Clear picture painted of Georgia ILB room for 2024 within one week

A clear picture of Georgia’s 2024 inside linebacker room will be painted over the span of one week. While the respective exits of EJ Lightsey and Xavian Sorey on December 7th certainly factor in, the dominoes really started to fall last Thursday when news broke that Jamon Dumas-Johnson planned to enter the transfer portal. Come Friday, that was official, but not before Smael Mondon‘s return to Athens for his senior season was announced as expected. Throw in this week’s National Signing Day on Wednesday when the Bulldogs are set to add three of the top players for the position in the country – Justin Williams, Chris Cole and Kris Jones – – and there you have the group Glenn Schumann will get to work with. But the story is deeper than that.

The Vets…

Let’s start with the departure of Dumas-Johnson. A three-year player and two-year starter of 24 games for the Bulldogs, Dumas-Johnson solidified himself in the Georgia linebacker room. He rose into a starting spot and put together a spectacular season in 2022, taking over alongside his fellow sophomore Mondon for the trio of Nakobe Dean, Quay Walker and Channing Tindall. He and Mondon finished top two on the team in tackles while Dumas-Johnson was a finalist for the Butkus Award, leaving Georgia fans without any sort of drop off from the inside linebackers.

Come 2023, Dumas-Johnson was expected to be among the nation’s best once again. He found himself on just about every preseason All-American team out there and was starting to hear buzz about him for the NFL Draft. When it came to the football though, things didn’t play out quite like Dumas-Johnson probably would have liked. In interviews, the standard of the Georgia defense wasn’t quite being met. The Bulldogs allowed over 200 yards on the ground against Auburn, and Dumas-Johnson wasn’t producing at the same rate he was the year before.

And just when it seemed he was starting to round into form, coming up with sacks in two out of three games in the month of October and more solo stops against Missouri than he had total tackles in any game up that point, Dumas-Johnson suffered a forearm injury that knocked him out late in the third quarter of the win over the Tigers and sent him to the sideline for the remainder of the season.

You see the name Mondon mentioned several times in the description of Dumas-Johnson. That’s because the two classmates created quite the duo at inside linebacker, one that was all but assured to be gone come 2024. Well, only one of those is gone, and both will be playing college football next season. Mondon’s return not only gives Georgia a talented player in the middle of its defense, but the Bulldogs are also getting somebody that can be a leader as an experienced veteran.

Mondon led the team in tackles in 2022, totaling six more (76) than Dumas-Johnson despite playing in two fewer games. His most impressive games came late, recording 11 tackles in a road win over Kentucky and stops behind the line of scrimmage in five of the eight games he played post bye-week (and after his return from injury).

An injury late in spring practice kept Mondon out for a large part of fall camp in 2023, and limited him early in the season. While still showing up near the top of the stat sheet, tied for the team-high with 68 stops in 13 games, Mondon seemed to show signs of the injury throughout the season and simply put, wasn’t quite as affective as he was.

The Young Guns…

Remember those freshmen that Dumas-Johnson was forced to watch? They make up a portion, and an exciting one, of the young guns. CJ Allen and Raylen Wilson each played in 10+ games in 2023 including all 13 for Allen, four of which he started. While the stats don’t quite show a major impact for Wilson (13 stops in 11 games), Allen is sixth on the team in tackles with 35 and finished as the team-leader multiple times over the course of the season. An SEC Freshman of the Week honoree (Allen) and All-Freshman SEC squad member (Wilson), the potential is untapped for these two youngsters.

Jalon Walker is starting to get old, but we’ll leave him in the young guns category for now, still a sophomore. Ranked the No. 4 linebacker in the country for his Class of 2022, Walker established himself as a pass rushing presence late in his freshman year and continued to do so into his second season. Of his 16 tackles on the season, 5.0 were sacks. He also had a shared tackle for loss against Ole Miss. Whether Walker remains at inside linebacker or makes a move to full time on the outside remains to be seen. His skillset is such that he could do either, and it’s why there’s so much excitement about what could be for Walker in 2024.

Don’t forget about Troy Bowles either. The son of Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles and a product of Jesuit High School, Bowles was the nation’s No. 7 linebacker and a top-100 overall recruit for the Class of 2023. He played in four games this season, recording stops in two of them for a total of four, and enters next fall with four years of eligibility remaining after taking a redshirt season.

The Fresh Faces…

Finally, there’s the freshman, and while they don’t have production to bring to the table, their potential is incredible. Justin Williams is a five-star plus+ and the consensus top-ranked linebacker in the industry. Chris Cole comes in at No. 3 according to the Industry Ranking while Kris Jones is just on the outside looking in at the top-10 at No. 11. Still, he ranks as a top-150 overall player, allowing Georgia to say its one of just two schools (along with Florida) with a committed trio of linebackers that talented, and giving the Bulldogs three Butkus Award semifinalists for the second straight season (after Allen, Bowles and Wilson in 2022) with Wilson and Williams earning finalist status. All three are expected to sign on Wednesday and enroll early including Williams who is already on campus and practicing with the team during their preparation for the Orange Bowl.

So, as you look at the three groups, there’s a couple of things that stand out: production and potential. Georgia will have both next season, and it comes from varying levels of experience. While the loss of Dumas-Johnson to wherever (he has visited Kentucky and Auburn so far reportedly) certainly isn’t what the Bulldogs would have wanted, it also shouldn’t set Glenn Schumann and company back too far. In fact, it could open doors for the group to take its play to the next level, one that consistently has UGA in the conversation for LBU.