Georgia Football: 5 players who can replace Roquan Smith

2. Nate McBride

Mcbride should be the natural heir to Roquan when you look at his physical ability. He was one of the fastest high schoolers in the state of Georgia and is an absolute freak athlete. Roquan and he looked very similar when they arrived in Athens. Explosive players who need to get a little bit bigger and learn the position before they play.

McBride and Rice are basically polar opposites. Rice is going to be a starting linebacker no matter what at some point. His ceiling isn’t that high, but the guy knows how to play the position and do it well. McBride is the opposite. He hasn’t yet exhibited the ability to play the ILB spot in this UGA defense. But good lord, the tools are amazing.

McBride had some ‘wow’ plays on special teams this year and unlike Hunter, he did not redshirt. Now he didn’t get on the field as an ILB, but he is absolutely a guy to look out for when practices get started. I’m don’t get to watch them, so I don’t know how he has looked at linebacker so far. However, if he starts to figure it out mentally, the sky really is the limit for him.

Like all of the other guys on this list, McBride is going to be a guy you will want to look out for at G-day. He has shown that he can really hit people given the chance and his speed is just special. If the next guy hadn’t joined, I would say that he is the closest thing to Roquan from a talent perspective so that just tells you how good he could be one day.