georgia football running backs transfer portal

ATHENS — Very little went according to plan for the Georgia running back room this spring. Kendall Milton and Daijun Edwards both dealt with hamstring injuries. Only the latter was able to play on G-Day, as Edwards registered five total touches for 19 yards.

Andrew Paul didn’t play either, with the redshirt freshman continuing to rehab from a torn ACL he suffered last August.

“We feel really good about him coming back healthy, and it’s going to be like his freshman year because he really didn’t get that so he’ll be behind,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said.

Branson Robinson by all accounts had a great spring. But we didn’t see him on G-Day as he suffered an injury that saw him wearing a walking boot on his right foot. The full severity of said injury is still unknown.

Freshman running back Roderick Robinson was the only one of Georgia’s five scholarship running backs to get through spring practice without picking up or dealing with any sort of injury. He led all rushers on G-day, totaling 42 yards on 11 carries. He also reeled in three receptions for 24 yards.

“Roderick Robinson had a good day today,” Smart said. “He’s a different kind of back, but he catches the ball coming out of the backfield. He’s big and physical. Guys don’t like tackling him.”

Despite the litany of setbacks this spring, Smart still likes where his running group sits. Even with the transfer portal opening up.

“So we have a good group of backs,” Smart said. “I feel really confident about the group we have.”

Robinson was the lone running back addition this offseason. Georgia saw Kenny McIntosh depart for the NFL, bringing his pass-catching excellence with him. That might be the biggest missing attribute from this current group of backs. Edwards, Milton and Branson Robinson have a combined 26 career receptions. Mcintosh by himself had 43 last season.

The transfer portal is open from now through April 30. But Georgia isn’t exactly in a position right now to add to its roster, as the Bulldogs are unofficially over the scholarship limit. As of this writing, the unofficial DawgNation count has Georgia at 88 scholarship players. That number will need to be at 85 by the start of the season and even lower in the event that Georgia would want to add a player.

Furthermore, the three transfer players Georgia brought in this offseason all came from SEC programs. At this point in the offseason calendar, Georgia cannot add a player from another SEC school without a waiver. And it does not seem like the SEC would be willing to hand those out.

For all the concerns about the running back position, none of the injuries are expected to carry into fall camp. All five players are expected to be fully cleared by the time fall camp rolls around at the beginning of August.

Georgia spring games rarely accentuate running backs. In 2017, Nick Chubb had zero carries before rushing for 1,345 yards that fall. The bigger concern with this group has been its ability to stay healthy throughout the 15 spring practices, especially knowing Georgia will in the physical SEC this fall.

Smart still feels good publicly about the state of his running back room. And Georgia not adding a possible player via the transfer portal would only further cement that thinking.

“We’ve got a lot of guys who have benefitted from the portal and I hope we benefit from the portal,” Smart said. “We had a couple guys out there today that came by way of the portal that made really good plays. It’s the climate we’re in and we’ll do the best we can to capitalize on it. But I’m very pleased with what we’ve got on our team and our roster. It’s not a way we’re going to build a team by any means.”

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