Georgia football disrespected by ESPN’s ‘Running Back U’ list

Georgia football got disrespected by ESPN on Tuesday when it released its ‘Position U’ article. They might have given Georgia LBU, but they shunned the Dawgs in the running back category.

One thing that most college football fans know Georgia football with is its running backs and how the Dawgs always seem to have some of the most talented in the country toting the rock each week.

It can’t be easy to come up with a list of schools to rank as the best at producing players for a given position, but ESPN gave it a shot, and they failed miserably when it comes to their list of running back-heavy schools.

According to ESPN, these are the top-ten schools who can be hailed as “Running Back U”:

10: Auburn Tigers
9: Arkansas Razorbacks
8: Oregon Ducks
7: Texas Longhorns
6: Pitt Panthers
5: Miami Hurricanes
4: Oklahoma Sooners
3: LSU Tigers
2: Wisconsin Badgers
1: Alabama Crimson Tide

In the article, ESPN Stats & Information looked at all-conference performers, All-Americans, NFL draft picks, and stars from the pro ranks.

By looking at this, ESPN came up with a formula to determine the official rankings for the schools best at producing various positions.

ESPN noted in the article that it limited the debate to the BCS and College Football Playoff eras. So essentially from 1998 and on is what the report covers.

Then there is this part, which is my favorite snippet from the article, “And in the end, these programs are the best of the best at recruiting and developing elite talent and then shipping it off to stardom in the NFL.”

While I’m not surprised that Alabama made the No.1 spot because well, they’ve had a ton of running back success and deserve to be up there. With guys like Derrick Henry and Mark Ingram, I understand why they are up there.

The Dawgs did get an honorable mention from Chris Low.

"“One team surprisingly absent from the Running Back U top 10 is Georgia, which has had its share of talented runners over the years,” Chris Lowe said in the ESPN article. “In the past four years, the likes of Sony Michel, Nick Chubb and Todd Gurley have rumbled their way through Athens, but a lack of star power in the first half of the BCS era held the Dawgs back.”"

In comparison, FanSided editorial director Michael Collins had done a similar study last year, encompassing a wider view of years and with some more specific criteria. Here’s what he came up with.

That list looks a little more reasonable to your average Georgia fan (as well as some other great running back schools).

A look at the career all-time rush lists per conference

My first issue is not including all running backs, especially guys like Herschel Walker for Georgia.

Walker holds the SEC record for rushing yards with 5,259 yards.

No. 2 on the SEC career rushing yards is no other than Georgia’s Nick Chubb with 4,769 yards.

No. 18 on that list is Sony Michel with 3,613, and Todd Gurley is No. 29 with 3,285 yards.

That gives four players in the top-30 from Georgia. Alabama has six, but with Derrick Henry ranking the highest at No. 20 with 3,591 yards.

LSU has four players on the list with Kevin Faulk rushing for 4,557 yards. Arkansas has two players with Darren McFadden being No. 3 with 4,590 yards. As for Auburn, the Tigers have four backs on the list as well with Bo Jackson sitting at No. 5 with 4,303 yards.

That’s not just looking at the years that ESPN looked at either, it’s on the rankings itself.

However, then you look at the Big 10 and Wisconsin has seven on its conference career all-time rushing.

Moving onto the Big 12, Texas has four in the top 30 and Oklahoma has six on the list. Pittsburgh has one on the ACC top-30 all-time rushers, Miami has one on that same list and Oregon has three in the Pac-12 rushing record books.

So Georgia has many as most of the schools on this list, yet the Dawgs got shunned from the list.

A look at the Dawgs running game since 1998

Since ESPN decided to only look at 1998 to now, let’s look at the running backs that have been at Georgia.

The leading rushers for Georgia since 1998 are, Olandis Gary (1998), Jasper Sanks (1999), Brett Millican (2000), Verron Hayes (2001), Musa Smith (2002), Michael Cooper (2003), Thomas Brown (2004-05), Kregg Lumpkin (2006), Knowshon Moreno (2007-08), Wayshaun Ealey (2009-10), Isaiah Crowell (2011), Todd Gurley (2012-13), Nick Chubb (2014, 2016, 2017), and Sony Michel (2015).

Since 1998, there have been only four years that didn’t live up to the running back hype in the Classic City.

Nine of the 19 years I looked at resulted in at least one running back with over 1,000 yards. Seven years resulted in a running back running for at least 700 yards.

In the 19 years, I looked at there have only been three years that Georgia didn’t have a running back that wasn’t a force for the Dawgs.

The Dawgs have had six running backs make the All-SEC team, one All-American with Knowshon Moreno in 2008, and seven players to make the All-SEC Freshman Team. Georgia also had three running backs named SEC Freshman of the Year with Moreno in 2007, Gurley in 2012, and Chubb in 2014.

Since 2014, Georgia hasn’t rushed for under 1,000 yards making it five years in a row if we include 2018.

My point is that Lowe’s point that Georgia didn’t have a quality back in the first part of the BCS era is just his opinion because the Dawgs have been pretty relevant in the running back game.

It’s not just in college either as most of the guys I listed above got drafted into the NFL.

Dawg running back history in the NFL

Georgia Bulldogs Football

Since 1998 there have been 13 running backs from Georgia selected in the NFL draft.

Robert Edwards got drafted by the New England Patriots in the first round, 18th overall pick in the 1998 draft.

Gary went to the Denver Broncos in 1999 in the fourth round. New England drafted Patrick Pass, who is listed as a running back in Georgia’s media guide, during the seventh round in 2000.

The Steelers picked up Hayes in 2002 in the fifth round, J.T. Wall also went to the Steelers during the seventh round in the 2003 draft, and Smith went to the Ravens in the third round of the same draft in 2003.

In 2008, the Falcons drafted Thomas Brown in the sixth round, Moreno went to the Broncos as the 12th overall pick in the 2009 draft, and Sean Chapas got drafted by the Cowboys in the seventh round of the 2011 draft.

More recently, Gurley, of course, went to the L.A. Rams as the 10th overall pick in the 2015 draft, Keith Marshall went in the seventh round of the 2016 draft to the Washington Redskins, and the most recent Dawgs to get drafted was Chubb and Michel in 2018.

Michel went as the 31st overall pick to the New England Patriots while the Cleveland Browns took Chubb at the 35th overall pick in the second round.

While there are only four Dawgs in the NFL now, Georgia has sent quite a few backs to the next level. In all honesty, the Dawgs could count Crowell as back No. 5 in the NFL if they wanted to even though he left after one season.

Still disrespected by the college football world

Georgia might not have had as many All-Americans as some of the teams on this list or other things that ESPN decided to take into consideration, but the reasons they left the Dawgs out are terrible.

The Bulldogs send running backs to the next level, have produced and are all over the SEC All-time career rushing list. Georgia can also say that they had two starting running backs in the last Super Bowl.

However, the Dawgs still got disrespected by ESPN. Despite getting on the Linebacker U list in the same article, Georgia has a reason to be quite proud of its running backs.

ESPN might have disrespected the Dawgs, we all know that Georgia should be on this list. I didn’t even go into the recruiting aspect of this either. Since 2003 when 247Sports still has its rankings on their previous class, Georgia has recruited and signed eight 5-star and 11 4-star running backs.

In my opinion, that’s pretty impressive.

Once again, I feel like Georgia got disrespected by one of the largest sports media outlets out there. What will it take for the Dawgs to get the recognition for its running backs to be considered great?

While I don’t believe Georgia should be No. 1 on the RBU list for ESPN, I think that the Dawgs should at least be in the top five. There is no reason to leave Georgia off this list and the fact that ESPN did is the ultimate diss.