, but man, they've made a little bit of progress the last few days. So that's the funnest part being a coach, watching to get improved. And I think the old guys take pride in that. Those old hats that you talked about, coach those young guys as much as I do. And I enjoy listening and watching and seeing their investment in them as well."

3. On how the transfers and young guys will mesh together...

"I don't know, it's kind of like the magic of team building, the art of coaching. You know, I don't know, it's kind of. these guys, you know, here I am teaching the teaching regression, Jason (Moore) stand up in the room you run this pass rush meeting and hear a different voice you know those kind of and I and I think you know we talked at the end of practice day about unit pride and that you know when you're better, we're better and they're buying into that and all these guys are in the same boat you know it's summer practice you know everybody's, oh no we're all doing the same things and every guy in this building to me you know and I, and I told my guys today, your job is to build trust in this whole building. With your teammates, with your coaches, with the DC, with the head coach, the people that watch. Everybody in this building has got to believe, when we line up on a Saturday, that you're going to play winning football. And the thing about, I always say, it's hard to build trust, and it's easy to lose it. And that's about being, playing to a standard of every day, like we're doing it a certain way, and you can't have bad days. You can't have bad play. You can't have a bad day. Coach Key finished practice with that today. I thought it was just a great point."

4. On the depth of the interior D-Line...

"You know, we're deeper than we were a year ago. And I like the young guys we brought in. You know, and I like where we're at and what we're doing. We're not there. We're not close to there, but you see that hey, we got a chance and you feel the competition and guys are looking around and they're watching each other's teach tape at night like golly. That's that's how coach wants it done, you know that, that's motivating. It's invigorating. It's fun. It's like hey, man. That guy's on my team, you know, but then there's certainly a hundred corrections to make too but it's the momentum of getting a bunch of guys ready to play and having every guy in that room, you know, obviously ready to play the best ball of his life. And if we can get to that, I think there's enough people in the room that we can have some real depth this year."

5. On Landen Marshall...

"You know what? I think they both have had a good first week and they're making a move, they're intent. They see the old guys, they feel the young guys, and they're kind of the middle two guys in the sense of age, right? And they're starting to get what I want. And then taking it from, okay, this is what coach wants it to look like. Defensive line, you can be really, really fundamentally sound, but there's gotta be a speed and violence to what you do also. or it's just and I think that's the move that all players have to make up going okay ,I've learned, I've coordinated enough, I've learned how to hit a block, I've learned how to find an edge, I've learned how to move in a stunt and then being able to do it with the speed the knowledge and the violence to make it effective it's literally that next step that those guys have to take."

6. On Jason Moore...

"Number one, leadership. Number two, toughness. Number three, and not number three, very smart, knowledgeable. Like, you talk about a student in the game. I kid him all the time about being a coach, and he's like, no way, I'm too smart to do that. (laughing) He's gonna get his second and third degree at Georgia Tech, I think that's coming of the year. Just, he's, I always say, Jason Moore could date your daughter. And I mean that, like he is a special young man. But he's a, you know, I love him because he's an underdog. You know, J -Mo had three jobs when he first got here to walk on, just so he could stay at Georgia Tech and play football. He's got a lot to him, man. There's a lot of good stuff inside of him. And he's special. I'm looking for big things from him."

7. On Jordan van den Berg...

"Yeah, he's putting himself in position. And I think what JJ understands is it's not a, you're never there, and he's come a million miles, but to get to where he wants to be as a player. There's probably another million to go. But his knowledge of the game, his coordination, making, like, I always challenge the guys, like, don't just be a line on the paper. You gotta make it come to life with your knowledge of what the play is, what the situation is, what the look on offense is. And that's where I've seen the most growth in him this summer, is he's really, you can see him, he's diagnosing and doing such a better job. And the other thing I'll have to joke about JJ, JJ is like a combination of a pit bull and a golden retriever. You know, he's got, he's got both of that. But his deal is learning how to play with a controlled assault. Because he'd just go. You know, but he's learned how to hone it in and make it efficient. And whether it's speed or power or whatever he's doing, like, that's where his game is growing right now."