Everything From Georgia Tech Defensive Backs Coach Cory Peoples After Tuesday's Practice
Georgia Tech has entered the last week of spring football practice and it will culminate in the Annual White and Gold Game on Saturday afternoon.
After practice on Tuesday, recently hired defensive backs coach Cory Peoples (previously at Georgia State), spoke with the media for the first time and here is everything he had to say.
1. On how he ended up at Georgia Tech...
"I want to say it's about three months I've been here now. I knew Coach Key, from recruiting, met him a few times, knew some guys that knew him, and we kind of always kept a relationship, and that's kind of how it was. it came along how it happened."
2. On the safety group...
"I have CP Clayton Powell Lee. He's been playing some stud and whip safety for us. LaMiles he's been versatile, played both safety spots as well. We try to get it where we get both guys. to learn both in case injury or anything like that. They got to know one from the other. So those two are the main guys that have been flopping from both safety spots. So far, rest of the young guys were kind of keeping them being stronger, free and whip of stud safety."
3. On what makes a good secondary...
"Communication. You got to talk. If you don't communicate, you're not gonna be good in secondary. That's probably the number one thing you have to do at safety is communicate talk, know your adjustments when picture change, when we get different movement motions, you got to be able to talk and communicate through it. They've been doing a great job of it with a new defense I think they actually kind of handling it well the more and more we practice, more dates we get out there. I think the guys are doing a great job adjusting to it."
4. On what has impressed him about the safety group so far...
"For it to be a new defense, guys are learning it. They come in earlier, they stay later, and they actually got the commitment to try to get better every day and learn as we install more and more defense. They actually handle it pretty well. So I would say just the mindset of guys want to be good."
5. On Clayton Powell-Lee and LaMiles Brooks...
"Just from crossover games, seeing them play a little bit. I would say I recruited C .P. Lee out of high school, so that was, I had a, for me, I was familiar with him coming out of Westlake High School. LaMiles, I didn't know, but I came in, watched PFF, and kind of got caught up real quick at what were the good things they do, with the pros and cons of the game."
6. On Taye Seymore and the nickel position...
"Yeah, talking about Taye, coming along, he's starting to grasp it. He getting more comfortable as we're getting into the last week of spring ball. He handled it pretty well. J Moore has been a surprise. He came from receiver, went to cornerback. Now he's playing safety, he's running with the twos. He's doing a heck of a job as well. Picking up the defense is hard, to go from receiver to corner. Now you're going to a new defense at safety. And I think he's doing a great job. Both of them guys are picking it up well. You talk about the nickel position. You got Omar Daniels that's coming in doing a great job, real smart, hitty kid, handles different situations. situations, learning to playbook really well. Syeed Gibbs, transfer that came in from Rhode Island, he's doing a heck of a job as well. So those guys are duking it out, sharing reps with the ones and twos every day until we get to the end of it. But both of them guys have been a pleasant surprise as well."
7. On the comunication from the safeties and corners...
"That's big. You gotta be on the same page. We meet together a lot. We go through a lot of walkthroughs together 'cause we're not on the same page and it's not gonna be good. So we communicate plenty with those guys. We meet together to make sure we write on adjustments, playing cover two, playing cover four. It's a lot of things that we got to be together on for our checks and things like that. So it's been going pretty good with those guys as well."
8. On the relationship between him and Coach (Ricky) Brumfield...
"Me and Ricky kind of had a prior relationship. I was recruiting his son. That's actually on staff here now. So it's kind of-- we kind of knew each other. I always knew he was a really good coach. So it was kind of easy, already having a prior relationship with him. So it was smooth sailing."
9. On the learning curve and the relationship with Coach Tyler Santucci...
"Oh, when I first got here, it was a lot of learning. We had a lot of 6:30 days, the eight o 'clock, learning the scheme and getting caught up, but it's been good. Coach Santucci been doing a great job teaching to the staff. We got a lot of install in. And we got the basics. base of everything in not a majority everything in this we're gonna carry in the camp we probably got a few more things we'll put in but overall it's been good. Santucci is doing a good job getting us getting us here early the first two months I mean it was long first two months alone but we got it done."
10. On Clayton Powell-Lee and if he can play him closer to the line of scrimmage...
"No doubt, no doubt, I actually had CP in yesterday talking to him. Tell him how well I thought he advanced and is tackling from the first week until now. It's like night and day. That's one of the things he kind of had to improve on a little bit from last year. And he's been taking it in stride, getting better every day as tackling."
11. On teaching new tackling techniques...
"Oh, it's totally different now than when we came ahead. It was always head -crossed about now. We gotta keep heads up, really teach the leverage, tackling on the back side of it, before we don't use our head. So, the tackling techniques is more rugby now. You know, them guys have been doing it for a long time, and they don't have no injury. So, in the football world, we actually got to the rugby tackling of the world, so we're keeping our head up on the backside of everything, not getting our head in that eyes up, tackling with your shoulders in chest, understanding what a force tackle is, what a profile tackle is, what a knife tackle is. So it's totally changed since my time playing. Profile tackle is basically you tackling up high in the chest area"
12. On Khari Gee...
"Khari is actually doing pretty good. He stepped in last week's scrimmage and did a really good job. I want to say he had like seven tackles, came in, did it really well. We kind of sat LaMiles a little bit. Kari got in some reps. He actually played like 63 plays and did a great job when he came in. I think he's getting more and more adapted to the system. And I'd like to see what he can do this week, Saturday for the spring game."
JACKSON CAUDELL
Jackson Caudell covers Georgia Tech Athletics and the Atlanta Hawks for FanNation