UGA Football: Why the Bulldogs will win the SEC East again in 2020
By Eric Taylor
Zamir White front and center of running back stable
Georgia’s running back group is one of the best in the country, coming in at No. 4 on Athlon Sports’ unit rankings. It has now been two years since Zamir White redshirted his freshmen year due to a second ACL tear in two years. White is ready to show he is the same running back that 247Sports Composite ranked the No. 1 running back of 2018.
White ran the ball 78 times for 408 yards with three touchdowns last season. With D’Andre Swift going to the NFL, White is looking to be the starting running back this season. White led all returning running backs in yards after contact with 244, average yards after contact with 3.13, and broken tackles with 26, according to Secstatcat.com.
Kenny McIntosh ran the ball 25 times for 174 yards and two touchdowns last season. McIntosh led all returning runners in yards per rush with an average of 6.96 and also average yards before contact with 5.2 a rush. McIntosh’s 130 yards before contact were second on to White’s 151. A vast majority of McIntosh’s yards came before contact, in fact (74.71-percent).
James Cook is by far the most explosive running back returning, 19.35% of Cook’s runs went for explosive runs (ten or more yards). Cook ran the ball just 31 times last season, but he ran for 188 yards and two touchdowns. However, Cook also led all returning running backs in negative run percentage with 12.9% of his runs going for a loss of yards.
Georgia signed two running backs in the 2020 recruiting cycle. (Rankings from 247Sports Composite).
- Kendall Milton: No. 7 sunning back
- Daijun Edwards. No. 21 running back
With all this firepower and an offensive coordinator like Todd Munken, there is nothing this offense can’t achieve. This offense should be able to score with anyone. An expectation of 40 points a game shouldn’t be unrealistic. The matchups that Monken can exploit could make Georgia unstoppable. Time will tell, but Georgia could have the best offense in the SEC this season.