Was Georgia Tech's Hiring Of Tyler Santucci The Most Underrated Coordinator Hire Of The Offseason?
Georgia Tech was one of the surprise teams in the ACC last season by making a bowl game, winning the bowl game, and finishing with a winning record. The Yellow Jackets had one of the top offenses in the ACC, including the No. 1 rushing offense. The big problem all season for the Yellow Jackets was their defense, particularly their run defense and Brent Key addressed that this offseason.
So what did Key do to try and fix the defense? He went out and hired a brand new defensive staff to try and turn things around and that included the hire of Duke's Tyler Santucci as the new defensive coordinator.
In one season at Duke (2023), Santucci directed the ACC’s top-ranked scoring defense, allowing just 19.0 points per game, which was good for 16th nationally. The Blue Devils also ranked among the nation’s top 50 in rushing defense, passing defense, total defense, tackles for loss, third-down defense, fourth-down defense and red-zone defense. Duke allowed a total of just 10 points in a pair of wins over teams that finished the season in the top 25 – No. 20 Clemson (28-7) and No. 21 NC State (24-3) – and finished 8-5 overall after a 17-10 win over Troy in the 2023 Birmingham Bowl.
That is an impressive track record, but when you see lists naming the top coordinator hires of the offseason, you don't see Santucci's name mentioned. 247Sports did not include the hire of Santucci among their top coordinator hires and neither did CBS Sports. I think that could end up being a mistake. Assuming that Georgia Tech's offense does not drop off, Santucci's hire might be consequential in the ACC title race.
The Yellow Jackets are going to face the toughest schedule in the conference and that is going to make their path difficult, but if Santucci can improve the defense enough and keep it from being among the worst in the conference, he could transform Georgia Tech into a darkhorse contender to make the conference title game.
Santucci is currently in the process of implementing his scheme and philosophy this spring to try and improve the defense and he spoke about that after practice on Friday:
"Yeah, well I think systematically it's all built around the players, but right now this is the infancy stages of the game. of it and I think you know maybe more of like what we're doing is, it's how we're doing it, how we go about our business, how we attend meetings, the intent when we approach those things, the intent when we cross the lines, how we play together, how we swarm to the football I think those things are critically important like, foundationally I think that defense has got to start there. First, it's like, how we go about our business, and then it's like, hey, this is what we're doing, and this is why we're doing it. So right now, to me, the most important part is how we practice, how we pay attention to meetings, how we communicate with one another. I think it's critically important visually and verbally. And I think that's where we're at. And I think, right now, like, that's-- our focus each day we're trying to try to gather small wins doing those things right now and then we'll get to the putting guys in position to have success but right now that's kind of where we're at."
Georgia Tech defensive coordinator Tyler Santucci
Santucci is going to have a lot of work to do, especially in the front seven. Georgia Tech is losing several players including pass rushers and linebackers. This spring will be about finding the players to step up in those positions and Santucci is liking what he is seeing so far:
"Yeah, I like that they are eager and willing, they show up each and every day and they want to be coached, they want to be coached hard, they want to understand and know the why, hey coach, why are we doing this? And those are the best guys to be around. Like the opportunity to explain to them, hey, this is why we do it this way. And you can give them the big picture reasons. And these guys have shown up each and every day. Every challenge that we as a coaching staff have thrown them, they have answered. And they've shown up, they have not relented. And that's all we could ask. From day one, all we ask is like, "Hey, there's going to be a little bit of blind faith here, but you've got to trust that we're going to put you in position to where you guys want to be and where ultimately we want to be as a defense." And that's where we're at and we ask them to do things and they do it. We give them clear explanation and they understand it and they take it and run with it. So I've been really happy with those guys just showing up. And I think that's all we could ask. step one is showing up and being eager to do it."
The hire of Santucci has not been talked about enough in terms of top coordinator hires this offseason, but he could have a big impact on this year's ACC title race if he can help Georgia Tech's defense make big strides.
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