ExtremeRavens Posted 5 hours ago Posted 5 hours ago Tyler Santucci was in Northern Virginia on a home recruiting visit when his phone rang. Unless the caller ID reads “Spam Risk,” he’ll usually pick up. This unknown number happened to be Ravens coach John Harbaugh calling with a job offer. “I did not anticipate it, not one bit” said the first-year Ravens linebackers coach who was officially hired by Baltimore in early February. Santucci called his wife, Arielle, after he and Harbaugh hung up the phone. He pulled over to the side of the road so they could share a few proud tears. Santucci has had a winding ascendence here to his first NFL coaching gig, which has “been a long dream of mine to work with the best in the world.” Harbaugh said Santucci, 37, came “highly recommended.” That’s a credit to the young assistant’s coaching style and relationship building that yielded immediate success over several stops at the college level. Most recently, as Georgia Tech’s defensive coordinator and linebackers coach in 2024, Santucci flipped the Yellow Jackets from the ocean floor of the Atlantic Coast Conference to one of the best in show. They went worst (437.1) to fourth (342.8) in the league in average yards allowed per game and took a huge jump in average rushing yards allowed (221.3 to 122.2) en route to the program’s first Associated Press Top 25 ranking in nearly a decade. In the same position at Duke in 2023, Santucci called plays for the 16th-best scoring defense (19.0 points allowed per game) in the country. That earned him a nomination for the Broyles Award, given annually to college football’s top assistant coach. Santucci wasn’t clear if there was one connection that led him to Baltimore. He guessed maybe Dave Clawson, who met Santucci at Wake Forest and has a good relationship with Harbaugh. Or Mike Elko, the former coach at Wake Forest and Duke who later took over Texas A&M. Santucci reportedly turned down several coaching opportunities at power conference programs this offseason before Harbaugh called. Baltimore brings Santucci as close to home as he’s been since he started coaching football — even if home is due north of his new division rival Pittsburgh. Harland Bower, the defensive ends coach at Duke who has known Santucci since their shared layover at Notre Dame in 2017, has had conversations over the years about his goal of reaching the NFL. Bower always saw those qualifications in how Santucci went about his business. “From the time that I’ve known him,” Bower told The Baltimore Sun, “he’s always been an elite level, smart, cerebral football coach. I think he’s grown into being able to — some guys are really smart and they can’t get what they know into their players’ heads — I think I’ve seen him grow in that aspect.” Santucci had a moment like that this summer with Trenton Simpson, the 23-year-old who was benched in Week 13 last year and is now being counted on as the projected starter at weak-side linebacker. “There was a little bit of an ‘ah-ha’ moment in the spring,” Santucci said. “It was the smallest thing.” He pointed out an adjustment in Simpson’s presnap stance. “Oh, I feel it,” Simpson told him. What’s impressed Santucci the most about Simpson, who enters Year 3 with a fire lit under his backside, is that everything that has come up in meeting rooms, the former Clemson star is taking to the practice field. Bower recently took a recruiting trip to Maryland and made time to visit Santucci. They talked a lot about the difference between college and the NFL, the most obvious discrepancy being the professionalism with which his players show up to the facility and get their work done. There will be plenty of eyeballs on Santucci’s first group, which collectively had a down year in 2024 and will be crucial to Baltimore’s Super Bowl aspirations. The centerpiece of the Ravens’ defense, All-Pro linebacker Roquan Smith, has been a sounding board for Santucci. As the rookie coach gets acclimated to the language of a Zach Orr defense, he’ll sometimes check with 28-year-old veteran before a meeting to say, “Hey, this is how I want to teach this. Does this make sense to you?” “I think he’s a really good teacher,” Smith said, “able to break things down for the guys and in the simplest terms and have your guys and technique, as well. That’s a big thing of his.” Tyler Santucci has been described as a "really good teacher" and "amazing instructor" by his players. (Kim Hairston/Staff) According to Smith, Teddye Buchanan has been one of the biggest beneficiaries in that regard. The rookie of the pack has already garnered enough trust that Santucci has Buchanan repping both inside linebacker positions, something only a couple guys in that room do. “‘Coach Tucc’ is an amazing instructor, amazing man,” said Buchanan, a fourth-round draft pick. “I know it’s his rookie year in the NFL as well, so getting to go through that together has been a really cool experience. I’ve learned a ton from him in a really short time.” Harbaugh said earlier this week that oftentimes players take on the personality of their positional coaches. They spend so much time together that they all start to act alike. By that logic, what’s to be expected from the inside linebackers? “Gritty. Tough. Pittsburgh,” Bower laughed. “I know fans don’t want to hear Pittsburgh, but that’s where he’s from. But he’s hard-nosed. He’s [got] energy. When he stands in front of a room and he speaks to them, everybody’s eyes are locked in and the energy that he brings has a gravitational force. “He’s juiced up and that’s fun to be around.” Have a news tip? Contact Sam Cohn at scohn@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/samdcohn. View the full article Quote
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