UGA basketball coach tweets support after Eliljah Holyfield’s rough day
What’s that saying? You only know who your true friends are … when times are tough.
It looks like UGA basketball coach Tom Crean and former Bulldogs running back Elijah Holyfield are true friends.
Holyfield had a rough day at Friday’s NFL combine, running two of the slowest times in the 40-yard dash among all running backs. More than that, Holyfield’s 40 times went viral with some “means tweets” like THIS and THAT and THIS. Hopefully, Holyfield stayed off Twitter.
On Friday night, as the Holyfield bashing continued on social, UGA’s basketball’s coach felt the need to tweet in support of the running back:
Maybe Crean can put in a good word for Holyfield with his brother-in-law? That would be John Harbaugh, head coach of the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens.
I know I haven’t been at @universityofga that long yet but one thing I do know is that I would never bet against @EH_taught_me becoming a tremendous @NFL running back. There is no timing device for how big his heart and toughness are. Unreal worker
— Tom Crean (@TomCrean) March 1, 2019
What about Bulldogs football coach Kirby Smart? He retweeted a video showing Holyfield do 26 reps of 225 pounds in the bench press – one of the top performances by running backs at Friday’s NFL Combine. However, Smart didn’t personally tweet any of his own comments about Holyfield – which is completely understandable because Smart has nine of his players at this event, and then he may feel pressured to say something positive when any of them did not meet expectations in any certain test or measurement. That’s asking a lot.
Back to Holyfield: The 40 time will almost certainly drop his draft stock, but Holyfield has a chance to redeem himself in the 40 at UGA’s Pro Day later this month.
On Friday after the 40 time, many people on Twitter wondered aloud about Holyfield’s decision to turn pro early. I’ll admit, I was initially surprised with that decision. He exploded for 1,018 yards after rushing for a total of 322 total yards combined in his first two season.
On the flip side, would Holyfield get as many carries next with the looming emergence of Zamir White, along with incoming signee Kenny McIntosh? Probably not.
Ultimately, I reached the conclusion that it was a good decision because … Holyfield obviously felt like it was the best decision for him.
Football takes a physical toll on the body, especially the running backs. If you watched Holyfield play, you know that most of his carries were between the tackles, where there was a lot of banging and bruising.
Who knows? Whatever the case, best of luck to Holyfield and his NFL dreams.
