UGA Football Coach Kirby Smart Brags About Dynamic Freshman Linebacker
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ATHENS - Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs have ”Linebacker University” alive and well.
Under Kirby Smart and Glenn Schumann, two Bulldog linebackers have won the annual Dick Butkus Award, with Roquan Smith winning the award in 2017 and Nakobe Dean holding the trophy in 2021.
Nobody is recruiting, developing, and producing linebackers like the Georgia Bulldogs right now.
The Dawgs currently have one of college football’s best linebackers on the roster in Jalon Walker, who could absolutely be in the running for the Butkus award this season. Sophomores CJ Allen and Raylen Wilson are also having strong seasons this fall.
The talent is easy to see.
Then there’s Chris Cole and Justin Williams. Two true freshmen who will be tough to keep on the bench for very long, Cole and Williams were the top two linebacker prospects in the country in the 2024 class. So far, both living up to expectations. Those two are the future, and the future is extremely bright.
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“If you want to say the player that's made one of the biggest jumps, it’s Chris Cole”, Smart said last week. “He’s improved immensely. He and Justin Williams are so high character with toughness and intangibles. They almost compete against each other and drive each other off the scales in terms of competitiveness and doing things right no matter who's watching. I think that's a really good trait for young players to be like, ‘It really doesn't matter who's watching. I'm going to always do it right,’ that's Chris Cole and Justin Williams.”
“But Chris has put himself in a position because he has really elite speed and flexibility to be able to cover and he's got great length”, Smart added. “I think Schumann did a great job identifying those two guys as high character, high intangible players. Chris has helped us. He's gotten smarter and smarter.”
It’s a well-oiled machine at inside linebacker. The staff in Athens can hand-pick their linebackers just about every year. They identify the best, sign them, develop them, and send them to the NFL.
Smael Mondon will likely get drafted. Jalon Walker is playing like an easy 1st-rounder. CJ Allen and Raylen Wilson will be back next season, but they both have “NFL” written all over them.
Then there’s Cole and Williams after that. The machine is rolling, and it’s not slowing down anytime soon.
