Don’t mind me. My next 8 months will be spent trying not to make too many wild projections for Trevor Etienne in a Georgia uniform.

After the Florida transfer announced his decision to cross enemy lines and play for the Dawgs, I thought about all the new possibilities for the dynamic running back. It’s not just that Etienne will play for a team that should be fighting for Playoff position instead of fighting for bowl eligibility, or that he’s going to a place with a rich history of backfield superstars.

Etienne is going to a place where he can become a superstar, not just a nice player who didn’t get the football enough.

Florida fans, don’t tell me that Etienne couldn’t get more touches. Nine pounds are separating Cody Schrader and Etienne. There shouldn’t be 9 scrimmage touches/game difference between those 2 players. One player had a coaching staff that recognized his value, and another had a coaching staff that didn’t want him on the field as much because he wasn’t a good pass-blocker.

Yep. That’s reality.

The reality is that pass protecting — something that only 1 SEC back (Quinshon Judkins) did at least 7 times per game — became a sticking point with Etienne’s usage at Florida. Do you know what Georgia’s backs aren’t asked to do? Pass protect. Daijun Edwards did it on 39 snaps in 11 games, and Kendall Milton did it just 24 times in 12 games. Consider it a luxury of having one of the best offensive lines in America every year.

Etienne will get to run behind that Georgia offensive line, and not the group that returned just 1 starter (Kingsley Eguakun) … who only started 4 games this year because of injury.

Go back and watch games like Utah, Kentucky and even South Carolina, which the Gators rallied to beat on the road. Those running lanes were virtually non-existent. That also contributed to Etienne’s workload. One would think a player of Etienne’s caliber — it’s not every day that a true freshman averages 6.2 yards/scrimmage touch like Etienne did in 2022 — would then get schemed open some looks in the passing game.

Nope. Backfield mate Montrell Johnson Jr. was featured more prominently there even though Etienne showed plenty of promise as a pass-catcher.


Johnson operated as a receiver on 222 snaps compared to just 137 for Etienne. Why? Call it a mix of the pass-blocking thing with Napier’s loyalty to Johnson, who came to Florida from Louisiana with Napier.

(For what it’s worth, PFF only graded Johnson with the No. 18 pass-blocking grade among SEC running backs with at least 200 total snaps in 2023.)

This isn’t the part where I dog Johnson. He’s a solid SEC running back that Florida has been fortunate to have these past 2 seasons. There’s clearly a certain trust factor he earned as someone who arrived in Gainesville with experience in the Napier offense.

All of that can be true while also feeling like Etienne should’ve been the one averaging 15 touches per game, not Johnson.

And to be clear, Etienne going to Georgia won’t suddenly give him 25 carries per game. After all, this is Georgia. Like, the program that hasn’t had a back carry the rock 200 times in a season since 2017 Nick Chubb. But unlike Florida, where Etienne had 1 career game with 20 scrimmage touches, his game-to-game volume at Georgia won’t be limited by things like pass-protecting or seniority in a system (Etienne’s lone game with 20 scrimmage touches was when he had a career-high 172 rushing yards in the win against Tennessee).

The ideal mold for Etienne at Georgia would be 2019 D’Andre Swift. That is, a versatile, shifty pre-NFL Draft running back who took over games even though he measured at 5-8, 212 pounds. Swift, who played with his fair share of loaded backfields at Georgia, had 8 career games with at least 20 scrimmage touches. Six of those games happened in that 2019 season, wherein he totaled 220 scrimmage touches.

Is it crazy to think that 2024 Etienne can be the second coming of 2019 Swift? Look at their effectiveness through 2 seasons:

First 2 seasons
Swift
Etienne
Yards/carry
6.8
5.9
Receiving yards/game
15.5
9.9
Games w/ 20 scrimmage touches
2
1
Scrimmage yards/game
73
71.3
Total TDs
17
15

Mind you, Swift had more favorable surroundings than Etienne playing for an 11-14 Florida squad the past 2 seasons. Yes, the Gators had a better, more consistent offensive line in 2022 compared to 2023, but it still wasn’t at Georgia’s level when it fueled a national championship berth in 2017 and it was a Joe Moore Award finalist in 2018. The Dawgs again had a Joe Moore Award finalist group in 2023.

In other words, no, I don’t think Etienne will be limited to 2 yards before contact like he was at Florida in 2023.

Also, think about how the game flow will benefit Etienne. Playing for a pair of losing teams at Florida, it didn’t take much for Etienne to be pushed to the back burner. Even if the offense is built around Carson Beck in 2024, Etienne is playing for a team without a regular season loss in the last 3 seasons. If he’s being pushed to the back burner in a game, it’ll be because Georgia is up 42-7.

That’s why people like myself are so bullish on Etienne at Georgia. It’s not just that his older brother is all-time ACC rushing leader Travis Etienne, or that it’s going to make for a juicy storyline when those teams meet in Jacksonville. It’s not even that we’re projecting him to suddenly average twice as many touches per game as he did at Florida. It’s that an extremely effective player is going to be put in an even better situation.

A guy who had 18% of his runs go for at least 10 yards in his first 2 college seasons — that was better than 2022 Quinshon Judkins (15.3%) and 2023 Schrader (14.9%) — has all the potential to become Georgia’s first All-SEC running back since the aforementioned Swift.

Can Etienne do that? More important, can he become the best non-quarterback player for another Georgia national championship squad? Time will tell.

Until then, I’ll spend the next 8 months trying not to get carried away.