ATHENS — We interrupt all this quarterback talk to bring you this news bulletin: Georgia has some pretty good tailbacks.
The Bulldogs go four deep at the position with players who have collegiate starts at that position, most notably Nick Chubb, a nearly 1,600-yard rusher as a freshman. Sony Michel, Keith Marshall and Brendan Douglas — two, three and four on the depth chart — have all started games at Georgia. And scholarship tailbacks A.J. Turman and Tae Crowder round out the group.
By all indications, those guys were the stars of Thursday’s scrimmage at Sanford Stadium. Sony Michel had a touchdown run of “more than 50 yards,” according to coach Mark Richt.
Chubb also was “very solid,” Richt said. “There wasn’t a whole lot of space for him today. He earned everything he got.”
That led to an interesting discussion for the coming season. How exactly might the carry distribution look? Richt addressed it as best he could.
“Going by percentages, it’s hard to say,” he said. “Nick would get the most. Sony would probably get the next-most. And I would say Keith and Brendan have both played very well. I’d say they have both earned the right to be the third guy. I’m not exactly sure how we would do that, but Keith as of right now would probably be the third guy and Brendan the fourth. But really both those guys have proved to be game ready to me.”
No matter who is running the football, Richt couldn’t hide his enthusiasm for the offensive possibilities considering how well he expects the offensive line to play.
“The No. 1 unit I think has had a really nice camp,” Richt said. “… When you have a veteran line and you have linemen playing well. If space is created for backs, all backs tend to run well with space. QBs tend to play better when they’ve got a nice pocket. I think we’ll see some good pockets; I think we’ll see some good space in the running game. So whoever is the quarterback is going to benefit from that most of the time.”
