The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Chubb, Michel to return next year
Bulldogs ecstatic that both star tailbacks will complete senior season.
ATHENS — Georgia has received some stunning, but extremely good, news when it comes to next season’s team.
Star tailbacks Nick Chubb and Sony Michel will return for their senior seasons, coach Kirby Smart announced after Thursday’s bowl practice. Both are juniors who mulled entering the NFL draft.
Outside linebackers Lorenzo Carter and Davin Bellamy also announced they will return.
The decisions were announced following Smart’s regularly scheduled post-practice news conference. When asked during that news conference about the looming NFL decisions, Smart said, “We may have something for you on that soon,” then grinned coyly.
When the news conference ended, the four players walked in, and Smart announced they were staying. Then each made a short statement.
“I’m beyond excited about coming back; we want to build it up to where it should be,” Chubb said at the news conference.
Chubb said his mind was made up five days ago. He was going to leave Georgia, just like most everyone had expected, including himself. And then someone talked him out of it: Nick Chubb.
“It just didn’t feel right. I felt like if I needed to leave I’d feel it and be able to accept it and move on,” Georgia’s star tailback would recall days later. “Something kept telling me, ‘Nick, maybe not right now. It’s not the right time.’”
So he stayed up late at night, thinking over it more, talking to close friends, talking to family. He thought about all the reasons to go pro, and realized that it was more about leaving Georgia, leaving behind a season that had not gone well for his team or himself.
“It all came back to the kind of person I am, to not just leave because things aren’t going your way,” he said. “But to fight through your problems and the adversity, and that’s what I feel I did.”
Chubb’s decision goes against the conventional wisdom: Tailbacks don’t usually come back when they have the chance to go pro. Especially when they’ve had a knee injury. And especially when there’s no promise that Georgia’s offensive line — which will lose three seniors — will be any better next season.
Chubb was thinking that way too, for a while.
“My mindset was also, I need to go out there and get this money while I’m still walking, there’s no telling how long my knee may hold up,” Chubb said. “So when I thought about that in my head, (I realized), ‘Nick, this isn’t you, you’re not the guy to run from any problems. So instead of run from it, face it, face to face.’”
The way the regular season ended, with the 28-27 loss to Georgia Tech, actually sparked Chubb to rethink things. Walking off the field and seeing Georgia Tech players waving their flag on top of the Georgia midfield logo made him not to want to go out that way. Not just with that loss, but with this season.
Mostly because of offensive line struggles, Chubb’s junior season has been his least productive, averaging 4.8 yards per carry, compared with 7.1 as a freshman and 8.1 as a sophomore. He answered the questions about his surgically repaired knee with the season-opening 222-yard performance against North Carolina. But he surpassed 100 yards only three times in the other 11 games.
For his career, Chubb has 3,282 yards rushing, which ranks third all-time at Georgia. With 4 yards against TCU in the Liberty Bowl on Dec. 30, he would pass Todd Gurley for second place.
Another season at Georgia gives him a reasonable chance to become the second Bulldog to surpass 4,000 yards rushing. Herschel Walker is the all-time leader with 5,259.
Michel faced the same decision as his close friend and roommate. Yet he and Chubb didn’t coordinate what turned out to be the same decision.
“None of us communicated,” Michel said. “I found out about Nick two days ago — and we live with each other.”
Michel made his decision first. He said he knew last week that he wanted to return, but it was not a decision Michel reached lightly.
“It sat on my heart for about two weeks strong,” he said. “Sometimes you’ve got to make the decision that’s on your heart and not on your mind. You can’t go with everything else that’s going on around you. Sometimes people try to listen and that’s when you make a decision with your mind. I felt like it was the right decision for me to stay. I have so much going for me here at the University of Georgia. I want to enjoy it. I want to finish strong here.”
Chubb’s decision may be the biggest surprise, but Michel was far from a sure thing to return either.
While he’s been Chubb’s backup for most of the past three season, Michel rushed for 1,161 rushing yards last season, when Chubb missed most of the season with a torn ACL.
Michel will enter the Liberty Bowl with 2,324 career rushing yards and 486 receiving yards.
Given his speed, athletic ability and receiving ability, Michel makes for an intriguing pro prospect. But he said he didn’t even bother to wait for a draft grade from the NFL advisory board. And he didn’t worry about leaving money on the table next year, even if he only would have been a mid-round pick.
“It’s not tough at all because if I was to leave the University of Georgia as a junior, I would make some money, but I would make more money if I was to stay, get my degree and pursue what I want to pursue after football and make more money,” Michel said.