Salem High graduate Chris Cole has been named a preseason candidate for the Butkus Award, given to the best linebacker in college football. The following is a story by John Frierson of The Frierson Files that appeared on the University of Georgia football website.
Earnest Greene III said he and his fellow Georgia offensive linemen have a unique nickname for Bulldog linebacker Chris Cole. They call him “Tarantula.”
“We call him that because of the way he covers ground and uses his limbs, how he’s built and stuff like that,” Greene said. “As a football player, he’s a freak athlete.”
Cole has heard the nickname, and he’s fine with it.
“I’ll take it, for sure,” he said with a smile.
Cole, a 6-foot-3 and 235-pound junior from Salem, Va., has also been called “a freak athlete” more than a few times. And for good reason. He moves like a much smaller player.
“It’s crazy how fast he can run at his size,” Georgia cornerback Ellis Robinson IV said.
Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said Cole, one of the Bulldogs’ most productive defensive players last season despite starting just one game, brings a lot to the team beyond his excellent athleticism and playmaking abilities.
“There is not a player of higher character on our team than him,” Smart said. “He is the hardest worker, has the highest speeds, and has the most enthusiasm. He always lays everything on the line and embodies what we want in terms of effort and toughness. He has had an amazing offseason, and I am excited for him to go out and see how he plays for our team.”
A five-star recruit coming out of high school, Cole made the SEC All-Freshman Team in 2024 as a reserve who made 16 tackles, including two for loss, off the bench. In 14 games last season, with one start, he led Georgia with 4.5 sacks, was second on the team with 7.0 tackles for loss, and his 59 tackles ranked fourth. He was also third on the team with 21 quarterback pressures.
Cole should have an even larger role this season, one that includes more leadership as a veteran on the team.
“His leadership is what we need most,” Smart said. “He’s one of the few players that I think can sustain right now in the way he practices. He practices with such max effort that he conditions himself through practice so that the next day he can go further. He’s just like a rubber band. He just keeps expanding and he gets more elasticity as he goes and can stretch himself longer.
“We’re trying to be smart with him too because he’s playing winning football and we want to keep him healthy. Number two, we want to keep him fresh, and we want to keep the weight on him. He’s been a tremendous leader, and he works really hard. He’s one of the hardest-working guys on the team.”
You wouldn’t know it to look at him, but Cole was around 5-9 as a freshman in high school. He said his growth spurt happened as a sophomore, which changed both where and how he played on the football field.
“I was playing safety, and then they moved me to linebacker. I had never really done that my whole life, so being able to transition to that and to play in the box was definitely different,” he said.
A five-star recruit coming out of high school, Cole’s athletic excellence wasn’t limited to football. He finished fourth in the 60-meter hurdles at the 2023 Nike Indoor Nationals track meet, setting a school-record time of 8.44 seconds. He’s bigger and stronger now, but the speed is still there.
“He’s a strainer; like, he strains for everything,” Robinson said. “Every play, he’s running to the ball as fast as he can no matter if he’s tired or not.”
Cole said his focus in the offseason was simple: be a better linebacker. A big part of that was improving his pass rush. 4.5 sacks, but he wants to get to the quarterback more often this season, and make the play when he’s there.
“I feel like last year I left a lot on the table, and this year, I want to come for it all,” he said. “There were a lot of times where I had a lot of opportunities, and I basically just, like, missed the layup. I missed some tackles. This year, I’m very focused on that, and now I have experience and film I can watch to see what I could have done better.
“I just want to come for it all this year.”
Cole and the Bulldogs open their season on Sept. 5 against Tennessee State at Sanford Stadium.
