Georgia Football: Linebackers to watch this spring

Monty Rice, ILB, Sophomore

Rice saw the most time last season of all of the players on this list. He actually started the Mizzou game after some injuries knocked out the other LB’s. Rice played in nearly every game and positioned himself to be the guy who is most likely to start as the second middle linebacker.

I’ve said this before, but I still view Rice as more of a Natrez Patrick than a Roquan Smith. He’s got great instincts and he’s certainly not slow, but he doesn’t have that explosive athletic ability that UGA got from Smith.

That’s not something you need from every LB. However, it is something that I believe Kirby Smart wants from at least one of those guys. While he might like having a run stuffer, he loves the coverage ability that he can get from someone like Roquan.

Right now, Rice is going to be pencilled into that job because he was last season. He’s going to be the guy that McBride and Hunter have to chase down. Smart is always looking for competition and right now, that’s what he’s got at ILB. Rice was the only one of the three in school last spring which gave him a great head start. But with all 3 of them now having a season under their belt, this is anybody’s job and so it should be fun to watch.