Who is Andrew Thacker? Kirby Smart's new coaching staff member at Georgia

Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs have hired a new coach to help out its defense.

Matt Zenitz of CBS Sports reported Georgia is set to hire Andrew Thacker as its new nickels coach. He served as an analyst with the program last year and has now been promoted.

Who is Andrew Thacker?

Andrew Thacker was born in Cartersville, Georgia, and began coaching in 2008 with UCF as a graduate assistant.

Thacker attended and played college football at Furman University and was a three-year starter. He was named Southern Conference's Freshman of the Year in 2004 for his play as a safety and immediately turned to coaching after his playing career was done in 2007.

Thacker's first big job was at Southern Miss in 2013 when he was the safeties coach. A year later, he then hired by the Atlanta Falcons to be an assistant coach.

After bouncing around different schools, Thacker was named defensive coordinator at Tempe in 2018 and held the role for just one season. At Temple, his defense scored eight defensive touchdowns which was the best in the country, while forcing 31 turnovers and had 18 interceptions (No. 4).

He was then hired by Georgia Tech to be its defensive coordinator from 2019 until 2023.

During Thacker's time running the Georgia Tech defense, the team had 13 All-ACC defensive selections. However, he was demoted in 2023 to a safety coach and then ended up taking a job with Georgia.

Thacker will coach the nickels but can help out the secondary which was an issue for the Bulldogs last season.

“[They’ve] got a long way to go,” Kirby Smart said before the season, via On3. “We don’t have a lot of proven playmakers. They have to prove it by how they play. They’ve got to have better eye control; we’ve got to tackle much better. We did not tackle very well, didn’t run to the ball, and punched the ball out at the level we need to.

"I got a lot of confidence in the players in the secondary. They have to go do it live action [in the] scrimmage this Saturday [and] practices every day to get where we’re gonna be really comfortable with them.”

Georgia will open its 2025 college football season on Aug. 30 against Marshall.