Xavian Sorey, Jalon Walker stepping up for Georgia

Even with Smael Mondon still recovering from the foot injury that knocked him out for most of the spring, Georgia’s inside linebacker room appears to be in good hands.

That’s because Xavian Sorey and Jalon Walker have stepped up their respective games.

“Probably the most growth Xavian has had has been in the last five months, six months. Since Smael's injury, he has exponentially grown in terms of confidence, ability to execute,” head coach Kirby Smart said. “He's been healthy, number one, and he's had a lot of opportunity of reps of being out there with the ones. I mean, he's a guy who has really picked it up in terms of leadership and growth, and he has a lot of athletic ability.”

Nobody has ever questioned that.

Athleticism has never been an issue for Sorey, who needed to add some muscle when he first arrived on campus three years ago. That’s no longer a problem.

Georgia’s preseason roster has Sorey tipping the scales at 220 pounds. During the spring, he proved to Smart and position coach Glenn Schumann that he’s ready to start playing a bigger role alongside fellow inside backer Jamon "Pop" Dumas-Johnson. Pop is determined to see the inside linebacker room remain one of the strongest positions groups on the team.

“My goal is to do what we came to do and set out to be who we set out to be, " Dumas-Johnson said. "I’m not worried about my own goals anymore."

Having Walker back for a second year will help matters, too.

Walker began his Bulldog career as an inside backer before moving to the outside to shore up the depth after Nolan Smith went down with the pectoral injury that knocked him out for the latter half of the year.

This year Walker is back on the inside, a position which also features redshirt freshman E.J. Lightsey, along with a trio of talented freshmen in Raylen Wilson, C.J. Allen, and Troy Bowles.

“That's his natural position. That's what he wants to grow at, and he'll be in that competition for guys that get an opportunity to play. He has a unique trait of being able to rush the passer well, which not all inside linebackers have. He has some outside linebacker characteristics, and he helped us a lot last year on third down,” Smart said of Walker. “Because of the injuries we had, we were like, okay, he's got a better chance of playing outside linebacker than inside linebacker. This year and really the entire time he was out in the spring with a shoulder, he still was in the inside linebacker room, and he'll start in the inside linebacker room, but he'll be part of the third down package that allows him to rush the passer.”