Carson Beck and the Junkyard Dawgs pulled off another big time win against an out-of-conference opponent at home in what looked like a dominant victory against Ball State. But the 45 to 3 final score that the Georgia Bulldogs flung up against the Cardinals doesn’t tell the whole story. Yes the win was dominant in most ways, but not the way in which Georgia is known for.
When people talk about Georgia and RBU they almost sound like a broken record the way they repeat themselves. Regardless this fact remains true: Georgia is known for their dedication to running the ball, and that’s a category they didn’t dominate in yesterday. Only two backs put up solid numbers in Saturday’s noon matchup, and one of those supposed “backs” was actually a wide receiver.
Admittedly there’s more injury in the running back room than anyone would like to admit right now. The seniors Kendall Milton and Daijun Edwards are still enduring setbacks heading into Week 3 of the season. Milton isn’t at 100% yet, and that’s evident in his play. Nothing he did yesterday was all too crazy with a long-run of 6 yards and an average of 2.3 yards per carry on 7 attempts. Edwards dressed out but didn’t even see the field. Smart said Edwards would have played if they needed him but against an opponent with the mass of Ball State, it apparently wasn’t necessary.
This leaves true freshman running back Roderick Robinson, All-American Tight End Brock Bowers, and wide receiver Dillon Bell as other notable players taking snaps in the backfield. Of the three names, only Robinson and Bell wound up taking meaningful snaps and in turn made meaningful rushing attempts. But, while both were impressive given that neither really has experience playing the position in college, it was wideout Dillon Bell that stood out.
With a long-run of 21 yards that included an impressive cut and ended in a touchdown, Dillon Bell put Dawg Nation on notice coming out of the backfield. That kind of athleticism has been something RBU hasn’t seen since the likes of D’Andre Swift, and it was refreshing to witness again.
Bell played running back in highschool and shared with the media after the game that “runningback was my first love” when asked how long he’d been playing there. He’s by no means new to the position. Just new to college level play.
SEC play starts next week, so it’ll be interesting seeing whether or not Georgia keeps this level of experientiality up when it comes to deciding on who’s totin’ the rock. As mentioned earlier, Coach Smart did say that Edwards could play if needed. So if the going gets rough, we can see some guys come in. But in the meantime, this is what we got.
A team who had a walk-on quarterback lead it to back-to-back national titles now has wide receivers and tight ends at running back. Nothing happens the way you expect it to happen. But at Georgia, they’re doing one heck of a job finding a way.