ATHENS - Coming into the 2026 season the Georgia Bulldogs had a giant question mark on defense.

Who will be Georgia's game-changing pass-rusher? The Dawgs made a considerable effort to improve their pass-rush this season and the numbers say they've taken a major step forward.

The Dawgs are tied for third in the league in sacks, getting the quarterback to the ground 26 times this season. Georgia's leader in sacks, linebacker Raylen Wilson, has four on the season, followed by Chris Cole who has 3.5. 13 different Bulldogs have at least a partial sack, meaning a lot of the production has come from excellent scheme.

You can tell all the hard work this offseason from the coaching staff has paid off. The talent is being developed, and the scheme is allowing them to thrive.

“We have inside linebackers that are good blitzers," Georgia football coach Kirby Smart told reporters this week. "That's helped with that. Chris Cole accounts for some of that. He does a little bit of everything, edge and inside. I think scheme-wise, [Glenn] Schumann does a good job of mixing it up. It's a collective effort. You don't get a sack because of you. You get a sack because of the pocket push on one side or the other or scramble or flush. Just different ways to create pressure and confusion for quarterbacks. We've been better at that this year, and that's helped us in terms of affecting the quarterback.”

The versatility and depth have had a major impact on Georgia's improvement. They can attack from multiple angles, and if the linemen up front are doing their job, playing gap-assignent football and taking up double teams, the linebackers behind them have chances to run free and chase down the quarterback.

And with someone like Chris Cole, it's easy to see the progress they've made this season. In addition to his 3.5 sacks, Chris Cole has also made 49 tackles 9.5 tackles behind the line of scrimmage. As a team, the Bulldogs have 55 TFLs. They're aggressice, active, disciplined, and you can make the case that Cole leading the way.

This is what Kirby Smart had to say about Chris Cole earlier this week...

“His intelligence stands out first", Smart told reporters. "This guy's really intelligent. He is very purpose driven. He loves football. He's uber talented because he's been blessed with length and height and speed. He's got all these attributes, but he's smart. He understands football. He's well coached. He listens."