Chris Cole is headed into his third season at Georgia with the Bulldogs asking for more than promise this time around. The 6’3, 235-pound linebacker from Salem, Virginia arrived in Athens as a five star recruit, and now he’s being counted on to turn that pedigree into a true breakout year.
The production has been moving in the right direction. As a true freshman, Cole finished with 16 tackles and two fumble recoveries and landed on the SEC All-Freshman Team.
He made a bigger jump last season, appearing in all 14 games and piling up 59 tackles, 7.0 tackles for loss, and a team-high 4.5 sacks. That sack total led a Georgia defense that managed only 20 sacks all season, a number that tied for 107th nationally and ranked last in the SEC.
With CJ Allen now off to the NFL, Cole’s role at linebacker grows even more important. He’ll be part of the group with fellow returning veterans Raylen Wilson and Justin Williams, and Kirby Smart has already pointed to the progress he’s made this spring. Smart praised Cole’s growth as a pass rusher, while also making clear that improving Georgia’s pass rush will take more than one player.
What makes Cole such an intriguing piece is the full package. He has the length, speed, and coverage instincts that made him stand out even before he arrived at Georgia, when he was still playing safety in high school.
He covers ground fast, closes on ball carriers with burst, and processes plays quickly. That versatility helped him handle extended snaps as a coverage linebacker in 2024, and it remains one of his biggest strengths.
The next step is less about traits and more about toughness. Cole still needs to add strength and functional mass if he’s going to hold up better against physical SEC run games and shed blocks more consistently.
His tackle for loss and sack numbers are encouraging, but they need to rise if he’s going to reach the ceiling scouts once saw in him. The real test now is whether those flashes show up every week.
Cole also dealt with off-field scrutiny after a February reckless driving arrest, though Smart has stood by his character. On the field, the assignment is straightforward: Georgia needs the pass rush fixed, and Cole sits right in the middle of that push. For a team chasing national championship goals, his leap from talented contributor to dependable difference maker could go a long way toward determining how far the defense can carry them.
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Kirby Smart's Recruiting Dip Has Georgia Fans Asking One Big Thing
Kirby Smart has spent most of his Georgia tenure turning recruiting into a superpower, stacking classes that regularly sat near the top of the national rankings and helped fuel the Bulldogs rise into a perennial contender. So when the 2026 class landed lower than fans are used to and the 2027 group opened even further down the board, it naturally sparked a familiar question in Athens about whether the pipeline had slipped.
The more likely answer is that Georgia is adjusting to a different kind of roster-building era, one where the staff is spending and planning with more purpose than panic. Smarts track record still matters here: Georgia has won big with players who were not always the flashiest recruits, from Stetson Bennett to contributors like Kenny McIntosh, Jordan Davis, Ladd McConkey and Eric Stokes, which is why a dip in class ranking does not automatically mean a dip in quality. [Read more 🡒]
Georgia Fans Have A Kirby Smart Recruiting Problem To Worry About
Georgias 2027 recruiting class has not looked like the standard Kirby Smart has built in Athens, and the early returns are enough to make fans take notice. The class is sitting at No. 18 nationally, which would be Smarts lowest finish at Georgia if it holds, a surprising spot for a program that has usually been able to stack elite high school talent well ahead of everyone else.
The problem is not just the ranking, but the timing. By early July, 368 of the top 400 recruits had already committed, leaving Georgia with a thin pool of high-end targets to chase as it tries to climb. That is why the conversation is turning toward whether the Bulldogs may need to be more aggressive with NIL and, perhaps, more willing to use the Transfer Portal, even if that is not the path Smart has preferred to lean on. [Read more 🡒]