How much will Georgia Tech’s pass rush improve?
Kyle Pope is a relatively young football coach, having been in the profession for less than a decade, but he’s already been part of some pretty successful defenses.
Coaching Experience
- 2015 | Holmes (Miss.) Community College (Defensive Line)
- 2016 | Presbyterian (Defensive Line)
- 2017-18 | Alabama (Graduate Assistant)
- 2019 | Liberty (Inside Linebackers)
- 2020-22 | Memphis (Defensive Line)
- 2023 | Los Angeles Chargers (Training Camp Coaching Intern)
- 2023 | Memphis (Defensive Run Game Coordinator/Defensive Line)
The majority of Pope’s experience comes at Memphis, so I’ll primarily be looking at his time there, but I did want to point something out about his whole coaching tenure that I found in his GT bio: as a coach, Pope has helped his team go to seven straight bowl appearances, going back to his first season at Alabama. He’s consistently been on teams that finish with winning records, which is nice to see.
Even more notable is that with Pope on staff, Memphis went undefeated in bowl games.
Pope’s time at Memphis has been a clear picture of success. The team won consistently and the defense in particular was a part of the reason why. In 2023, Pope was elevated to Defensive Run Game Coordinator, a show of confidence in his abilities. The move paid off, and Memphis finished among the Top 25 nationally in third- and fourth-down conversion rate, which will be incredibly welcomed here!
Pope also did a great job of developing his players. While there, four of his defensive linemen went on to earn All-AAC honors. Most notable was O’Bryan Goodson who was a first-team All-AAC in 2020.
At Georgia Tech, Pope will be in control of the Yellow Jackets’ pass rush. So that begs the question, how good was Memphis at getting to the quarterback under Pope?
Well, the short answer is that they could have been better. Across the four seasons Pope was there, Memphis had at least 2 players with at least 4 sacks in three of Pope’s four seasons. The one season that didn’t happen, though, is last year. The defense was good at limiting teams from converting third and fourth downs, but they somehow did it without putting pressure on the quarterback.
Pope’s pass rush numbers don’t seem to bode well for Tech’s pass rush, which has struggled, but at this point, I’m willing to give Brent Key the benefit of the doubt in coaching hires until he proves that I shouldn’t. The folks at Memphis thought well enough of Pope to promote him, and Key thought enough of him to hire him at Georgia Tech. That’s enough for me to give him a chance