ATHENS — Georgia has had plenty of talented players cycle through Glenn Schumann’s inside linebacker room of late.

Roquan Smith and Nakobe Dean elevated the defense and program while manning the position. Jalon Walker won the Butkus Award a season ago and is poised to be a first-round pick in this year’s draft.

So replacing elite linebackers is nothing new for Georgia, as Walker and three-year starter Smael Mondon move off to the NFL.

Georgia is already well-positioned to find the next Walker, Smith or Dean, with the inside linebacker room likely being the strength of Georgia’s defense in 2025.

“You’ve got to play to the standard there in the inside backer room,” Walker said at Georgia’s Pro Day. “It’s like no other. I feel like our inside backroom is the heartbeat of the team. The way we carried it here when I was here, the years before me, and the way they will carry it until now, it will be great.

“I can’t wait to see those guys go out there and compete and help lead the team.”

As hard as it might be to believe, CJ Allen and Raylen Wilson are now the most senior members at the position.

The duo enter their third season at Georgia, which has traditionally been when players make the leap from good to great. Smith, Dean and Walker all won the Butkus Award as juniors.

The light started to come on for Wilson at the end of his sophomore season and with his athletic upside, there’s reason to believe he can build off of how strong he finished last year.

“I think Raylen was just being Raylen,” Allen said of Wilson. “When it was time to make his plays, he made his plays, so I wasn’t too much surprised to see him work. I know how hard he works day in and day out.”

Allen and Wilson are rock-solid contributors already for Georgia. But the most exciting player in Georgia’s inside linebacker room might be sophomore Chris Cole.

He stepped up when Mondon went down with a mid-season foot injury. Cole, who changed his number from 18 to 9, has the ability to do everything.

He’s comfortable dropping into coverage. And Georgia thinks he’s only just scratching the surface as a pass rusher.

Of all the linebackers to walk through Schumann’s room, Cole might have the most impressive tool kit of all of them.

“He really impressed me,” Wilson said of Cole. “Usually his coverage ability is good, he’s really long. So that plays a good role for him. And his rushing ability, mainly, he can rush a whole lot. So that’s what I really wanna see out of him this year.”

Cole isn’t alone in having the chance to carve out a larger role in Georgia’s linebacker room in 2025. Justin Williams, who like Cole was a 5-star prospect in the 2024 recruiting cycle, is eager to evolve from just being a special teams player.

Georgia feels so good about what it has at the top of its linebacker room that it moved Kris Jones to outside linebacker to help deal with depth issues.

It also signed 5-star linebacker Zayden Walker and 3-star prospect Anthony Kruah as members of the 2025 recruiting cycle.

It might be a tall order for either to crack the two-deep given what is ahead of them, but both have real upside and can help out on special teams.

“They like to work, so I’m very fond of them,” Wilson said. “Yeah, they’re some hard workers, and that’s mainly the whole inside linebacker room, so that’s good.”

Georgia has a lot of questions in its front seven. Its top expected contributors at outside linebacker, Gabe Harris, and defensive tackle, Christen Miller, will miss the spring due to labrum surgery. The Bulldogs also must replace four NFL-bound defensive linemen and veteran outside linebacker Chaz Chambliss to go along with Mondon and Walker.

That puts a lot on the plates of Georgia’s inside linebackers. But this group seems more than up to the task of carrying the torch for Georgia’s defense.

“Your standard is always gonna be the standard no matter who’s here and who’s left,” Allen said. “You know, those guys, they’re gone. They can’t help us with what’s going on now, so we’re trying to focus on who’s here and who’s on the field with us now.”