ATHENS — Trevor Etienne was one of the heroes of Georgia’s 30-15 win over Texas earlier this season. The junior running back ran for 87 yards and 3 touchdowns.

But Etienne has missed the previous three games with a rib injury. And head coach Kirby Smart did not paint a positive picture as far as Etienne’s status for this week’s game against the Longhorns.

“You know, Trevor’s a ways away,” Smart said on a conference call with reporters. “I still don’t know because we haven’t even seen those guys. He wasn’t really close to playing last week. So I don’t know how that’s going to play out.”

Etienne had been the team’s leading rusher before exiting the Florida game with a rib injury. He returned to play against Ole Miss but he been absent since.

Nate Frazier has stepped up as the team’s leading running back. On the season, Frazier has 587 rushing yards and 8 touchdowns, leading the team in both categories. Frazier had 50 rushing yards against Tech while adding a touchdown and the game-winning 2-point conversion.

“Nate’s playing really hard,” Smart said. “He’s growing up. I don’t see him as a freshman anymore and we’ve got to keep getting everybody ready.”

Etienne isn’t the only Georgia running back dealing with an injury at the moment. Branson Robinson has been out since the Mississippi State game with a knee injury. Roderick Robinson did return to action on Friday after missing the previous 11 games with a toe injury.

He had 3 rushing yards on 4 carries but did add 34 receiving yards. Cash Jones also played a big role for Georgia on Saturday, catching 4 passes for a team-high 53 yards and a touchdown for the Bulldogs.

Overall, Smart has not been happy with where the Georgia rushing offense has been. Much of that is due to the injury situation of both the running backs and the offensive line. Starting left tackle Earnest Greene has missed the last three games with a shoulder/arm injury. Micah Morris, Jared Wilson and Tate Ratledge have all missed multiple games as well this season due to injury.

“Well, our running game is not where it’s needed to be,” Smart said. “I can promise you that, but there’s a lot of combinations and parts of that. I mean, we’ve had a dang merry-go-round offensive line year. I’ve never been around a group that’s had to change lineups, especially in practice. I mean, we’ve had probably five starters miss entire weeks of practice and it hasn’t always equated to game time, but it equates to game playing ability.

“So that’s one of the biggest things that we’ve struggled with is just staying healthy on the offensive line and that would help our run game some, not to mention being healthy at running back would help some.”

Georgia will need to generate some positive running plays against a stout Texas front. The Longhorns rank first in the country in yards per play allowed. They also intercepted Georgia quarterback Carson Beck three times in the first meeting between the two teams in Austin.

Georgia did get the benefit of an extra day of rest, as it took on Georgia Tech on Friday night. The Bulldogs will return to practice on Monday ahead of Saturday’s game against Texas.

The 2024 SEC Championship Game is set for a 4 p.m. ET start on ABC.

Georgia football injury report for SEC Championship game