Georgia Football Has To Get This Figured Out

ATHENS - Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs have a lot to clean up this week as they prepare to take on the Alabama Crimson Tide on Saturday.

On offense, it starts with the running game. This is an area that hasn't reached it's full potential so far this season. Now some of it has to do with a banged up group. Some of it has to do with what the defense presents. Some of it may just be that they simply aren't dominant in that area.

The running game hasn't been non-existent, but they're not exactly running through teams, either. They've been great on the ground as the game progresses, but against the Crimson Tide, they better get it going early if they want to come out victories after four quarters.

Against Vanderbilt the Bulldogs rushed for just 10 yards on three carries in the first quarter. They rushed for 10 more yards in the second quarter on seven carries. In the 3rd quarter they ran for 34 yards on 10 more carries. That's just 54 yards through three quarters before they rushed for an eye-opening 122 yards on 16 carries in the fourth quarter. A lot of that came on a 59-yard run by reserve Bo Walker when the game was comfortably over.

The Vanderbilt defense made it clear they wanted to slow down Georgia's running game and make Gunner Stockton throw the ball. That obviously led to a giant game from the Bulldog quarterback. But in the final 15 minutes the Dawgs leaned on the 'Dores and ran right through them on their way to victory.

The Dawgs also had a tough time running consistently on the Sooners. The Oklahoma defense is sound, but in the end the Bulldogs did have a respectable day as they rushed for 130 yards and three scores on 26 carries during their 41-13 win. The Dawgs ran their best in the 4th quarter, rushing for 64 yards in the final quarter thanks to a big Dwight Phillips touchdown.

So while sometimes it doesn't look great, the 2026 Bulldogs have shown that they still want to run through you. They want to wear down defenses in hopes of breaking off a long run, which they've shown they can do, especially late in the ballgame.

Now, it looks like starting running back Nate Frazier will be close to full health when the Dawgs head to Tuscaloosa. He ran the ball just twice against Vanderbilt but head coach Kirby Smart said he's getting back to full health.

“The plan was to play him if we needed to, and Chauncey was a little banged up, and that was the scenario we thought we would use him in.”

"He ran some. He probably could've continued to play but I could've got to playing as we scored and did some things. Hopefully he'll continue to get better. We knew he would improve every time that he doesn't have to go out there. He's getting closer to 100%."

“We’ve got good backs. We’ve got good coaches, good schemes. Look, we're gonna get whipped sometime too, but we're gonna keep coming at you and throwing blows like I said. We're gonna take some blows and you're gonna give some."

Add us as a preferred source on Google