1985-1988: Tim Worley, Keith Henderson, Lars Tate and
Rodney Hampton
I debated putting the entire group on here as one entry. They all spent years without each other and they never spent an entire year together. But I thought about how the post-Herschel Walker years of the running back position at Georgia are portrayed and I realized that you can’t talk about one of the backs without talking about them all.
Statistically, Lars Tate was the best of the group. He rushed for 3,017 yards in his four-years in Athens. That included 954 yards as a junior and 1,016 yards as a senior in 1987. .
Rodney Hampton was second best, but he’s remembered most fondly by many fans. That’s probably because he went on to have a tremendous NFL career. He’s even regarded as one of the best running backs in New York Giants history. He ran for 2,668 yards and added 438 receiving yards as a Georgia Bulldog.
Keith Henderson was the last great rushing fullback for Georgia football. As a freshman, he actually led the team with 731 rushing yards. His numbers dipped in 1986 because of games he missed late in the year. But he caught 16 passes for 231 yards to for a total of 754 all-purpose yards. He missed all of 1987 and returned in 1988 to gather 691 all-purpose yards.
Tim Worley is seen as one of the biggest “what if’s” in Georgia football history. He ran for 2,038 yards with 27 touchdowns, including an astounding 17 touchdowns in 1988. He also ran for 1,216 yards that year.
After rushing for 627 yards with nine touchdowns as a freshman, him and stable-mates Tate and Henderson entered 1986 with lofty expectations. But just four games into the season, he tore his ACL so bad, that he missed the rest of 1986 and all of 1987. And then drug use derailed a promising NFL career.
Together, the four backs ran for 9,371 yards and they added another 1,626 receiving yards. Their best years together were 1985, 1987 and 1988. In 1985, Tate, Henderson and Worley combined for 2,146 total yards. In 1987, Tate and Hampton combined for 2,188 yards. And in 1988, Hampton, Worley and Henderson totaled an amazing 2,749 yards.
Along the way, the Bulldogs competed for the SEC Championship and were never more than a game out of first place in the conference.