This week at UGAWire we will be holding G.O.A.T. Week, where we will examine some of the greatest coaches, players and teams in the history of Georgia football.
Georgia is without a doubt Running Back University, and I don’t care what anybody has to say about that. Given Georgia’s title as RBU, can you imagine how difficult it was to trim this list down to five?
Related: G.O.A.T Georgia Bulldogs coaches
Related: G.O.A.T. Georgia Bulldogs quarterbacks
Related: G.O.A.T. Georgia Bulldogs teams
Honorable mentions (let’s just acknowledge how crazy is it that these are HONORABLE MENTIONS):
Garrison Hearst, Sony Michel, Knowshon Moreno, Lars Tate, Rodney Hampton, Tim Worley
Greatest running backs in the history of Georgia football:
5) Frank Sinkwich (1940-42)
One of Georgia’s two Heisman Trophy winners, Frank Sinkwich was responsible for delivering UGA its first national championship in 1942.
Born 1920 in Zagreb, Croatia, Sinkwich was the first Heisman winner to be born outside of the United States, first to win the award as a player from the south and the first Georgia player to do so as well. He came to Georgia from Youngstown, Ohio and led the freshman team of 1939 to an undefeated season. In 1941, Sinkwich posted 1,103 rushing yards, an SEC record that stood for eight years. Additionally, he threw for 713 passing yards, which resulted in an SEC total offense record of 1,816 yards. One of Sinkwich’s most memorable moments from his 1941 season came as he led Georgia to a 40-26 victory over TCU in the Orange Bowl, a performance that is still considered one of the greatest bowl games by a single player ever. He rushed for 139 yards and completed 9 of 13 passes for 243 yards and three touchdowns – tallying 382 yards of total offense. Even more impressive, he played basically his entire junior season (1941) with a broken jaw that was protected by a custom-made facemask. He was nearly a unanimous All-America selection.
Sinkwich’s senior season, the year he won the Heisman Trophy, he gained 795 yards rushing and set the SEC passing record with 1,392 yards. That same season he set the SEC total offense record of 2,187 yards. Sinkwich was as tough as nails, and despite playing with two sprained ankles, he was responsible for Georgia’s only touchdown in a 9-0 victory over UCLA in the Rose Bowl game at Pasadena.
After winning the National Championship for the Dawgs, he was named a unanimous All-American and chosen as Georgia’s first recipient of the Heisman Trophy.
In three years, he rushed for 2,271 yards, passed for 2,331, and accounted for 60 touchdowns—30 rushing and 30 passing.
4. Todd Gurley (2012-14)
Todd Gurley is the closest thing we have seen to Herschel Walker since #34 left Georgia for the pros. I remember clear as day the moment we knew we had something special in Gurley. I’m referring to his 100 yard kickoff return for a touchdown in his first game as a freshman against Buffalo. I looked to the person next to me, and we just knew.
We, like the rest of America, were right. Gurley went on to an incredible career at Georgia, followed by what looks to be an equally great one in the NFL.
There was a good amount of chatter coming out of fall camp from the players that summer entering his freshman year. They were saying that Gurley reminded them a lot of recent Alabama running back Trent Richardson (thankfully Gurley’s NFL career has gone a lot better than Richardson’s.) During that 2012 season, Gurley rushed for 1,385 yards, leading Georgia to an 11-1 record and a spot in the SEC Championship Game. Against Alabama in Atlanta, Gurley played his heart out, running 23 times for 122 yards and two touchdowns.
The next season, Gurley was back at it again. Unfortunately, though, he was only able to play in 10 games after injuries slowed him down. Regardless, the sophomore from Tarboro, North Carolina still put up 989 rushing yards, 447 receiving yards and 16 total touchdowns.
The entire country was on the Gurley wagon, and heading into his junior season, both he and Georgia were receiving plenty of preseason love. Gurley was picked as a Heisman favorite by almost everybody, and if it were not for an NCAA suspension, he would have probably won it. Gurley began his junior season on a streak we had not seen since 1980.
Gurley’s first five games of his junior season:
Clemson: 15 carries, 198 yards, 3 touchdowns
South Carolina: 20 carries, 131 yards, 1 touchdown
Troy: 6 carries, 73 yards
Tennessee: 28 carries, 208 yards, 2 touchdowns
Vanderbilt: 25 carries, 163 yards, 2 touchdowns
It was simply incredible. That is until the NCAA suspended him four games for selling autographs. He returned in November only to terrorize the Auburn Tigers. One of the greatest plays I have ever witnessed came in that game. Gurley, on his first touch since returning from suspension, took the opening kickoff and ran it back for a touchdown. The place was electric. Unfortunately, though, it was too good to be true, as the play was called back for a bogus holding penalty. Gurley took 29 carries for 138 yards and 1 touchdown that night before eventually tearing his ACL, thus ending his Georgia career.
Currently, Gurley ranks No. 4 on Georgia’s all-time leading rushing list with 3,285 rushing yards.
3) Nick Chubb (2014-17)
Nick Chubb is one of the most beloved players in the history of Georgia football and No. 2 on the Bulldogs’ all-time leading rushing list with 4,769 yards.
Chubb came to Athens out of Cedartown and immediately put the country on notice when he scored on a 47 yard run against Clemson in his first game.
As the season progressed, he was called upon more and more. When Gurley was suspended by the NCAA, Georgia barely missed a beat. Chubb was that good. He finished his incredible freshman season with 1,547 yards and 16 total touchdowns. In the Belk Bowl vs Louisville, Chubb had one of the greatest games by a Georgia running back ever, rushing for 266 yards.
His sophomore season, Chubb was off to a great start, but suffered a nasty knee injury at Tennessee. He finished his sophomore year with 747 yards in six games. He was averaging 8.1 yards per carry.
Chubb’s junior season, Kirby Smart’s first, was another good one. He finished with 1,130 yards, but something was missing. It did not feel as if Chubb was fully recovered from the knee injury that still haunts football fans.
But when Chubb and running mate Sony Michel announced their return to UGA for their senior seasons, DawgNation had a good feeling about what the two could accomplish.
In 2017, Chubb went for 1,345 yards and 15 touchdowns, while Michel put up 1,227 yards and 16 touchdowns. The two of them could not be stopped, and together they produced the greatest single season by a tandem in college football history. And oh how close they came to being properly rewarded for sticking around another year. An SEC championship and a Rose Bowl win were nice, but nobody deserved a national championship more than those two. Chubb finished as the school’s No. 2 all-time leading rusher and Michel finished No. 3.
2) Charley Trippi (1942, 45-46)
Charley Trippi is considered one of the greatest college football players of all-time, not just at Georgia, but anywhere. He is also the oldest living No. 1 NFL Draft pick and a college and pro football hall of famer.
All one needs to know about the career and place in history of Charley Trippi comes from these impeccable sources. Possibly three of the 20th century’s most knowledgeable college football authorities, Alabama head coach Paul “Bear” Bryant, Arkansas head coach, athletic director and ABC Sports analyst Frank Broyles and the legendary voice of college football, ABC play-by-play man Keith Jackson, each is on record of having stated that Charley Trippi was the greatest college football player they had ever seen play. Mighty high praise indeed.
One of Georgia football’s best eras, among many, was the 1940s. Behind Sinkwich and Trippi, Georgia was able to finish 11-1 in 1942, including a Rose Bowl win over UCLA. The Bulldogs were named national champions of the 1942 season – a season that includes Georgia’s largest margin of victory of Florida, 75-0.
After helping UGA win the National Championship, Trippi hit pause on his college football career when he went to fight in World War II.
War seemed to only further hone Trippi’s skills and in his first season back he earned All-SEC honors despite missing the first five games of the 1945 season. In his final season in Athens, Trippi led the Dawgs to their first undefeated season while picking up Maxwell Award honors and finishing second in Heisman voting.
1) Herschel Walker (1980-82)
Even though he hasn’t played a snap for the red and black in over 35 years, no player is more synonymous with Georgia football than Herschel Walker. You could even make a strong case that he was the college game’s greatest player ever. While rushing for over 1600 yards and 15 TDs as a freshman in 1980, number 34 carried Georgia to its second ever National Championship and finished second in Heisman voting.
The following season he bested his own mark by tallying 1,891 total yards, which remained the SEC record until 2015. His junior season, Walker was named to his third-consecutive first-team All-American selection and the Heisman trophy, still Georgia’s most recent winner.
Following his junior season, Walker turned pro. Since the NFL did not accept underclassmen, Walker went to the newly-formed USFL did. He signed with the New Jersey Generals and became the marquee player in that league. In his three-year USFL career, Walker rushed for 5,562 yards.
The SEC Player of the Year every season he participated, Walker is the last Bulldog (and one of only four) to have his number retired.
He finsihed his Georgia career with 5,259 rushing yards, a Georgia and SEC record, and 49 touchdowns.
