From OnlineAthens.com
September 22nd, 2016 01:00 PM
If the frustration level is boiling over in Georgia’s running back room after back-to-back weeks of pedestrian production on the ground, it’s not spilling out publicly ahead of Saturday’s game at Ole Miss.
Nick Chubb, held to 63 yards last week on 19 carries against Missouri after rushing for 80 on 20 against Nicholls State, certainly isn’t calling out the offensive line, which has had trouble creating running room.
“It’s just a team deal,” Chubb said. “We’re working on it every day to be more fast and more physical.”
Chubb made a grand return against North Carolina from the knee injury that ended his 2015 season early. He put up 222 rushing yards and scored two touchdowns on 32 carries in the opener. That included a 55-yard fourth quarter touchdown run.
He had a quick response this week when he was asked if he still has the same burst he always did.
“It didn’t go away in two weeks, so yeah,” Chubb said.
Chubb was hit in the backfield on 12 of 19 carries against Missouri, according to the Twitter handle @CFBFilmRoom, but he remains encouraging with the offensive line.
“Just let them know that they’re doing the best they can,” Chubb said. “Trust in them. I don’t ever holler at them unless I really need to. Those are my guys.”
Georgia coach Kirby Smart this week said he didn’t think players adjusting to schemes of first-year offensive line coach Sam Pittman has factored into any run game issues.
“To me, the biggest difference is you’ve changed the coaches but a lot of the personnel is the same on the offensive line,” Smart said of a line that returned starters Brandon Kublanow, Isaiah Wynn and Greg Pyke . “You’ve got to do a great job of getting those guys better, you’ve got to keep getting them stronger throughout the year and we’ve got to become a physical football team that can run the ball. Our identity is not going to change. We’re going to do that. We’ve got to be stubborn and believe we’re going to do that. We’ve got to just play better.”
Georgia hasn’t made any noticeable personnel changes this week on its offensive line. The same starting five were in place during the media viewing periods in practice including left tackle Tyler Catalina, the grad transfer from Rhode Island, and right guard Lamont Gaillard.
“It’s just us focusing on our techniques, our details,” Gaillard said. “We’re going to pick it up running-wise, but of course we just want to win.”
Dyshon Sims has rotated in at guard and freshman guard Solomon Kindley played in a short-yardage situation against Missouri in his first college action.
“It was an easy decision to play Solomon Kindley,” Smart said when asked about choosing not to redshirt him . “He's in our top eight O-linemen. We hope to play eight o-linemen this year. So certainly. Why redshirt a guy if he's in your top eight. If you get an injury, don't you think we'll be glad we played him?”
Missouri coach Barry Odom said his defense at times put an extra defender in the box to make it more difficult for Georgia to run in Saturday’s 28-27 Bulldogs win.
“Credit Georgia,” Odom said. “They made good in-game adjustments and their quarterback played really well and receivers made some catches. But I wanted to try to establish our front seven and sometimes front eight of getting an extra guy in there to take away part of that.”
Jacob Eason ended up going 29 of 55 for 308 yards with three touchdowns and an interception while the Bulldogs managed just 101 rushing yards on 31 carries. With trouble running between the tackles, Georgia has used receiver Isaiah McKenzie on jet sweeps to gain yardage on the ground. He has five carries for 52 yards the last two games.
“As Georgia football, we’ve got to expect not to have much success early in games because teams are going to stack the box,” running back Sony Michel said of the run game. “When you have great running backs, why wouldn’t you stack the box? I’m not no type of coach or guru, but if you have two good backs--and actually we have four, five--they’re going to try and stack the box and stop the run and hopefully let the receivers get some type of shine. Now, they’ve got to deal with our receivers.”
Ole Miss has been vulnerable to the run. The Rebels rank 115 th nationally, allowing 242.7 per game.
Alabama rushed for 334 yards with 146 coming from dynamic quarterback Jalen Hurts.
Likewise, Florida State got 59 of its 161 rushing yards from quarterback Deondre Francois.
Wofford rushed for 233 yards, but the option-oriented FCS team ran the ball on 57 of 66 plays.
Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze isn’t taking anything for granted about Georgia’s run game based on the last two games.
“The respect we have for Georgia’s run game is enormous,” he said. “We’ve seen the explosive runs that they can create with the backs that they have. It’s not surprising that defenses are able to stop the run but that doesn’t mean we can. They’re so explosive every time that those backs touch the ball that, man, you’ve got to play a locked in 60 minutes of defense. That’s what hurt us last week against Alabama. We played many good snaps but gave up way too many explosive runs. We have the same respect for this run team that we did last week.”
Michel, who rushed for 37 yards on nine carries last week, thinks Georgia will indeed be explosive again in the run game.
“We’ve got to keep pounding and keep working,” he said. “Sooner or later it will come.”
...READ MORE HERE...
September 22nd, 2016 01:00 PM
If the frustration level is boiling over in Georgia’s running back room after back-to-back weeks of pedestrian production on the ground, it’s not spilling out publicly ahead of Saturday’s game at Ole Miss.
Nick Chubb, held to 63 yards last week on 19 carries against Missouri after rushing for 80 on 20 against Nicholls State, certainly isn’t calling out the offensive line, which has had trouble creating running room.
“It’s just a team deal,” Chubb said. “We’re working on it every day to be more fast and more physical.”
Chubb made a grand return against North Carolina from the knee injury that ended his 2015 season early. He put up 222 rushing yards and scored two touchdowns on 32 carries in the opener. That included a 55-yard fourth quarter touchdown run.
He had a quick response this week when he was asked if he still has the same burst he always did.
“It didn’t go away in two weeks, so yeah,” Chubb said.
Chubb was hit in the backfield on 12 of 19 carries against Missouri, according to the Twitter handle @CFBFilmRoom, but he remains encouraging with the offensive line.
“Just let them know that they’re doing the best they can,” Chubb said. “Trust in them. I don’t ever holler at them unless I really need to. Those are my guys.”
Georgia coach Kirby Smart this week said he didn’t think players adjusting to schemes of first-year offensive line coach Sam Pittman has factored into any run game issues.
“To me, the biggest difference is you’ve changed the coaches but a lot of the personnel is the same on the offensive line,” Smart said of a line that returned starters Brandon Kublanow, Isaiah Wynn and Greg Pyke . “You’ve got to do a great job of getting those guys better, you’ve got to keep getting them stronger throughout the year and we’ve got to become a physical football team that can run the ball. Our identity is not going to change. We’re going to do that. We’ve got to be stubborn and believe we’re going to do that. We’ve got to just play better.”
Georgia hasn’t made any noticeable personnel changes this week on its offensive line. The same starting five were in place during the media viewing periods in practice including left tackle Tyler Catalina, the grad transfer from Rhode Island, and right guard Lamont Gaillard.
“It’s just us focusing on our techniques, our details,” Gaillard said. “We’re going to pick it up running-wise, but of course we just want to win.”
Dyshon Sims has rotated in at guard and freshman guard Solomon Kindley played in a short-yardage situation against Missouri in his first college action.
“It was an easy decision to play Solomon Kindley,” Smart said when asked about choosing not to redshirt him . “He's in our top eight O-linemen. We hope to play eight o-linemen this year. So certainly. Why redshirt a guy if he's in your top eight. If you get an injury, don't you think we'll be glad we played him?”
Missouri coach Barry Odom said his defense at times put an extra defender in the box to make it more difficult for Georgia to run in Saturday’s 28-27 Bulldogs win.
“Credit Georgia,” Odom said. “They made good in-game adjustments and their quarterback played really well and receivers made some catches. But I wanted to try to establish our front seven and sometimes front eight of getting an extra guy in there to take away part of that.”
Jacob Eason ended up going 29 of 55 for 308 yards with three touchdowns and an interception while the Bulldogs managed just 101 rushing yards on 31 carries. With trouble running between the tackles, Georgia has used receiver Isaiah McKenzie on jet sweeps to gain yardage on the ground. He has five carries for 52 yards the last two games.
“As Georgia football, we’ve got to expect not to have much success early in games because teams are going to stack the box,” running back Sony Michel said of the run game. “When you have great running backs, why wouldn’t you stack the box? I’m not no type of coach or guru, but if you have two good backs--and actually we have four, five--they’re going to try and stack the box and stop the run and hopefully let the receivers get some type of shine. Now, they’ve got to deal with our receivers.”
Ole Miss has been vulnerable to the run. The Rebels rank 115 th nationally, allowing 242.7 per game.
Alabama rushed for 334 yards with 146 coming from dynamic quarterback Jalen Hurts.
Likewise, Florida State got 59 of its 161 rushing yards from quarterback Deondre Francois.
Wofford rushed for 233 yards, but the option-oriented FCS team ran the ball on 57 of 66 plays.
Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze isn’t taking anything for granted about Georgia’s run game based on the last two games.
“The respect we have for Georgia’s run game is enormous,” he said. “We’ve seen the explosive runs that they can create with the backs that they have. It’s not surprising that defenses are able to stop the run but that doesn’t mean we can. They’re so explosive every time that those backs touch the ball that, man, you’ve got to play a locked in 60 minutes of defense. That’s what hurt us last week against Alabama. We played many good snaps but gave up way too many explosive runs. We have the same respect for this run team that we did last week.”
Michel, who rushed for 37 yards on nine carries last week, thinks Georgia will indeed be explosive again in the run game.
“We’ve got to keep pounding and keep working,” he said. “Sooner or later it will come.”
...READ MORE HERE...
