Running backs: How will Ealey and King divide carries, starts?
(Fourth in a summer series looking at Georgia’s football team by position.)
TODAY: RUNNING BACKS
- Returning starters: TB Caleb King, FB Shaun Chapas.
- Others to watch: Although King started the final five games last season, Washaun Ealey was Georgia’s leading rusher (717 yards on 125 carries to King’s 594 on 114). Fred Munzenmaier, like Chapas a senior, is a solid backup at fullback.
- Key change: Richard Samuel, who started the first six games last season at tailback but fell well behind Ealey and King by season’s end, has moved to defense (inside linebacker).
- Key fact: Despite King missing three games with injuries and Ealey missing four games before shedding his redshirt, the tandem combined for 1,311 yards on 239 carries last season –- an average of 5.4 yards per carry. About 25 percent of their combined yards (349) came in the victory at Georgia Tech.
- Key questions: How will Georgia distribute the carries between Ealey and King? And while last season demonstrated there are enough carries for both to thrive, which one will start?
- Recent developments: The question of a pecking order between King and Ealey wasn’t addressed on the post-spring depth chart because King, like other players who were injured at the end of spring ball, was not listed. King missed the final two weeks of spring with a strained knee. Ealey was listed as the No. 1 tailback on the post-spring depth chart, but Mark Richt said that in reality Ealey and King are co-No. 1’s. Richt said Ealey made much progress from his freshman season to this spring in terms of physical conditioning and understanding the offense, and Ealey was pleased with his improvement as a blocker. Richt and Mike Bobo also said Carlton Thomas made strides and can help at tailback.
- Outlook: The King-Ealey tandem, supported by an experienced offensive line, has Georgia feeling good about its running game. At fullback, Chapas and Munzenmaier are known for their run-blocking and (very) occasional forays with the ball (they scored two TDs apiece last season and Chapas had career-high five carries for 43 yards against Texas A&M in the Independence Bowl).
- Your turn: What say you about the running backs?
———-
Links to previous entries in this series:
Tomorrow: Quarterbacks.
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174 comments Add your comment
Whopper Dawg
June 18th, 2010
3:49 am
I have visions of us running the ball all the way from the 20 to the 5 on 10 successive plays. Bobo then calls a screen for a 5 yard loss, runs the QB option or FB dive from the 10 (Murray may get hurt) and then calls for the fade which is incomplete. We get 3.
Carolina wins by 2.
Quarterbacks: Dogs need a solid (and injury-free) season from Aaron Murray | UGA sports blog
June 18th, 2010
6:01 am
[...] Running backs. [...]
BuLLdawg
June 18th, 2010
6:42 am
B.S.
is what I say and that we continue to have NO CLUE on who even are the better players on Offense, ESPECIALLY at Tailback
Wide Receiver
Tight End
We have squaundered so much talent on offense, and a lot of that has been because we have FAILED to prepare our Quarterbacks from 1 season to the next.
It’s like we don’t realize that there is a season after the 1 we play.
Caleb King told our running back recruit, who comes in injured, that “running the football here at Georgia is a grind and no fun.”
Caleb King has been here since 2007 and in EVERY BIG GAME since against good run defenses, has been a COMPLETE WASH-OUT.
In Strength and Contitioning, he showed his butt with his paltry reps of the weights. And, he needs surgery.
If you want to have a good season this year, then Caleb King will have to be relied upon, or we need to figure out how to get the real Washaun Ealey back-up, totally left out of this discussion by you Tim Tucker, more than just 3 carries against Vandie and NONE the entire rest of the season.
DONTAVIUS JACKSON # 27 is our Back-Up Tailback to Washaun Ealey. Look for him to have a break-out season – if we hand the damn football to him.
How in the living hell is the starting tailback for the 1st 5 games last year, kicked off the offense this year ?
BAD COACHING.
savannadawg
June 18th, 2010
7:28 am
It doesn’t matter who is at tailback 1st. If Mark Richt does not get his nose out of the thin air he keeps it in, and LEAD this team to victory in every game this year he needs to leave. I could give a rats a$$ about how they are prepared to play in the NFL. I am a Georgia University of, football fan. If anyone would rather their players be ready for the NFL than win games is off their noggin. Mark Richt is not being challenged hard enough, or challenging himself hard enough. i agree with those who say we don’t have enough victories over the toughest of our opponents. We have PLENTY of talent at the UGA, do every year. So when we loose. It ain’t on the players its on the coach. So CMR you seriously need to look at yourself in the mirror soon and just say SELF I think I will win the National Championship this year. THAT is what we want. Anything less will be a disappointment. And to all of you who say I should be real. Then I say if that is the way you look at it then we will continue in our mediocre ways. I hate those other schools. I want to beat the s*** out of them every time we play them.
AltamahaDawg
June 18th, 2010
8:03 am
Booooooo
FLA DAWG
June 18th, 2010
9:19 am
Every year The Dawgs goal should be a National Championship – nothing less than that. We get there one game at a time. Sure we want to win the East and The SECC. But those games should be considered stepping stones to our annual goal – NC.
Go Dawgs!
Gratefuldawghead
June 18th, 2010
9:23 am
At least this year Ealey will know to use a face shield against those Dirty Gators!
JT
June 18th, 2010
9:52 am
The biggest mistake Coach Richt made with Richard Samuel was not redshirting him as a 17 year old freshman and letting him carry the ball 24 times. He is now 19 with two years of eligibility left to learn how to be a LB. What a waste.
JT
June 18th, 2010
9:56 am
Also, If Samuel had an experienced running back coach no telling how good he would have been.
tony
June 18th, 2010
10:03 am
Big D Dog, Big D Dog, you are entitle to your opinion but I still say the dawgs wins a national championship if DJ was a 4 yr starter.. So he had a bad game….what qb doesn’t have a bad game? Also Aaron Murray wasn’t injured the entire season. I beliave a healthy Murray will win a national championship during his time at uga. Read below.
Site Web Web Search powered by YAHOO! Search
79°
Clear skyMore Weather Published Friday, September 6, 2002
Richt plays down QB questions
By The Times-Union
,
Georgia coach Mark Richt is emphatic that he doesn’t have a quarterback controversy on his hands. Redshirt sophomore David Greene is the starter, and redshirt freshman DJ Shockley will play. End of discussion.
For him, anyway.
Some Georgia fans are calling for Shockley to be the full-time starter after he sparked the Bulldogs to a 31-28 victory over Clemson last Saturday. Greene was erratic, completing 12 of 21 passes for 67 yards for one touchdown and an interception in the worst performance of his career. Shockley was 3 for 4 for 50 yards and one touchdown and rushed for another. Greene heard boos when he came on the field following Shockley’s TD run.
Richt said his players don’t have a problem rotating quarterbacks, but he admits that dealing with fans and media who do have a problem could become an issue for Richt.
“It’s a concern,” Richt said. “If we allow the fans or the media to pick the starting quarterback, I think we’ve got a problem. It’s very hard not to react when somebody boos our players. Everybody’s human, and can get their feelings hurt in a hurry.
“We talk about it a lot. We talk about how everybody is thinking that we should have done this, we should have done that, we should play this quarterback or that quarterback. We talk about growing into a leadership role and learning not to listen to that and not let that affect you in those decisions.”
Richt also is a little amused. Greene didn’t play very well against Clemson — big deal. He was the SEC’s Freshman of the Year and did lead the Bulldogs on a game-winning drive at Tennessee. He’s entitled to an off game.
“I know what David Greene can do,” Richt said. “Everybody knows he’s going to have better performances than he did on Saturday and Shockley will not always play as well as he did on Saturday. There’s going to be games where Greene plays a whole lot better than Shockley and vice versa.”
The offensive game plan when Shockley is on the field is a streamlined version of when Greene is on the field. Richt will use the entire playbook with Greene because of his experience, while he’ll call only a select number of plays for Shockley. And Richt was selective in when he brought Shockley in the game.
“We were careful not to give him too much, but I thought he handled what we gave him,” Richt said. “He benefited from some good field position. I think we all know that.”
Shockley will play more against South Carolina next Saturday, but it’s clear Richt’s not ready to make him the full-time starter.
Staff writer Michael DiRocco can be reached at (904) 359-4500
Delbert D.
June 18th, 2010
10:27 am
Fran the Man Tarkenton was the best Georgia QB ever. I didn’t see Zeke Bratlowski (I wasn’t really aware of football back then), but he’s still a legend. David Greene would be there contending for #2.
AltamahaDawg
June 18th, 2010
6:21 pm
I wouldn’t say get real, but I would say that the African Plains are probably not the best vantage point to be giving out such ultimatums.
mdawg
June 19th, 2010
7:53 pm
its funny how samual is the best running back UGA has but yet he is not given the chance…
last year we heard that caleb king replaced samual so he would hang onto the ball better bet yet in that game caleb king had 2 fumbles himself
the bottom line is that richt favors caleb king when king is the worst running back that UGA has ever had
secsecsec
June 20th, 2010
11:04 am
secsecsec
June 20th, 2010
11:02 am
just wanted to ADD – I checked, and for Kentucky and Auburn, King had a better ypc average than Ealey. For Georgia Tech you’ll recall they were listed as both of them having 9.2 ypc but in reality Ealey’s was 9.15 and Caleb’s was 9.22. Did you realize that, or are you still just going to focus on 2008?
mdawg you are just dumb “samual” is the best. LOL
Big Harry Dawg
June 20th, 2010
11:15 am
I just wish Bobo had a creative bone in his body… he needs to figure out a way to get both of those boys on the field with some play action: Keep the defense guessing.
AltamahaDawg
June 20th, 2010
3:52 pm
We run play action all the time. Why would you take out one of our talented Fullback, custom made for it, if play action was going to be the call?
I’d actually like to see Coach Bobo be able to have the luxury of being Less creative.
BDAWG
June 20th, 2010
4:32 pm
EALEY WILL BE THE SOUND STARTER. EVERYONE KNOWS THAT WITH ONE GOOD HIT KING WILL BE INJURED OFF AND ON THE ENTIRE SEASON. WHAT HAPPENED TO THE ALLSTAR RB DONTAVIOUS JACKSON. WITH HIS TALENT, HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN TEARING UP THE SEC. WITH SO LITTLE TALENT AT TB, I STILL QUESTION WHY CAN’T WE ATTRACT TOP RB’S LIKE WE USED TO DO. IT HAS TO BE THE COACHING STAFF IS NOT SELLING HOW IMPORTANT A TALENTED RB IS FOR THIS OFFENSE TO OPERATE PROPERLY. WE CAN STILL RECRUIT THE PLAYERS THAT WANT TO COME HERE, BUT WE CANNOT ATTRACT SOMEONE THAT DOESN’T KNOW HOW THIS OFFENSE CAN GET THEM TO THE NFL. WE HAVE TO SEE HOW THIS YEAR GOES. IF THE OFFENSE SPUTTERS, BOBO HAS TO GO AND IF THE OL DOESN’T BLOCK, SEARELS HAS TO GO ALSO AND WE CAN’T WAIT UNTIL THE END OF THE SEASON. WE NEED BETTER RECRUITERS. IF THINGS CHANGE THEN I WILL RETRACT MY STATEMENT,
mdawg
June 20th, 2010
6:49 pm
secsecsec
you can not disregard the fact the richt favors king because king is nothing more than a kiss ass…….. king sucks and will always suck and everytime he touches the ball i pray he gets hurt
GO DAWGS
Call IT
June 21st, 2010
12:59 pm
Who cares as it will not matter as the Gators win the East again in 2010?
Enough Said!
doug
June 21st, 2010
10:19 pm
Our running game will be pretty good but not great. The backs are not of great caliber. King lacks the body type to play full time and Ealy is just a little above average. The OL will be good but lacks the competence that they should have after all the time they have spent together. Searls has spent to much time finding continuity and has not brought them along fast enough.
They will be good but not good enough to unseat Florida.We might be able to beat them with some luck this year but wont take the East. I think we will regret the dismissal of Mett. He will be a huge star somewhere other than UGA. Murray will be good but not great. Not sure he has the instincts Mettenburger has.Sounds strange but its true.
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