Georgia Football: Monty Rice steps up at inside linebacker

Georgia Football and its fans enjoyed a great spring practice yesterday, but few players enjoyed a breakout performance quite like Monty Rice.

There were lots of standout performances yesterday at G-Day, but one, in particular, stood out to me. Monty Rice played on the second unit at inside linebacker and boy did he impress. Rice ended up leading the team in tackles, accounting for 14 tackles which is pretty impressive for a shortened spring game.

He also had a sack of Justin Fields and it was a legit one. Unlike some of the ones that happened yesterday because the refs blew the play dead when Fields was touched, he wouldn’t have escaped Rice. He blitzed through a clear gap in the defense and had Fields bang to rights. It was a play that we saw Roquan Smith make a few times this past season.

Rice impressed me a lot when I rewatched the film today. He clearly has excellent linebacker instincts and has a knack for being around the ball when he needs to be. Yes, it’s just a spring game and he was playing against 2nd team player. But Rice positioned himself for me as a player to watch.

Next: Fields and Fromm give UGA a bright future at QB

With Channing Tindall and Quay Walker arriving this summer, the battle for ILB is by no means over. Rice not only has to hold off the players that were between the hedges on Saturday. Those two young guns are talented and they will come to try and win the job. He did, however, clearly, show that he’s taken a big step up this offseason. That bodes well for his future prospects in Athens.