It's a question Georgia's inside linebackers have been asked since January, so why should early August be any different?
How are you going to replace Roquan Smith?
"It's easy," Juwan Taylor told reporters following Monday's practice. "Everybody has their own type of game."
Taylor, a 6-foot-1, 218-pound senior from Hollywood, Florida, became the first Georgia inside linebacker to address the subject during preseason camp, and it's highly likely that he will not be the last. Smith is the only linebacker in Bulldogs history to win the Butkus Award, racking up 137 tackles and 14 sacks for last year's Southeastern Conference champions.
Smith was the No. 8 selection of the NFL draft in April, tabbed by the Chicago Bears, and Georgia third-year coach Kirby Smart has been preaching since that no individual player or players should expect to replace him.
"This group doesn't have to try to be Roquan," Smart said last month at SEC Media Days. "They have to be the best them that they can be."
Georgia's inside linebacker contingent so far this month has consisted of Taylor and fellow senior Natrez Patrick, junior Tae Crowder, sophomores Monty Rice and Nate McBride and true freshmen Channing Tindall and Quay Walker. Patrick has the most experience, having made 18 career starts in 30 total games and having collected 35 career tackles and 2.5 tackles for loss.
Patrick also has endured multiple marijuana-related arrests during his career at Georgia, which resulted in him missing six games last season. It is not publicly known whether the 6-3, 242-pounder from Atlanta will have to miss any games next month.
Taylor's one career start was in last October's 45-14 win at Vanderbilt. He made 13 tackles and a tackle for loss last season.
"Every day is providing great competition for us," Taylor said. "We rotate every day to get different feels of who we're paired with to really get that chemistry, whether it's me and Natrez or me and Monty. One day I'm with the ones, and the next day I'm with the twos.
"We're just trying to get a good chemistry."
Rice also earned a start last season, against Missouri, and finished the year with 22 tackles and two tackles for loss.
Crowder arrived in Athens in 2015 as a running back without much fanfare, and he switched to inside linebacker midway through the 2016 season. He had seven tackles last season and made his most memorable play in the Rose Bowl by snagging an Oklahoma squib kick just before halftime that helped enable the Bulldogs to use a 55-yard Rodrigo Blankenship field goal at the halftime horn to pull within 31-17 in their eventual 54-48 win in double-overtime.
"Everybody we have is physical," Taylor said. "Everybody we have is willing to strike."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.