For 4 senior Bulldogs, it pays to stay in school
ATHENS, Ga. — Four promising Georgia football players — two running backs, two linebackers — came to a fork in the road a year ago, and, as Yogi Berra would say, they took it.
They bet the pass line, took the optimistic view. Deciding against throwing themselves into the uncertainty of the NFL draft for a quick payout, they returned for their senior seasons. It couldn’t have been an easy choice. They were coming off a 7-5 regular season and the Liberty Bowl loomed, no bucket-list destination. They were busing to an alternate practice site as construction on the indoor facility was completed. They couldn’t be certain the new head coach with the chronically scorched vocal cords was the answer every Georgia loyalist sought, though they had a suspicion.
They have survived the ordeals of a long season without tearing anything important. The Bulldogs are SEC champions, off to play Oklahoma in the playoffs in the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day. And they, for their act of faith, are the dominant symbols of a special season:
Nick Chubb: This season he became the second rusher in Georgia history to exceed 4,000 career yards. Some relic named Herschel Walker is the other. Chubb’s 4,599 career rushing yards stand as the second most in SEC history.
Sony Michel: He requires but 52 more rushing yards to join Chubb as the Bulldogs’ second 1,000-yard runner of 2017. His 7.2 yards-per-carry average this season ranks first in the SEC and eighth nationally. Had touchdown runs of 74 and 45 yards against Florida.
Davin Bellamy: He was the author of Big Moment No. 1 for the Bulldogs’ defense this season when he blindsided Notre Dame quarterback Brandon Wimbush, forcing the fumble that sealed a 20-19 victory in Week 2. He has the tendency to do that type of thing in large moments. As in Big Moment No. 2, a momentum-changing strip sack against Auburn in the SEC title game.
Lorenzo Carter: It was Bellamy’s fellow linebacker who was named the SEC’s Defensive Player of the Week after the Notre Dame game, for his two forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries. Carter forced another fumble in the SEC title game as well. It’s his job to make quarterbacks awaken screaming in the night (15 hurries and 5.5 sacks this season).
We’ll never know exactly where these four would have gone in the 2017 NFL draft. They all traded in one year of earnings — in a business with an exceedingly small window of opportunity — on the belief that the Bulldogs were on the upswing and that they could ride that wave of improvement to a happier place.
What the four represented to head coach Kirby Smart has been more than can be measured statistically. They have given his second season an immediate jolt of credibility. And getting them all to come back was much like a major recruiting coup, only with proven blue chips instead of the speculative penny stocks of national signing day.
Asked how much of 2017’s success has been the work of four players who deferred their professional dream, Smart said, “Probably more than they have been given credit.”
“I think the greatest impact (their return) had was it gave the younger players confidence in the regime,” Smart said. “It showed them that, ‘Hey, man, these guys have only been with this staff one year, but they’re willing to stay.’ I think that gave a quiet confidence to the spring.
“Then, I think, the leadership of the seven, eight seniors was tremendous for the offseason workouts and setting the tone. There’s the value of experience. You could have a freshman that’s better than the senior, but the senior plays better in the big moments because he’s got poise. He’s got an understanding of it. You think of Davin’s play against Notre Dame, his play against Auburn, both kind of momentum-changing plays. I don’t think you can put a number of wins on that. I think it played a major factor for us.”
What the four lent was a sense of trust, and added a rare mix of experience and leadership that might be difficult to duplicate in the years to come. It was imperative for the Bulldogs to try to maximize the moment.
“I believe everybody plays a lot harder for those guys and all us seniors,” senior tackle Isaiah Wynn said. “We know they came back for a reason.”
“Leadership takes you a long way in a program because you have guys out there playing for the seniors,” said senior nose tackle John Atkins. “For every big game, Coach Smart always says do it for the seniors. Once he says that, the team goes to a whole other level.”