It still remains to be seen whether Georgia has a fully healthy Nick Chubb when it kicks off the season in Atlanta against North Carolina on Sept. 3.

New Bulldogs coach Kirby Smart didn’t sound all that enthusiastic about the possibility, recently telling an Atlanta sports radio station that the star tailback and former Heisman Trophy candidate remains “tentative” as he recovers from the season-ending knee injury he suffered last October.

“I think his psyche is he’s still a little tentative right now because he just started to run some and do some things,” Smart recently told 680 The Fan’s “Front Row,” according to the Athens Banner-Herald. “He trusts our training staff. Ron (Courson) does an unbelievable job with him. Ron gives me a weekly update on Nick and he’s shown really good progress.”

But Smart appeared to hedge when asked if that meant Chubb would be ready to play against a likely ranked Tar Heels team that will bring a formidable defense to the Georgia Dome.

“To say he’s going to be ready Day One or he’s going to be ready Game One, I think we’re a long way from that right now,” Smart said. “We want to do what’s right for Nick long term, and that’s the most important thing. He feels comfortable with that, Ron feels comfortable with that and that’s at the discretion of the doctors.”

Smart made his comments before a video was posted of Chubb sprinting on a treadmill.

Chubb, a rising junior who ranks as one of the nation’s best players when healthy, tore ligaments in his left knee on the first offensive play from scrimmage at Tennessee on Oct. 10. Chubb entered that game averaging 149 yards per game.

The Dawgs struggled without him, finishing 83rd nationally in total offense and 85th in scoring.

Sony Michel assumed Chubb’s spot in the lineup and finished with 1,161 yards and eight touchdowns, but he doesn’t run as effectively with power between the tackles as Chubb did to single-handedly fuel the Georgia attack.

The lack of an effective power running game put the onus of making more plays to compensate squarely on the shoulders of quarterback Greyson Lambert, who struggled with the added responsibilities.

Michel again will shoulder the load if Chubb isn’t 100 percent at the season’s start, with true freshman Elijah Holyfield poised to contribute as well.

Smart thinks that Chubb “can be great again and be better,” but it’s unclear now whether that will be the case by the time the Tar Heels stroll into town.

Or at all in 2016 for that matter.

“I do think sometimes with these injuries, I remember it with Robert Edwards, I remember it with other guys, where they’re better the second year after it than the first year after it,” Smart said. “We’ve got to remember that and we’ve got to be smart about that.”