ATLANTA — CJ Allen and Anthony Hill are two of the best linebackers in the SEC. Both were tabbed as first-round selections in a recent ESPN NFL Mock Draft and they are likely to feature on the Preseason All-SEC team that comes out later this week.

They understand the path that Tyler Atkinson is about to walk. Allen was the top linebacker prospect in the state of Georgia for the 2023 recruiting cycle, according to the 247Sports Composite rankings. Hill was the No. 1 overall linebacker for the 2023 recruiting class.

Allen and Hill elected to play for their instate schools. Atkinson however will leave the Peach State for college, as he committed to Texas on Tuesday.

After hearing Hill and Allen explain their respective choices, one gets a better idea of why Atkinson ended up picking the Longhorns.

Of the schools recruiting Atkinson, no school possessed a stronger relationship than Georgia. The Bulldogs offered him as an eighth grader and he visited Georgia more than any other school.

Allen similarly felt a strong connection with the Georgia coaching staff when he was a prospect. Particularly with defensive coordinator and inside linebackers coach Glenn Schumann.

“I think Coach Schu breaks things down to a tee,” Allen said. “No stone goes unturned. He breaks everything down. Another big thing, coming out of high school, you think you know ball or something like that, but you really don’t know ball until you actually deep-down learn why you do this or why you do that. I think Coach Schu does a great job of breaking things down.”

During Schumann’s time at Georgia, the Bulldogs have had three linebackers taken in the first round of the NFL draft and produced three Butkus winners.

After finishing second on the team in tackles last season, Allen hopes to follow in the same footsteps of Roquan Smith and Nakobe Dean. Even as Allen’s profile grows, he prefers to remain focused on football, rather than any of the other trappings that come with being a big-time college football linebacker.

“Especially now, there’s so much stuff going on, man. Keep the main thing, the main thing,” Allen said. “Also, just look at the history here. Being a linebacker at the University of Georgia, being coached by the best and being with the best.” 

Allen, it is worth noting, said that today’s NIL climate would not have changed his decision. It mattered greatly to him that he play close to home.

As for Hill, he is from Denton, Texas and elected to play for his home-state school.

Hill believes Texas has him in position to get there and it is hard to argue with the results. He was a Second Team All-American last season as he picked up 113 tackles, 16.5 tackles for loss and 8.0 sacks.

Yet when Hill explained why a prospect such as Atkinson would go to Texas, Hill spoke in detail about life away from the field.

“It’s all about kind of relating to people, man,” Hill said. “You guys don’t wanna just talk about football all the time. Even though we talk ball, the coaches talk ball with them. I talk a little bit about football with them, but I just kind of relate to them without football. I show them that this is like an environment, a culture that you wanna be around outside of ball. Because football it’s own thing. You spend a lot of time doing football, but you kinda wanna talk about the stuff outside of the game to make people wanna kinda help and come.”

Hill highlighted as well that Austin is a meaningful factor as for why someone would choose Texas. The state capital is one of the most populated cities in Texas. Companies such as Dell, Oracle and Tesla all now have headquarters in the city as well.

While Atkinson plays for Grayson High School in Loganville, Georgia, he spent much of June training in Texas. He took an official visit to Texas in June as well, which also came after his visit to Georgia.

Hill readily acknowledges the conversation around Texas when it comes to name, image and likeness. It’s undeniable that it played a factor in Atkinson’s recruitment.

But Hill went on to explain that short-term gratification is not what he or his Texas teammates are seeking.

“The money I’m receiving or getting right now is not my end goal and not where I wanna be at in the next 10 years,” Hill said. “So I kinda think about the end goal of getting to the NFL. And I feel like a lot of guys at the University of Texas think about the end goal and not about just the money they’re receiving right now.”

Allen and Hill weren’t the only representatives from their schools to paint a picture of why a top linebacker prospect would choose either Georgia or Texas.

Kirby Smart and Steve Sarkisian both touched on recruiting during their respective SEC Media Days appearances.

Smart took a very strong stance in how he prioritizes relationships when it comes to recruiting. If Georgia were to have won for Atkinson, it would’ve been because of the relationships.

“We sell relationships over transactions,” Smart said. “We think the relationship still wins out because the relationship allows you to push people and demand excellence, and we’re going to continue to do that at Georgia We don’t believe in just being transactional because when you’re transactional, you cannot accomplish whatever your ultimate goal is, whatever your greatest reach is.

“Whatever the ceiling is for every player and every team we have, you don’t reach that without relationships. So we’re going to try to win 24-hour increments each and every day to make sure we still attain that.”

For the second-straight year, Sarkisian has gone into Georgia and land a five-star prospect. The Longhorns pulled defensive lineman Justus Terry away from Georgia last season. Terry bluntly described it as a business decision.

Georgia has its fair share of recruiting wins over Texas in recent years — Georgia signed two five-star prospects from Texas in the 2024 recruiting cycle in Justin Williams and Joseph Jonah-Ajonye — but it’s clear that Texas’ pitch really resonates with recruits.

Including the best prospect in state of Georgia for the 2026 recruiting cycle.

“I think, when we moved into the SEC, it was a lot more natural for players from Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Georgia to be willing to come play at the University of Texas,” Sarkisian said. “They were already kind of going to (Texas) A,& M because they were in the SEC, but now that we’ve joined the conference, it’s a lot more palatable for those families and for those kids to want to come play at Texas knowing that we’re playing in the Southeastern Conference. So we’ve tried to take advantage of that.”