When a team loses two star running backs like Nick Chubb and Sony Michel, it’s supposed to hurt the offense quite a bit.

In Georgia history, only Herschel Walker has run for more yards and touchdowns than Chubb, and Michel ranks third on the Bulldogs’ all-time rushing yards list and seventh on the touchdowns list.

Losing players of that caliber at the same time isn’t supposed to be easy, even for teams such as Georgia, Alabama, Ohio State, Clemson or any number of other national powerhouses.

However, when the Bulldogs enter the 2018 season, they’ll once again have an absolutely loaded backfield. In fact, based on the talent Georgia will have at the running back position next year and beyond, the Bulldogs’ backfield could develop into one that’s even better than the 2017 edition.

Naturally, it all starts with this year’s freshman sensation, D’Andre Swift. Swift was a 5-star recruit out of Philadelphia who became more important to the Bulldogs’ offense as the season went along.

Not only can Swift run the ball at an impressive rate, he is also an impact player catching passes out of the backfield. In addition to running for 597 yards and three touchdowns on only 73 attempts (an incredible 8.2 yards per carry), he had 15 catches for 146 yards and a touchdown.

Even though the Bulldogs aren’t done with their College Football Playoff run, Swift is already getting put on watch lists for the 2018 Heisman Trophy, and there’s no reason to think he can’t live up to those expectations.

He’ll be the unquestioned leader of the Georgia backfield next season, but he’s not the only talented runner the Bulldogs will have in the mix. Also returning will be rising juniors Brian Herrien and Elijah Holyfield, who combined for 558 rushing yards and three touchdowns this year.

Then, there will be the freshman reinforcements, namely Zamir White, the top running back recruit in the nation, and James Cook — Dalvin Cook’s younger brother and the No. 3 back in the 2018 class.

Those two certainly could become a dynamic duo in the Chubb-Michel mold, but there are some concerns:

  • White is recovering from a torn ACL that ended his high school career prematurely, and that puts his spring availability in question. However, it wouldn’t be too much of a surprise to see him healthy in time for the start of fall camp. And if not, he could take a redshirt season and Georgia would still be fine for 2018.
  • The bigger worry is that Cook might not stick around to see how that plays out. Not every athlete wants to play in a multi-back system like Chubb and Michel did, and Cook seems to be exploring his options. It should come as no surprise that he’s looking at Florida State, where his brother became a star:

Cook has been committed to Georgia since October, but that was before then-FSU coach Jimbo Fisher left for Texas A&M. Now the Seminoles have Willie Taggart at the helm, and it will be interesting to see if that’s enough to sway Cook’s decision.

If his dream is to play in the NFL, though, Cook would be just as well off fighting his way up the depth chart with the Bulldogs.

In recent years, the Georgia program has produced Todd Gurley, Keith Marshall, Knowshon Moreno, Isaiah Crowell and other backs who have found success at the professional level, so clearly Athens is the place to be for runners with NFL aspirations.

With the early signing period less than a week away (begins Wednesday, Dec. 20), we’ll know soon enough if Georgia is going to have a crazy-deep backfield for 2018 or just a really-deep one.

Next year is shaping up to be another great year for the Georgia ground game, and after next week we can turn our attention to what Kirby Smart has in store for the Bulldogs’ 2019 recruiting class.