Weekly Top 10: Greatest running backs in Georgia football history
9. Kevin McLee
Nowadays Georgia fans hear running back U, and they begin to think of Herschel Walker, Garrison Hearst, Todd Gurley, or the aforementioned Lars Tate. But when did Georgia football become running back U?
To answer that, look no further than five years before Walker arrived in Athens at a player named Kevin McLee.
Before McLee, Georgia had some great running backs. Glynn Harrison was the returning starter when McLee became a sophomore in 1975. He was coming off a 959 yards season in 1974. Before that, Jimmy Poulos rushed for 702 yards in 1973. And one could argue that Andy Johnson got Georgia’s running game going on the trajectory they are now with an 870-yard year in 1971.
But one thing Georgia had lacked was a 1,000 yards rusher. Back in those days, stats from bowl games didn’t count towards season or career stats and you only played 10 or 11 regular season games a year. So rushing for 1,000 yards in the 1970’s and 1980’s meant a lot more than it does now.
In 1975, McLee split time with Glynn Harrison. Harrison led the team with 894 yards, but McLee wasn’t far behind with 806 yards. McLee actually had more touchdowns (10) than Harrison (5).
But in 1976, McLee took over as the lone star in Georgia’s backfield and he finally accomplished what so many other great Bulldogs before him could not, rush for 1,000 yards. 1,058 to be exact with six touchdowns.
His 218 carries was also the most for a Georgia Bulldog running back at that point. Before him, no one had ever had more than 200 carries in a season as a Bulldog
Mclee also led Georgia to their best season of the 1970’s. The Bulldogs finished 10-2 and won the SEC Championship.
McLee would not repeat however. In 1977, Willie McClendon became a junior and split carries with McLee. They both rushed for over 700 yards that year, McLee had 717 yards with five touchdowns.
After three years, McLee graduated with the most rushing yards in school history with 2,581. He also had 21 career touchdowns. He wasn’t the first great Georgia running back, but the tradition of Georgia always having a great running back on the team began with Kevin Mclee.