Georgia Football’s Hundred Year Flood
Oct 10, 2015; Knoxville, TN, USA; Georgia Bulldogs running back Nick Chubb (27) on the sideline during the second half after being injured against the Tennessee Volunteers at Neyland Stadium. Tennessee won 38-31. Mandatory Credit: Jim Brown-USA TODAY Sports
Running Back
It happened courtesy of a 100 year confluence of bad luck and, probably, bad decisions, all effecting the offensive side of the ball.
In 2012, Todd Gurley and Keith Marshall came to Georgia and Georgia seemed set for at least three years at tailback. Then Assistant Coach Bryan McClendon enticed Sony Michel and Nick Chubb to Athens in 2014 as well. The Dawgs were set. Tailback U was back.
Since 2012, Georgia lost Gurley for half a season and then to the NFL, Marshall was just plain lost, Chubb was lost to injury and Michel lost for large portions of individual games and, when he can play, is hampered by injury. A stunning turn of events.
Wide Receiver
Georgia Bulldogs
At wide receiver, Georgia was caught short. Still, losing
for the entire season and McKenzie for the bulk of the season leaves the Dawgs playing without two of its top three wide receivers. Return Scott-Wesley and McKenzie to the field and back them up with the talented
and the capable
while returning
to less regular duty, and Georgia is fine at wide receiver.
The current wide receiver circumstance would hamper any team. But for a team struggling at quarterback, the events were devastating.
Quarterback
How could the program that recruited DJ Shockley, Mathew Stafford, Aaron Murray, and even Zack Mettenburger, that saw the spark in Hutson Mason and snatched him up late in the recruiting process, whiff at quarterback on three straight recruiting cycles? Did Offensive Coordinator Mike Bobo and Head Coach Mark Richt wake up quarterback dumb one morning?
Brice Ramsey, Jacob Park, and Christian LeMay were all highly touted – the best of the best, the elite. Two of the three are gone and one works as a punter. (It’s an ill wind that blows no good and the Ramsey move to punter appears to be a positive by-product of this disastrous season.) The reasons for the quarterback misjudgements matter not, however. That the occurrence is remarkable means nothing. It is only devastating.
The quarterback failures and the running back and wide receiver deficits have not just come together, but chose to appear at exactly the worst time.
Next: Opportunity: One Door Closes, Another Door Closes