ATHENS — If there’s one certainty about Georgia’s opening football games with Marshall and Austin Peay, it’s that the Bulldogs will run the football.

That’s why it could be big news that Rod Robinson ll, a 6-foot-1, 235-pound hammer, has appeared healthy and ready to impact the offense this season like many thought he might last year before a turf toe injury sidelined him until the final regular-season game.

Remember when Robinson had 7 carries for 70 yards in the 63-3 win over Florida State in the Orange Bowl?

Or, better yet, when he was seen moving the pile in the 2024 G-Day Game against a Georgia front-line defensive unit?

Kirby Smart surely hasn’t forgotten, and that’s why with Robinson’s return to health in question after last season — Robinson had what Smart said was “ankle repair” and missed spring — UGA signed Illinois tailback Josh McCray out of the transfer portal.

McCray, a 23-year-old 240-pound bruiser, was not up to speed at the start of fall camp, however, and Robinson has apparently seized the moment to resurrect himself as a factor.

A long, physical season awaits the Bulldogs, so a deep, healthy backfield is likely a must for UGA to accomplish its season goals.

Georgia fans know that pounding the rock effectively serves to wear down opponents physically and mentally, in addition to the practicality of setting up the play-action pass.

Smart is not one to give away secrets, but he openly declared in the spring that Georgia’s offense would start with the ground game, and offensive coordinator Mike Bobo doubled down this fall by saying the offense would run through the ground game.

Todd Monken, the celebrated offensive coordinator now with Baltimore who helped Georgia win two national titles calling plays, had the same mentality on the run game.

3 key takeaways from Todd Monken’s 2022 UGA offensive preview

“You can have a bunch of statistics that make it look better and make you feel better, but if you can’t run the ball comfortably you can’t win the game,” Monken said entering the 2022 season.

The year before, Monken said “your ability to run the football (and) put the defense in run/pass conflicts is the number one way to get explosive (plays), either hitting open space in the intermedia level or over the top.”

RELATED: Todd Monken explains keys to explosive Georgia offense after taking OC job

It’s important to qualify Monken’s success by noting Georgia had legendary defenses providing a margin for error, and future NFL stars Brock Bowers, Ladd McConkey and James Cook keying explosive plays when Stetson Bennett wasn’t scrambling or connecting in the clutch.

But this UGA team has plenty of talent for the formula to apply, and that’s why Smart had a similar, blunt message in a recent interview, saying “We need to have a great run game to help our quarterback, relieve third-and-longs, feature backs and then utilize play-action.”

That’s where the UGA offensive game plan will start, and now it seems Georgia has a deep enough stable of backs to bring that concept to fruition.

Nate Frazier is an explosive 205-pound sophomore tailback who, with the benefit of spring drills — he reported late last summer — is running with more authority and, presumably, better ball security and pass blocking fundamentals.

Then there’s 225-pound redshirt freshman Chauncey Bowens, who impressed onlookers in the opening scrimmage with his running skills.

Bo Walker, a 210-pound true freshman, showed promise in the spring, and versatile veteran Cash Jones is back to provide a proven receiving threat or change-of-pace runner out of the backfield.

To be clear, this running back stable might not match the best rotations Smart has had — visions of the 2017 rotation of Nick Chubb, Sony Michel, D’Andre Swift, Elijah Holyfield and Brian Herrien come to mind.

But this season’s offense might have a similar mentality to the 2017 unit, and with Gunner Stockton adding the potential for more of a run element at quarterback along with better receivers and tight ends than Jake Fromm had to work with his freshman season.

It is a certainty the Georgia run game will improve from a season ago, when injuries in the backfield and offensive line led to the Bulldogs averaging a paltry 124.4 yards per game on the ground.

In addition to the offensive injuries last season, UGA’s defense had its share of injuries and depth issues up front at the start of the 2024 campaign, struggling to stop the run, force turnovers or create advantageous field position.

This season’s defense has a different look about it, and while perhaps not yet at the 2021 or 2022 standard — there’s only one Jalen Carter — it looks plenty capable of stopping the run and making three-and-outs a more common theme.

Further, for all the talk and concern about Georgia’s pass game — to an extent, warranted — the key to ultimately unlocking its success is the run game.

The head coach’s take on the second scrimmage this week will be interesting, with young receivers continuing to emerge and quarterbacks ironing out the sort of wrinkles that disrupt a consistent air attack.

But the biggest factor to another championship season — beyond returning to more dominant offensive and defensive line play — is Georgia moving to return to its “RBU” ways.

Georgia rushing / SEC rank

(Kirby Smart Era)

2024 124.4 (15th)

2023 191.2 (3rd)

2022 205.3 (4th)

2021 190.9 (6th)

2020 174.2 (5th)

2019 185.1 (5th)

2018 238.8 (1st)

2017 258.4 (1st)

2016 191.2 (9th)