ATHENS — The standard for the Georgia inside linebacker room is as high as any position group in the country.
When you’ve produced three first-round picks, three Butkus Award winners and play for the longest-tenured assistant on Kirby Smart’s staff in Glenn Schumann, excellence is the minimum expectation.
That will be the case once again for Raylen Wilson and company in 2025.
“It means a lot, but we try not to use that in the linebacker room,” Wilson said on Georgia being LBU. “We try to prove that on the field. So, that’s the main thing. We just try to prove what we are. We don’t say it too much.”
Wilson and CJ Allen both return after starting for the Bulldogs last season. Chris Cole and Justin Williams have plenty of potential and promise, so much so that Kris Jones moved to outside linebacker and freshman Zayden Walker, the No. 1 ranked linebacker in the 2025 recruiting cycle, is not expected to be an immediate contributor.
Georgia’s linebacker room has all the pieces for a high floor. The question regarding this group in 2025 is what can the ceiling be for what is Georgia’s most loaded position group?
The gold standard at the position is still Georgia’s 2021 group, spearheaded by Nakobe Dean, Quay Walker and Channing Tindall. Smael Mondon was a freshman on that team, while Jamon Dumas-Johnson and Trezman Marshall would go on to start at Kentucky and Alabama later on in their careers.
The 2021 group won a national championship. But no one in Georgia’s current linebacker room knows what that feels like. Allen and Wilson are the two most veteran players and they both arrived on campus after Georgia demolished TCU to win the Bulldogs’ second national championship game in as many years.
“That room has been one of our strengths throughout the time we’ve been here,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. “Schumann’s done a great job recruiting, he does a great job developing, he does a great job packaging things to where you can get multiple inside linebackers on the field, and we play a lot of them.”
Most teams would be thrilled with a tandem as good as Allen and Wilson. That Georgia can sub them out for Cole and Williams is what potentially pushes this group to another level.
For as much promise as there is surrounding the former five-star recruits in Wilson and Cole, Smart knows that Allen and Wilson are going to be the ones pushing the room, and the entire Georgia defense, to be the best version of itself.
“C. J. and Raylen have been leaders since they got here,” Smart said. “They just haven’t had to be in the forefront. And last year, even with Smael’s injury, they were in the forefront more than a typical sophomore would be, and they both embraced that leadership role.”
Wilson feels he and Allen have improved as communicators this offseason, not just with their position group but the entire defense. As they enter their third seasons at Georgia, Dean, Jalon Walker and Roquan Smith all won the Butkus Award as third-year defenders.
It is going to take a collective effort to fix some of the issues that plagued Georgia’s defense last season.
Georgia took a step back in terms of run defense, as it finished 36th in the country in yards per game allowed. That is tied for the lowest finish in that respective category in Smart’s nine seasons in Athens. The other low mark came back in 2016, his first year in Athens.
That slippage illustrates why Smart has made stopping the run the biggest talking point when it comes to the defense.
“I want to see improvement, I want to see buy-in,” Smart said. “It’s a culture thing. It’s like, you get what you demand, and we’re going to demand that we stop it and that we’re able to do it and run it.”
Wilson echoed Smart’s talking points. With a younger defensive line, it’s paramount that Wilson, Allen and company make sure everybody is lined up so they can do a better job of limiting opposing rushers.
“Mostly, the main thing, the problem last year was just execution basically. I feel like we’re getting better at executing stuff,” Wilson said. “That’s what the fall camp is about, getting better at that day by day. Tackling, execution of the play call, and turnovers. That’s our main focus.”
If Georgia can clean up the little things, this defense can have a big season.
That starts with the inside linebacker room. Wilson and Allen both acknowledge the challenge ahead of them.
It’s a big reason the duo came to Georgia in the first place and is in a position to not just meet the standard of “LBU” but reestablish a new one in the process.
“We’re all focusing on being vocal with the whole defense and communicating post play and before the play even happens,” Wilson said. “I feel like we’re just getting better at that every day.”
