ATHENS — Kirby Smart has been very complimentary of Nate Frazier of late.
When asked to identify areas where Georgia has gotten better since the team’s win over Texas, Smart singled out Frazier for his efforts.
“I thought that Nate Frazier’s improved a lot during that time,” Smart said. “He’s gotten better.”
There’s a good chance now we see just how much better the freshman running back has gotten given the state of Georgia’s running back room against Tennessee.
The Bulldogs will once again be without Branson Robinson and Roderick Robinson, as they were ruled out for the game against Tennessee.
On Wednesday, Georgia listed running back Trevor Etienne as questionable. He has been limited to just 13 carries in Georgia’s last two games as he battles a rib injury.
A new name to the injury report was Cash Jones, as he was also listed as questionable. Jones was spotted in a walking boot on Tuesday evening. Jones had 4 carries for -3 yards in the game against Ole Miss, but he also had the longest play of the day for Georgia as he pulled down a 32-yard reception. In the last two games, Jones has 6 receptions for 70 yards.
Even if Jones and Etienne are able to play, Georgia’s running back room is not a strength at the moment. The only healthy running backs per the availability report are freshmen.
Frazier has been the most productive of the bunch this season, rushing for 333 yards on 72 carries. He does have rushing touchdowns in each of Georgia’s last two games.
“Nate is just, he’s so shifty. He’s just like a -- I call him a little gnat,” center Jared Wilson said of Frazier prior to the Ole Miss game. “He’s just like [motions like a gnat flying]. But, yeah, he’s a really good player. He hits the holes hard, he runs hard. He’s emotional, he cares about us, and he cares about the team, so, you know, he did a really good job in the second half.”
But Frazier did fumble the ball twice against Ole Miss. If he’s going to be the lead running back, that simply cannot happen.
“I thought Nate did a really good job. Unfortunately, he had a turnover, but he ran the ball really hard,” Smart said of Frazier after the Ole Miss game. “We talked all week about how they go after the ball.”
Georgia could get creative at running back this week, with the Bulldogs possibly giving Dillon Bell some extra carries. Bell filled in at running back last year when depth was an issue for Georgia early in the season. On the year, Bell does have 7 carries for 104 yards and a touchdown.
The only issue with moving Bell to running back would be that Georgia is also thin at wide receiver at the moment. Georgia only played four wide receivers in the loss against Ole Miss. The Bulldogs could possibly get Anthony Evans back as he is listed as questionable with a hamstring injury.
Georgia did recently give running back Dwight Phillips Jr. a carry in the win over Florida. He turned that into a touchdown, the first of his career.
“He can do some more things. He’s a bright kid. He’s smart, really smart,” Smart said prior to the Ole Miss game. “I mean, he’s a kid that’s getting better with each and every day, and he’s growing a lot. He wasn’t here in the spring, so he didn’t get to go through spring, and he hasn’t played in an offense quite this style, so he’s growing. What’s crazy is you tell him something once, and he remembers it, and he does a good job of learning it.”
Chauncey Bowens has 6 carries for 20 yards on the season but he has not logged a carry since Georgia’s win over Tennessee Tech.
Georgia is already one of the worst rushing teams in the league, as the Bulldogs rank next-to-last in carries and yards per game. On Saturday, they’ll face a Tennessee defense that ranks No. 9 in rush defense.
And they’ll be doing so without its complete complement of running backs.
“Our identity here for so long has been to run the ball and we just weren’t able to that tonight,” quarterback Carson Beck said. “And maybe whenever that happens, I got to step up and we got to make some explosive plays in the pass game or maybe I got to start making some plays on the ground.”