Top Breakout Candidates in 2020 for Georgia

Georgia has several names that everyone knows, but in order for them to have a great season in 2020 there's going to have to be players that have breakout seasons.

Success in college football comes from a variety of different avenues. Most coaching staffs and fanbases alike can pretty easily identify their impact players, the players that will ultimately carry them to a national championship. Though more often times than not each team has players that outperform all expectations that were set for them prior to the season. 

These players are known as breakout performers. Like Ja'Marr Chase of the LSU Tigers for example. Sure, he was a 4-star recruit out of high school that played as a freshman, but no one could have foreseen a 1,780-yard season and subsequent Biletnikoff Award as a sophomore. His performance in 2019, along with Joe Burrow's Heisman campaign were breakouts that led to the Tigers National Championship run. 

So, who on the Georgia roster does something similar in 2020?

Travon Walker

"He's one of the most talented football players we have, and it's our job as coaches to find ways to get him on the field." 

That was Kirby Smart talking about Travon Walker after the Auburn game. A freshman was one of the most talented guys on the roster. Nothing has changed there, Walker is still immensely talented, the only change in 2020 is the fact that Georgia's coaching staff won't have any problems finding playing time for the 6'5, 300-pound jumbo athlete along that defensive line. 

Upperclassmen like Malik Herring and David Marshall hindered Walker's playing time in 2020 but were tremendous role models for the young freshman. Not to mention seniors like Tyler Clark and Michael Barnett. With the departure of all but Malik Herring, Walker should cement himself as an every-down player in 2020, which based on the production from a year ago during limited playing time, it could set him up for a breakout campaign in 2020.

Zamir White

I mean, duh. Right?

Towards the end of the season last year, White was finally beginning to show signs of himself again after two knee surgeries in less than two years. Now, in 2020 he will have gone from third on the depth chart to first on the depth chart. And though Georgia is expected to throw the ball a bit more in 2020, there's still room for close to 20 carries a game for Zeus and that type of workload is bound to produce a solid result for the 230 pound back. 

Not to mention, the strain he will ultimately place of defenses during the fourth quarter. After tackling White for 15 carries, they will be thinking twice during the closing time of a football game when Georgia needs one final first down. 

Tyrique Stevenson

Tyrique Stevenson has been this site's pride and joy since our beginning. I called for him to be the starter at the STAR position for the Vanderbilt game last season. His length, his ball skills, his athleticism, his physicality. It's all off the charts and in 2020 we think you're finally going to see him given the freedom to put it all on display. 

Stevenson himself admitted last season was a bit of a learning curve for him because he was asked to play so many positions, and having to learn to responsibilities of all those positions was rather difficult, but in 2020 we expect the Georgia staff to let Stevenson stick at STAR and dominate. Stevenson's ceiling is the Jim Thorpe award. His floor, in my opinion, is an All-SEC team. 

James Cook

Ito Smith and Jalen Richard. If those names sound familiar it's because they are NFL running backs, but before they were gallivanting through defenses on Sundays, they played for Todd Monken at Southern Miss. And in Monken's final season as their head coach in 2015, the two were responsible for 79 receptions for 799 yards. 

To say that Monken likes to get the running back involved in the passing game is an understatement. Sure, Kenny McIntosh can catch the football, but James Cook is going to be the primary ball catcher out of the backfield in 2020. 40 receptions out of Cook is not out of the realm of possibilities in my opinion, and considering that no Georgia running back has caught more than 32 balls over the last four years under Kirby Smart, that may sound like a stretch. 

Though Cook has 16 receptions a year ago for 132 yards while playing a minor role in this offense as the fourth-string back. It's not absurd to think he's going to at the very least double his production as the second featured back in 2020.

I know, Georgia finally goes to a spread offense and hear I am talking about the two running backs having breakout seasons. Funny how that works isn't it? 

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