Georgia football: 30 greatest players of the Mark Richt era
By John Buhler
- First-Team All-SEC (2014)
- SEC Freshman of the Year (2014)
- Second all-time in rushing yards at Georgia
Nick Chubb is one of the greatest players in Georgia football history. However, he only comes in at No. 14 on this list due to him only playing roughly 1.5 seasons under former Bulldogs head coach Mark Richt.
Along with fellow five-star recruit Sony Michel, the Bulldogs backfield was absolutely stacked heading into the 2014 NCAA season. Todd Gurley was a Heisman Trophy contender, Keith Marshall was a former five-star recruit himself and both Chubb and Michel were ready to go to work in that high-octane Georgia offense.
Initially, Chubb was used as a change of pace back late in games to spell Gurley. However, that all changed when Gurley was suspended for four games in the middle of the season due to an autograph scandal. In the middle of October, Chubb would assume the starting job in the Georgia backfield against what would be the eventual SEC East champion Missouri Tigers.
He would go on to rush for over 100 yards in Georgia’s final eight games that season. Chubb would be named First-Team All-SEC and SEC Freshman of the Year in 2014, as he rushed for 1,547 yards on 219 carries for 14 touchdowns. This was the second best rushing season by a freshman after only Herschel Walker’s once-in-a-lifetime 1980 campaign.
After winning the 2014 Belk Bowl MVP, Chubb too was garnering his own Heisman buzz. Gurley may have returned in mid-November, but would tear his ACL in a home win versus the Auburn Tigers. That would be the last game Gurley played for the Dawgs.
2015 was a year of great expectations for the Dawgs. With Virginia Cavaliers graduate transfer Greyson Lambert winning the starting quarterback job late in the summer, it was Chubb, and Michel’s offense that fall. Unfortunately, Chubb would tear his ACL on his first carry on the road against the Tennessee Volunteers in Knoxville. He finished with 747 rushing yards on 92 carries for seven touchdowns in 2015.
Though he would return and have two more 1,000-yard rushing seasons at Georgia in 2016 and 2017, those seasons would be under a different head coach in Kirby Smart. Richt would be fired after the Georgia Tech game in 2015 before eventually taking over at his alma at the University of Miami.
Overall, Chubb became the second leading rusher in Georgia football history behind only the iconic Walker with 4,769 yards on 758 carries for 44 touchdowns. Chubb was taken in the early second round of the 2018 NFL Draft by the Cleveland Browns. While it will be interesting to see what he does in Cleveland, Chubb is football royalty in the eyes of Dawg Nation already.