Amid all of the excitement of Georgia football’s victory over Notre Dame last Saturday night, a few questions still bounced around the collective minds of Dawg fans. One such question was, “Where was Zeus?”
After playing in each Georgia football games thus far, redshirt freshman Zamir “Zeus” White was inconspicuously absent from the game against the Fighting Irish.
White appeared in the previous three games with five, eight, and six carries, respectively. He has rushed for a total of 141 yards and two touchdowns on the season while averaging a strong 7.4 yards per carry.
The highest-ranked running back from the class of 2018 tore his ACL in his right knee late in White’s senior season of high school. Then, after a tremendous recovery during the spring and summer of 2018, he tore the ACL in his left knee just before the start of his freshman season in Athens.
After the rough start to his college football career, his hard work and determination made him an instant fan favorite in Athens.
His first carry against Vanderbilt in the season opener got met with a thunderous. “Zeussssss” from the Bulldog faithful. And fans have been chomping at the bit for more and more White.
The presence of Heisman hopeful D’Andre Swift makes Zeus more of a luxury in 2019 rather than a necessity.
That should be viewed as a great scenario. But there is still a part of us as fans that want to see Zeus get his share of carries every game too. There’s no such thing as too much of a good thing, right?
Kirby Smart got asked about Zeus’ absence in his Tuesday presser during the bye week, and he responded in a way I think we can all take solace:
"“Flow of the game. We didn’t get many opportunities,” Smart said. “If No. 7 is running the ball like he was running, it’s hard to give the ball to anybody {else}. We want to give Zamir the ball and we need to. He’s growing. He’s getting better. He had two of the best blitz pickups I saw out there today.”"
As much as we want to see White smash through our mammoth offensive line, the fact is that he is on the depth chart behind one of the best running backs in the country in Swift and a senior in Brian Herrien that has earned every carry he gets.
For now, we will have to relish the carries that Zeus gets and watch him just get better and better.
What does all of this mean for the Tennessee game? To start with, Georgia opens as a 22 point favorite over the Vols. If Vegas is right on this one, Swift and Herrien will likely see their second half participation decrease from the Notre Dame game. That opens the door for Zeus.
We also have to take Smart at his word that he wants and needs to get White more involved. Though we have two running backs that are running at a high level, and another in James Cook that has proven to be explosive, the Bulldogs’ competition is going to take a big step up in November.
I think it is in Georgia’s best interest to have every back in the stable performing at a high level.
Further, the more we use Zeus in games that are projected to be lopsided, the more tread we keep on the tires of Swift. If we want to reach our goals of being SEC champions and a playoff team, we need Swift to have some fuel left in the tank in late November and early December.
Finally, I think the work he has done in pass protection has earned the trust of the coaches. He had a devastating block in the Murray State game on a blitzing linebacker, and Smart raved about his blocking just this past week.
We all know how much Smart likes backs and receivers that can block.
If you add all of this up, I think we see him get close to, or more than, his season-high for carries this Saturday.
I predict he’ll find the end zone at least once and Neyland Stadium will learn the name “Zeussss” by the end of the 3rd quarter. Am I being too optimistic or do you think we get to see Zeus toting the rock again in Knoxville this weekend?