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Georgia linebacker CJ Allen is a finalist for the Butkus Award

On3 imageby: Jake Rowe14 hours agoJakeMRowe

While Georgia inside linebacker CJ Allen‘s status for Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate with Georgia Tech remains up in the air, he is now the eighth Bulldog in the past 16 years to be named a finalist for the Butkus Award. He has a chance to be the fourth UGA linebacker to win that award under Kirby Smart and 10th-year inside linebacker’s coach Glenn Schumann.

Allen, despite missing the last six quarters of football, is Georgia’s leading tackler. He has amassed 78 total stops (40 solo) on the year and leads the team in tackles for loss with seven. He also has 3.5 sacks, three pass breakups, and two forced fumbles in his third season as a major contributor and his second as a full time starter.

Georgia hybrid linebacker Jalon Walker won the Butkus Award, which goes annually to the nation’s top linebacker, last season. Walker was a first-round pick of the Atlanta Falcons in the 2025 NFL Draft and served as both an off-ball linebacker and an edge rusher at Georgia.

Dating back to 2010, seven Georgia linebackers have been finalists for the award. Justin Houston got it started in 2010. Jarvis Jones was a finalist twice, 2011 and 2012, and Leonard Floyd made the cut in 2015. In the Smart era, Monty Rice (2020) and Jamon Dumas-Johnson (2022), have also been finalists.

When it comes to winners, Walker is joined by Roquan Smith, who became the first Georgia player to ever win the award in 2017. Nakobe Dean also won it in 2021.

It’s not the only late-season accolade for Allen, who sustained a knee injury in the second quarter of Georgia’s 35-10 beatdown of Texas. He’s a finalist for the Lott IMPACT Trophy and a semifinalist for the Bednarik Award and the Jason Witten Collegiate Man of the Year Award.

Georgia will take on Georgia Tech on Friday, November 28, in the Invesco QQQ Atlanta Gridiron Classic. Kickoff is set for 3:30 p.m. ET on ABC.

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