Georgia Tech Football: Coaching Profiles - Co-DC/LB Coach Kevin Sherrer

Although most Georgia Tech fans envisioned Brent Key hiring a new defensive coordinator, I don’t think this is necessarily what they had in mind. Kevin Sherrer comes to Georgia Tech holding the co-DC title and brings a wealth of experience with him.

Coaching History

• 1996 - 1997: Tuscaloosa County HS (Defensive assistant)
• 1998 - 2000: Alabama (Graduate assistant)
• 2001 - 2004: Spain Park HS (Defensive backs)
• 2005 - 2006: Hoover HS (Defensive assistant)
• 2007 - 2009: Hoover HS (Defensive coordinator)
• 2010 - 2012: Alabama (Director of player development)
• 2013: South Alabama (Defensive coordinator/defensive backs)
• 2014 - 2017: Georgia (Outside linebackers)
• 2018: Tennessee (Co-defensive coordinator/inside linebackers)
• 2019: Tennessee (Special teams coordinator/inside linebackers)
• 2020: New York Giants (Inside linebackers)
• 2021: New York Giants (Linebackers)

Going through Sherrer’s history is kind of interesting because he makes the jump from the high school ranks to Director of Player Development at Alabama and this is essentially taken under Jeremy Pruitt’s wing to go to UGA and then Tennessee. I remember during the coaching search, I kept hearing rumors about Key’s connection with Pruitt. Given the controversy around Pruitt, this is probably the closest Key could come to hiring him.

What intrigues me the most about Sherrer is that he has coached at every level of football, albeit briefly at the NFL level. Most of his experience comes from the more developmental levels like high school and college. But he’s also worked with NFL-level linebackers and knows what it takes to get there. Reading through his bio, this part really stood out to me:

Prior to his two seasons in the NFL, Sherrer spent the previous five seasons coaching linebackers in the Southeastern Conference, first at Georgia (2014-17), then at Tennessee (2018-19). In his five seasons in the SEC, he coached seven linebackers that went on to be selected in the NFL Draft, including first-round picks Leonard Floyd (Georgia – 2016) and Roquan Smith (Georgia – 2018).

That’s an incredibly impressive stat. Seven linebackers in five years went into the NFL draft, and two of them were first-rounders. Trenilyas Tatum is leaping with excitement!

Another intriguing factor is that Sherrer knows what it’s like to be on a team that wins a championship. He was part of three state championship teams at the high school level and two national title teams at Alabama.

Now, I know what you’re probably thinking. If this guy is such a great coach, why was he out of coaching for a year?

Following the Giants’ 2021 campaign, they had a coaching transition and Sherrer was not a holdover for the new staff. This news was reported February 2022. There is no news report or statement from him about taking a year off, so truly, the only thing I can imagine is that by the time he found out he was out of a job, college vacancies were mostly full, so he just took some time.

Whatever the reason, I think Georgia Tech got a great coach here with a lot of experience, specifically with player development.

What are you expecting from Kevin Sherrer this year?