Watch Georgia commit Chaz Chambliss show why his future is bright at LB

Want to attack every day with the latest UGA football recruiting info? That’s what the Intel brings. This entry allows Dawgnation to combine a recent interview and workout featuring Bulldog commitment Chaz Chambliss with a scouting opinion from one of those most well-respected coaches and DB trainers in the Atlanta area.

As far as workouts go, it was a telling scene for Georgia commitment Chaz Chambliss.

The moment involved the 6-foot-3 and 240-pound senior to be from Carrollton High School. He already had placed himself through a three-hour workout that morning back home in his makeshift garage which serves as his fitness center.

He can bench press 365 pounds. Squat another 525. The power clean is still a robust 335 or so pounds. Global coronavirus or not. His strength levels have contained to surge.

Those gains have not stopped Chambliss from driving from Carrollton to Atlanta for the last two months to work..out..with…defensive backs. That was after a leg day, too.

The future OLB that everything thinks will be an ILB or a DE was working out with DBs. There are five minutes of video of Chambliss in the featured video slot above and below the space in this blog.

And he was looking pretty sporty doing it. Save for what might have been one dropped ball out of 15.

Those hands, his Carrollton High coaches will tell you, might be the weakest strength in his player toolbox. He’s working at improving them, though.

Chambliss is always working. Basically.

“I try to build my game around Luke Keuchley and guys like that,” Chambliss said. “Guys who aren’t necessarily the fastest guys or the most athletic but the guys who then take full advantage of what God can’t give them.”

There’s also a soundtrack of a recent DawgNation Conversation with Chambliss on that workout clip, too.

Kevin Pope, the defensive coordinator of a recent state champion Hapeville Charter Academy program, was leading those drills. There were a couple of college guys mixed in, but it there was Chambliss working on a grassy park field with high school players.

The 4-star Bulldog commit had an average of two or three inches and at least 40 pounds on everyone there.

He was working with DBs, after all. That’s just part of the reason why Pope bubbled with enthusiasm about what he had seen from Chambliss among his GRIND Atlanta training group for the last several weeks.

“Defensive end?” Pope blurted out at almost the tone of a yell.

It was more like a mocking rhetorical question.

“Defensive end?” Pope continued on. “My whistle.”

Pope may or may not have said whistle. Or perhaps it was another appendage. But the DawgNation reader will certainly get the gist of what he was trying to say.

Pope has trained at least two current Georgia Bulldogs on a daily basis during their high school careers. What he has to say on that positional topic with Chambliss is certainly worth listening to here.

“There’s nothing stopping you, man,” Pope said to all while working Chambliss in a drill. “You ain’t just a plugger. You’re a linebacker.”

“Talking about a defensive end?” he said. “You crazy. This guy is a linebacker. Outside or inside. Watch this. These people are tripping. I see it, man.”

What Kevin Pope sees for the football future of Chaz Chambliss

Chambliss as a future defensive end? There’s a lot of meat on the bone there for Pope to pick at.

“What runs counter to that is he’s able to cover in space,” Pope said. “As you can see since you were out here, you can see how he moves along. If Georgia is running a Tampa 2, he can run with the back. He can run with the middle receiver. He’s definitely getting into his thirds of the field. He can get into his drops and the flats and the curl areas and then he has tremendous explosion so he can transition from one space on the field to the next.”

Pope has read in some spots that Chambliss projects to bulk up. He’s going to get bigger. That’s not what he is saying Georgia is going to do. Chambliss told DawgNation that defensive coordinator Dan Lanning has recruited him to be an OLB. He’ll be part of that “Wolfpack” Room like the Azeez Ojularis and the Nolan Smiths in the program now.

“Anybody that wants to bulk him up to be a defensive end is making a mistake,” Pope said. “The kid can clearly be a good outside linebacker. I know he’s big and he is going to get bigger but with constant working on his agility the sky is the limit for what he can do.”

Hapeville Charter Academy defensive coordinator Kevin Pope is one of the most well-respected DB trainers in Metro Atlanta. (Jeff Sentell/DawgNation)/Dawgnation)

Chambliss came to Pope at the referral of former NFL player Derrick Witherspoon.

“He’s been a pro,” Pope said. “So he knows. He thought it would be a good idea for Chaz to start working more on his agility and there’s no better way to work on your agility than working with defensive backs.”

Pope has been working out Chambliss for approximately a month now. He’s seen the gains.

“From the first time to now, it is like light years of gain,” Pope said. “But it is not like that he wasn’t able to do those things, he just hasn’t had the ability to do that yet. When he gets out here and gets moving, he can move with the best of them. That’s’ because he’s athletic.”

Chambliss is an absolute punisher on his high school film. He pummels the ball carrier as much as tackles. He already has 69 tackles for losses and 38.5 sacks in three seasons of varsity ball. He’s forced eight fumbles.

What happens if he can add 75 percent of a defensive back’s skills to his toolbox?

“Then you are looking at a pro,” Pope said. “That’s the goal. That’s what I told him. You’d have a pro then. You’d have an all-around linebacker with the versatility of the Brian Urlachers and the Derrick Brooks we have seen. The physical on top of physical hitters, but they can cover in space. You can use them for three or four downs. He wouldn’t be coming in for certain packages anymore. Then this kid would be an every-down linebacker then. That’s our goal. We are going to get him ready for that.”

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