This Sentell’s Intel rep on Georgia football recruiting shares a deeper look into how the Dawgs go about finding their next great linebacker.
When one gets the chance to talk to Glenn Schumann about how he finds a Georgia linebacker, it is not an ordinary conversation.
It’s akin to getting Steve Spurrier to discuss zingers. Lane Kiffin to catalog his sharpest tweets. Or Nick Saban to break down his ideal DB.
When it comes to linebackers, Schumann is an expert’s expert. The open team media session at the Sugar Bowl last season offered the chance to ask him this question:
What do you look for in an ideal Georgia linebacker?
Then he is off. The 11th-year Georgia coaching vet did not come up for air as he glided through 12 rapid-fire topics across 139 well-used seconds.
It felt like that scene in “Old School” when Will Ferrell was called to debate James Carville. The high notes from that included:
- “Linebackers are a really cool position because there’s no prototype necessarily. If you look at all the best linebackers in the world, in the current history of the game, there’s no greater comparison than seeing 5-foot-11 Nakobe Dean lined up right next to 6-foot-4 Quay Walker.”
- “Body types are different. Skill sets are different. The production, at a very high level, is the same, though.”
- “It is, generally, a really instinctive position, but we also want that guy to be the best player on the field at all times. When we go and scout somebody, a really versatile skill set allows you to use guys in multiple ways.”
- “Linebackers have a really hard job these days. They have to be hybrid edges, DBs, and box players nowadays. You have to have a guy with a really versatile skill set.“
- “There are no pure box players in football today. You need to be a ‘Mike’ Linebacker in mentality. Only in terms of your mind and your heart, but skill set-wise, you need to be a space player. A guy who can do a lot of different things and especially with the way we rotate players. It allows us to rotate guys, but also skill sets."
- “Beyond that, there’s a need to find people who love football. More than just playing the game. I’m talking about studying the game because you’re going to have to devote a lot of time to it. It has got to excite you to go through that non-stop learning process.”
- “Then you’ve got to be a really good person. You’re going to have to be a leader in our organization by virtue of the fact that you’re the centerpiece of the defense.”
Then he came up for air. After rattling off that daunting job description. The modern UGA target needs to be long and super athletic. It gets them on the board, but then they must:
- Excel at a “Nickel Sam” hybrid position in their high school defense, but also be able to make plays at the “Will” spot
- Play in the box on other downs
- It is no longer just flying to the ball or coming downhill. An elite LB these days has to be able to hold “RPO” windows, play outside runs on the perimeter, but also be able to set the edge
- Anytime a back flares out, he’s got to be able to match him in space. It requires being able to run “wheel” routes with those backs in man coverage.
- Must be a physical and effective tackler, but also be able to run with receivers, quickly pattern match and reroute guys in the passing game
- Sometimes he’s the flat defender. Other times, he’s the hook-curl defender
- They have to be able to blitz and win one-on-one pass rush against both tackles and guards on different calls, even in the same series
- We’ve seen some elite linebackers that Georgia has signed have the ability to jump down into a “5″ technique in certain looks.
It might be harder to get into Schumann’s room than it is for the Class of 2027 applicant pool to get into UGA. But those who get the call have thrived.
There’s no position room in the nation that can match Schumann’s linebacker room in the dual standards of Butkus Award winners (3) and NFL Draft picks (8) over the last nine years. That run also includes three first-round Dawgs with CJ Allen looking to make it four next month.
The weekly DawgNation.com “Before the Hedges” program is available as an Apple podcast.
Glenn Schumann: What’s the secret sauce on the recruiting trail?
That “secret sauce” could just be tireless work.
South Gwinnett coach Bryan Lamar shared a story from the trail last fall. He told DawgNation that Schumann is so attuned to finding the best that he watches film of every home-state linebacker with any offer from anywhere.
Schumman had done that for the 2026 class by the spring of 2025.
“Just to make sure he wasn’t missing anybody,” Lamar said. “I don’t know of anybody who does a better job of finding and evaluating and then recruiting guys than Georgia does. It is not like they come in and say, ‘Who has everybody offered and let me offer that guy,’ or ‘Who is everyone offering right now and let me evaluate him’ and see if he’s our guy.”
“They come in. They recruit in every area of our state. Making sure they see and evaluate everyone.”
To do that, Schumann credits the entire UGA recruiting and personnel staff. The manpower of a football machine like Georgia helps. If there’s a high school coach or trusted opinion reaching out for a prospect, he makes sure to rely on that network.
“I don’t think people always go through the entire process of watching guys anymore,” he said. “Entire classes are committed by the middle of the summer. Sometimes, they make their biggest jumps in ability in their senior year or they are trending that way.”
There’s a story right now with a 2027 prospect. Schumann was at his house during the January winter storms. The power went out, but the Georgia DC was there with 4-star Tennessee legacy Kenneth Simon II and his family. He was there when the power came back on, too.
Schumann offered Simon on January 13. The Dawgs didn’t make his final four that he released later that month. But they are now in his final group.
That’s the definition of thorough in the Schumann dictionary.
“I will do a write-up on anybody who comes and works at our camp,” he said. “If they perform well at our camp, then we will go and track them, whether they are going into their sophomore, junior, or senior year. If a guy comes and works out for us, then he goes up on our recruiting board. I’m going to keep up with them.”
While he scans prospect film, he keeps in mind what former Georgia defensive coordinator Mel Tucker told him about evaluating players.
“He said, ‘If you’re asking yourself whether or not they can play at Georgia, then they can’t,’ especially not to get [us] where we need to go,” Schumann said. “While that may not always be true, if you watch somebody, you want to search for reasons why you want to sign them. Things that will keep you interested in recruiting them. The longer you watch the tape, the better off the guy is, but he’s got to keep giving you reasons to believe in them and keep watching their tape.”
Some position coaches will watch no more than five plays. If they’re not convinced, they move on. Schumann watches more tape than that. There’s not one thing he’s looking for.
“Every guy is different,” he said.
How Georgia still finds and develops elite LBs in the NIL and revenue-share era
Kirby Smart will often quiz the staff about guys he sees in the state who are committed to other top programs.
“He’s saying that constantly through messages,” Schumann said. “He will say, ‘Hey, this guy is going to this school. Are we sure sure that this isn’t a guy for us?’ Since he’s so thorough, the staff in turn is very thorough.”
Georgia is a little later than most schools with its linebacker offers. CJ Allen was offered later in his junior year. The same goes for 5-star Justin Williams in the 2024 class. Or Nick Abrams in the 2026 class.
“The evaluation process really starts ramping up for us after the season,” Schumann said.
When he reached out to Abrams, he was impressed by their initial conversation. Abrams told him how impressed he was with the Terry College of Business at UGA.
“It was really important to his family,” Schumann said. “So in addition, he says I already have a spreadsheet of the schools, whether they have offered me or not, that I might be interested in. That hooked me because somebody that’s already that intentional about their process and it’s just getting started shows a lot about how they’re going to go about their business on and off the field in college.”
There are many ways to get on Georgia’s radar, but you have to stay there. South Gwinnett’s Terrence Pennick Jr. was an 11th-hour addition to the 2026 class. Schumann tracked him for years. His junior tape was good. The senior tape was fantastic. It was what he did between those seasons that kept Georgia’s attention.
He also needed to add weight to an already 6-foot-3 frame and when he did that, he became a guy for the University of Georgia. Prior to that offer, he was likely heading to Coastal Carolina.
“He came and worked out this summer at camp,” Schumann said. “If he didn’t come and work out this summer at camp, I might have been interested, but I might not have had as much conviction of being able to say, ‘Hey, if this guy plays well this fall and he continues to grow like he’s going to be a guy for us.’ He worked out really well this summer and his tape was really good this year.”
Despite all those NFL picks and Butkus winners, the won-loss record is not perfect. It’s impossible to be perfect in this day and age.
Former 5-star Tyler Atkinson probably visited Georgia close to 20 times, if not more than that, once he exploded his freshman year as a national recruit. In the pre-NIL and revenue share days, he’d likely be at UGA now.
These days, revenue-share numbers can drive the price way up for an elite prospect. It forces a staff to find one of those hidden gems, like a Penick. How will Schumann handle those recruitments moving forward? Will he be mindful of a potential bidding war for an elite 5-star?
“Coaching is relationship-driven,” Schumann said. “You aren’t going to get the best out of somebody unless you build a relationship.”
If he wants that highly-capable performer as the centerpiece of the Georgia defense, he’s still got to go about it that way.
“You invest in your personal relationships with every player you recruit and then you worry about the guys that decide to come play for Georgia and not the guys who don’t,” he said. “If you start worrying about that, then you’re not going to invest too much in that relationship unless they are here. But if you do that, then you’re losing a lot of time to build a connection with somebody.”
“If connection is important to you and it’s part of how you are able to coach and reach people, then that still matters. I really believe that’s part of the reason why guys have succeeded here. They have gone through those Dawg-days of year one and year two and stuck it out, and they’ve got what they wanted at the end, because of the relationships that were started during their recruiting.”
Schumann knows players will make their own independent decisions on what’s best for them and their families.
“You can’t fault somebody for doing something that they think is best for their future,” he said. “But you’ve got to worry about the guys that do decide to come play for Georgia and coach them. You can’t worry about the ones that don’t come.”
If there was a “secret sauce” for the Dawgs with LBs on the trail, it is that investment of time. Schumman still feels building that real connection is vital to finding and developing the next great Georgia linebacker.
How do the Dawgs go about finding elite prospects? There’s a “Dawg DNA” collection on how they fill their rooms. Each story is culled with 1-on-1 interviews from each UGA position coach
- What does UGA value the most in its QBs? Mike Bobo breaks it all down
- Georgia assistant coach Josh Crawford breaks down the ideal UGA RB target
- How does a WR recruit get noticed by UGA? James Coley shares the blueprint with DawgNation
- How does a prospect show Georgia’s Todd Hartley they are #TETUff on the trail
- Tray Scott shares his playbook on whether a DL is “Trench Mob” material
- Want to join the “Wolfpack” at UGA? What UGA looks for at EDGE
- Want to be the next great UGA safety? T-Rob explains what it takes
- Donte Williams on what catches his eye about future UGA cornerbacks
