Georgia Tech could be, at best, six players deep at linebacker next season.
The Yellow Jackets have a strong, versatile and veteran group in the middle of their defense. It’s a group led by two-year starter Kyle Efford and bolstered by the addition of two transfers over the offseason.
Efford (6-foot-2, 230 pounds) led Tech in tackles in 2024 for the second consecutive season despite missing three games because of a shoulder injury, an injury that required offseason surgery. The Dacula High School graduate goes into 2025 with 146 career tackles in 27 games while having logged more than 800 snaps.
He is flanked by E.J. Lightsey, a 6-foot-2, 230-pound junior who began his career at Georgia. Lightsey missed four games early in the 2024 season, but came on strong toward the end and finished as the team’s third-best tackler, according to Pro Football Focus, among players with 150 plays.
Lightsey also was one of the team’s top-graded players in the Birmingham Bowl loss to Vanderbilt.
The Efford-Lightsey duo tops the two-deep depth chart on paper. Tech’s first-year linebackers coach Darius Eubanks said, however, there really isn’t any pecking order at this point in spring practice.
“Right now there are no 1s and 2s. I mix and match, and I throw guys out there,” Eubanks said. “I want everybody feeling comfortable playing with everybody else. But also, now, you’re developing everybody, not just the guys who you may say is your 1s. If we get five guys I think we can go out there and win with? Let’s use all five guys, that way you have fresher bodies. That way you’re out there flying around, swarming to the ball, tackling, executing at a high level.”
Tech also returns senior Jackson Hamilton (6-0, 230), a Louisville transfer who made 26 tackles in 13 games in his first season with the Jackets last year, and sophomore Tah’j Butler (6-1, 230). Butler played all 13 games in 2024 as a freshman and recorded 25 stops.
For some added depth, Tech brought in former Oregon State linebacker Melvin Jordan IV (5-11, 225) and former Tennessee Tech linebacker Cayman Spaulding (6-0, 190). Jordan made 67 stops in two seasons with the Beavers and was OSU’s second-best rated defender in 2024, according to Pro Football Focus.
Spaulding, a Miller Grove High School graduate, had a breakout season for Tennessee Tech by making 66 tackles (11.5 for a loss) and three sacks. Tech coach Brent Key lauded Spalding’s play during Saturday’s scrimmage.
“Both those guys are flashing. Both of ‘em have played a lot of ball where they came from, their previous schools,” Lightsey said of Jordan and Spaulding. “(Jordan) doing very good at the Mike position. He kind of can play any position you put him at. (Spaulding is) very versatile, very athletic. He’s been flashing also. He just hit, like, 22 miles per hour in the workout this spring. So both those guys have been showing pretty good flashes, and I’m excited to see what the future holds for them.”
Last season, Tech played five different linebackers at least 190 snaps The group included Trenilyas Tatum who exhausted his eligibility in December. That will continue to be the expectation in 2025, to rotate multiple linebackers, for Eubanks and first-year defensive coordinator Blake Gideon.
“I just want each guy to get comfortable working with each other. There’s really no certain design. I mix it up by whatever period we’re in or whatever rack we’re in within that period just to get him comfortable,” Eubanks added. “It’s a long season. I’m not gonna try to develop a guy in one week when he gets moved up. It starts now so when the season starts, we’re all hitting in stride.”
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