Glimpse into future of Georgia defense available in Orange Bowl

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Saturday’s matchup between No. 6 Georgia and fifth-ranked Florida State won’t feature a full cast of characters on either side, but it could provide a look into the future of what the Bulldog defense might look like next year.

With guys like Smael Mondon banged up still and Jamon Dumas-Johnson and Marvin Jones Jr. having entered the transfer portal, Georgia could opt for more of Jalon Walker and Mykel Williams in their reportedly changing roles for next season. Walker, who considers himself to be a “hybrid linebacker” instead of either an inside or outside linebacker, is expected to take on an important role as one of UGA’s most versatile players next season. Meanwhile Williams has been rumored to be moving into more of an off-ball defender’s role than the traditional defensive end spot he’s played his first two years on campus.

“I really like the guys that we have. I think that there’s a lot of ability in that room, guys that are going to step up,” Georgia defensive coordinator Glenn Schumann said about the Bulldog linebackers. “When there’s opportunity to step up, the guys who take advantage of it, they’ll be the ones that are out there, as far as moving forward. We had guys that played for us this year that we believe in. That’s why they’ve been in there in the forms and facets they have.”

“You know, some of that remains to be seen, right? There’s some guys that have been battling through injuries. They’ve been getting reps, and a lot of that will be a medical decision from the standpoint of Ron Courson and Coach Smart. But we get everybody ready from that standpoint,” he added. “When you look at it, there’s obviously the linebackers that are going to have to go and play a bigger role, but they’ve been doing that with Pop being out. From that standpoint, I look at our defense and we’re really in a good position from the standpoint of playing with guys who played throughout the course of the year. I think that we don’t ever look at it like we have 11 starters. We look at it like if you’re on the field you’re a starter, and that’s how we prepare. So there’s a bunch of guys that depending on the game situation will have an opportunity to step up.”

For Walker, that “HLB” role isn’t any different than the one he’s been in all year. Working with the inside linebackers but playing the part of an edge player oftentimes, Walker totaled 16 tackles including a team-high 5.0 sacks.

“I call myself a HLB, a hybrid linebacker being able to bounce back and forth between inside and outside linebacker. I think it’s cool to be able to do it,” Walker said. “A lot of guys don’t get the opportunity to do because of the body type or physicality it takes. The guys that have done it before, Quay Walker, Channing Tindall, those guys were traditional EDGEs throughout high school and moved inside at Georgia. It’s a great thing to see, their journey and follow it for mine.”

“Yeah, he likes that term,” Schumann joked about Walker’s HLB role … Jalon goes about his business the right way. He works really hard. He’s a unique individual because he’s able to play both inside and out,” Schumann added. “He helped us a lot on third down this year. We also had packages where he played off the ball on first and second down. He’s just grown leaps and bounds. This isn’t something — you could see he’s rushed the passer his whole life. He decided to take on the challenge and play more off the ball in college because he knew it’d be more beneficial to him in the long run because, the more you can do, the more value you add to your career. He’s helped us a ton on third down. He’s helped us more on first and second down moving forward. I’m excited about where he’s going.”

As for Williams, who has 5.0 tackles for loss with 3.5 sacks, Schumann defines him as an EDGE player as opposed to either a defensive end or outside linebacker. He’s able to help the team both with his hand in the dirt and standing up.

“Mykel’s an edge player. He’s always cross-trained at other positions. Sometimes you say changing role, the things that you’ve cross-trained in terms of hey, being able to play D-end and be a bigger outside linebacker, you decide that based on who’s your best 11 on the field and what’s your opponent doing,” Schumann said. “I know this, we’d like to play him on the edge more, whether that’s at D-end, Jack, anything from that standpoint. He’s one of our best players and we want to make sure that he’s doing what he does best more often.”

“Each game you decide what’s best for our team relative to what they do,” he continued. “You cross-train a lot of guys. You see that in the secondary a lot where guys play corner but they also play nickel. Guys play safety and nickel or dime. Linebackers play inside or outside. We do that in our front, as well. He’s trained to play on the edge a lot of times in his role. As a D-end, he’s on the edge already. There’s actually been times this year that he’s played in specialty roles that way. He definitely is an athletic enough guy that has enough length that he can potentially do that.”

Williams agrees he can do it all. In fact, it’s something he feels he’s been doing forever.

“I kind of feel like that’s something I’ve been doing really since I’ve been playing ball,” Williams said. “Playing defensive end and outside linebacker, those edge positions, I’ve been groomed to do it. Coming here with how we practice and how we play and how we do it with myself and the scheme, it’s really the same thing.”

Georgia and Florida State kickoff Saturday at 4:00 p.m. on ESPN. According to VegasInsider, the Bulldogs are 19.5-point favorites.