This Sentell’s Intel rep on Georgia football recruiting begins a series in which we examine what the Georgia staff feels are the ideal qualities to play each position in Athens. We’ll start with still perhaps the most glorified of all positions in Athens. That’s running back.
Todd Gurley. Nick Chubb. Sony Michel. D’Andre Swift. James Cook. Zamir White.
Those big RB names have all captured the UGA spotlight since 2014. That’s just for the elite national prospects whose football memories don’t go far enough to remember Gurley steamrolling the NFL in his prime.
The national reputation of the RB position at Georgia remains strong. The Dawgs don’t even have to go back to NFL notables like Terrell Davis, Robert Edwards, Rodney Hampton, Garrison Hearst, Knowshon Moreno and the great Herschel Walker
Georgia was actually led in rushing this season by a talented freshman in Nate Frazier. Frazier, the nation’s No. 2 RB a year ago, led the Dawgs with his 671 yards on 5.0 yards per carry.
The position seems to be evolving in Athens. To some extent. The skill sets that UGA has brought in over the last two recruiting cycles seem to be more in the James Cook and D’Andre Swift mold than anything else.
What does the ideal Georgia running back target look like going forward? DawgNation heard the answer to that by asking first-year position coach Josh Crawford that at Sugar Bowl Media Day
“When you turn on the tape and watch a kid, you want to see a great demeanor,” Crawford said. “You want to see a kid that has a great demeanor when they run the football and I think that’s the biggest thing.”
Crawford’s definition of “demeanor” merited a follow-up question.
“When I say demeanor, what I am talking about is, and I say this to the running backs all the time, when the ball is in your hand, you should look desperate, you know what I mean?” he added. “Like your life depends on you getting in that end zone. That goes back to loving football and those types of things.”
What else does Crawford look for in the next great back for “RBU” in Athens?
“I mean there are obvious things,” he said. “We look at what we do in our offense. Does that player have the skill set? We ask our backs to do everything. Catch balls. Run. Obviously. Are they a complete back? We look for those things. Do they run the ball hard?”
“Do they love football? Is their character great? We care as much about that as we do their ability. I think that’s important. Especially with where college football is. I know [Coach Smart] is always on us about obviously, yes, this is the University of Georgia. It has got to be great players we sign, but at the same time, the character piece about making sure we have the right fit and the right guy in here really matters to us and that’s a big part of our evaluation.”
Georgia signed one RB in the 2024 cycle. That was 4-star Bo Walker. He ranked No. 312 overall as the nation’s No. 23 RB in the class.
The Dawgs also lost a top 100 overall prospect in 4-star Lee County gem Ousmane Kromah. He was a late-season flip to FSU. Kromah was a 215-pound workhorse, but also a true weapon in the passing game.
UGA also signed a blazing speedster in the Cook mold in 4-star Dwight Phillips Jr. in 2024. He was a true burner with 10.26 speed in the 100. Frazier was rated the No. 2 RB in the country and the No. 49 overall recruit. Chauncey Bowens stood out in the class as the only 225-plus-pound running back. He rated No. 17 nationally at the position and No. 243 nationally.
Phillips, at just 175 pounds, followed Bowens in the rankings as the No. 18 RB and No. 243 overall.
That trio came after a couple of cycles in which Georgia wanted to sign some Humvees for the room. The Dawgs took a pair of physical RBs in the 2022 class in All-American Brandon Robinson (225 pounds) and a late bloomer in Andrew Paul. Robinson has dealt with a tough slate of injuries after a strong freshman year in which he ran for 341 yards and three scores.
Paul, who came to UGA at 227 pounds, transferred out after two seasons.
Roderick Robinson II weighed 230-plus pounds when he was in high school. He was the nation’s No. 13 RB and No. 179 overall in 2023.
That was a trio of 220-plus pounders in back-to-back classes. There’s a logical way to look at it and consider what Georgia signed in 2024 and 2025 at the RB spot was an attempt to balance out the room with different skill sets.
Georgia is Georgia. The Dawgs usually take their pick of RB options. There are the big between-the-tackles backs. There are the home run hitters, the third-down weapons, and three-down RBs to stock the room.
The Dawgs can get their share of those guys even with the growing national trend for the nation’s 5-star RBs to carry a heavy NIL premium on the front end.
It was interesting to hear how Crawford doesn’t see his room that way. He’s not trying to match a stable of type-specific backs to certain skill sets.
“I think you have to be careful with that,” he said. “I think at the end of the day when you’re evaluating players, you have to look at who gives us the best chance to win. Regardless of their size. I mean you have got to look at the tape. Is he a ballplayer? Because I think sometimes, you know, if you’re only looking at metrics, you sometimes can miss on some things and sometimes a guy may be a smaller player, but the tape says this guy is going to be very productive and efficient as a runner. That’s ultimately what you have to go on.”
It seems like he’s following that path. While looking at the DawgNation big board for RB targets in the 2026 class, we see a host of prospects that are all rated among the nation’s top 10 prospects at the position in 5-star RBs Savion Hiter and Derrek Cooper. There’s also 4-star Texan Javian Osborne to go along with highly-regarded in-state talent Jae Lamar at Colquitt County.
The number of scholarship RBs for Georgia has usually been five in the Kirby Smart era. That was the target when Dell McGee led that room so well.
It is interesting to note that if the Dawgs had been able to sign Kromah, that would have pushed the scholarship number in the room to eight. It would have likely forced portal attrition. That’s not even counting preferred walk-on and fan favorite Cash Jones.
We can never be 100 percent sure about these things, but the likely scholarship number in Crawford’s room now stands at seven with Etienne, Robinson, Robinson, Frazier, Bowens, Phillips and Walker. To complicate the class separation further, Roderick Robinson II, Bowens and Phillips all had redshirt reasons in 2024.
Bowens, Phillips, and Walker will be in their redshirt or true freshman seasons this fall. Etienne will be a senior. Branson Robinson, who played in six games last year, will be a redshirt junior. Roderick Robinson will be a redshirt sophomore, and Frazier will be a true sophomore.
SENTELL’S INTEL
(check on the recent reads on Georgia football recruiting)
