Georgia Football Breakout Players for 2020: No. 3 — Nakobe Dean
Nakobe Dean arrived in Athens as one of the top two inside linebacker prospects from the 2019 recruiting class (depending on which recruiting service you asked). After enrolling early at the University of Georgia and having strong spring and summer practices, there were whispers during fall practice that Dean had the potential to have a starting spot by year’s end.
That never came into fruition due in part to a slight ankle injury along with a solid Senior season from ILB, Tae Crowder, but Dean’s freshman contributions remain quite impressive.
The former Mississippi high school player of the year saw action in his very first game at UGA and never looked back. Appearing in all fourteen games in 2019, Dean recorded 25 tackles including 1.5 tackles for loss.
For these efforts, Dean was elected co-recipient of the team’s newcomer of the year award along with Tyrique Stevenson.
With Tae Crowder having graduated (and having been drafted, hooray for Tae), Dean has a tremendous opportunity to step into the spotlight for Georgia’s defense in 2020 and put up big numbers.
It may be the easiest comparison in terms of recency bias, but this is a linebacker built almost exactly like the beloved Roquan Smith. Aside from the obvious high level of play diagnosis capability, Nakobe Dean has a low center of gravity, hits ball carriers like a missile, and possesses the speed and instincts to drop into coverage and run alongside the opposition’s top receivers. He's patient but decisive and engages quickly once he reads the play coming at him. Basically, he's a prototypical modern ILB.
He’ll pair with rising senior Monty Rice to provide what Dawg faithful can reasonably predict will be one of the best inside linebacking duos that the Southeastern Conference has to offer in 2020.
He primarily saw action in the third-down rotation last year. Expect that to change. Look for him to be on the field for majority of the snaps in 2020.
Especially with so much upperclassmen leadership surrounding Dean and a defensive coaching staff that experienced no turnover between 2019 and 2020, it already appears that the sky’s the limit for a young player with only a single season of college ball under his belt.
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