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Kentucky’s Williams, Snell more productive than Georgia’s Chubb, Michel
By John Crist
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When Georgia heads to Kentucky on Saturday, the battle at the running back position will be crucial to determining the outcome.
The top tailback tandem in the SEC thus far is Auburn’s Kamryn Pettway and Kerryon Johnson. Despite neither being projected as the starter at the beginning of fall camp, they’ve combined for 1,513 yards rushing.
The second-most productive duo on the ground also comes as a bit of a surprise. It’s not Leonard Fournette and Derrius Guice of LSU. It’s not Jalen Hurd and Alvin Kamara of Tennessee — that won’t change after Hurd’s midseason decision to leave the program. It’s not even Nick Chubb and Sony Michel of the Bulldogs.
With 1,482 yards, a mere 31 behind Pettway and Johnson, it’s Stanley “Boom” Williams and Benjamin Snell Jr. of the Wildcats.
UK is coming off an incredible performance in the running game this past Saturday, a 35-21 win on the road at Missouri that wasn’t as close as the final score suggests. The ‘Cats ran all over the Tigers from start to finish.
Snell set career highs with 38 carries for 192 yards, plus he scored 2 touchdowns. He’s now the No. 8 rusher in the league with 661 yards through eight games. Even though he only got half as many carries as Snell (below), Williams ran for 182 yards — also a career high — and a TD of his own. He’s No. 3 with 821 yards.
But while Mizzou is dead last in the SEC stopping the run, UGA is fourth and only allows 3.2 yards per carry.
The Dawgs are coming off a disappointing 24-10 loss to rival Florida in the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party, but it wasn’t the run defense’s fault. The Gators ran the rock 48 times for only an even 100 yards.
Georgia is already dead and buried in the East race with a 2-4 record in conference play, although Kentucky remains alive at 4-2. That being said, the Wildcats are technically two games behind 4-1 UF since they lost that head-to-head matchup — “lost” is generous considering the tally was 45-7 — back in Week 2.
At this point, the Bulldogs are simply trying to improve their bowl prospects. UK hasn’t even gone bowling since the 2010 campaign.
‘Cats coach Mark Stoops is yet to break through and become a legitimate threat to blue bloods like Florida, Georgia and Tennessee in the division. Nevertheless, he’s recruited well and upgraded the roster in Lexington.
“Having the depth and being able to rotate guys in at all positions has helped us with our health,” Stoops said Thursday, according to 247Sports. “It certainly has helped Boom, and I think we’re fresh and we seem to be really playing fast from our GPS units and just looking at us. I’m pleased with what I’m seeing, and our speeds are staying high. The guys are working extremely hard, so I think that’s a big piece of it, to be able to have the depth.”
There isn’t a deeper backfield than the one in Athens. That being said, the three-headed monster of Chubb, Michel and Brian Herrien got nothing done last weekend in Jacksonville. As a trio, they rushed 14 times for 26 yards — nobody had a run longer than 7 — and didn’t get anywhere near the end zone.
Chubb is 11th in the league in rushing with 606 yards. Michel is 21st (360). Herrien is 23rd (345).
After a 222-yard performance in the season-opening win over North Carolina, everyone just assumed that Chubb (below) was fully healthy again after 2015’s knee injury. However, he’s only hit triple digits one time since.
In that 33-24 defeat of the Tar Heels, it wasn’t just Chubb’s yardage that was so impressive. He hadn’t played a game since the previous October, yet he carried the ball a mind-boggling 32 times. That appears to have been an anomaly, though. He averaged 13.3 carries in his next seven games due to injury and ineffectiveness.
That being said, don’t expect Stoops to take Chubb and Co. lightly. He doesn’t have the kind of front seven Florida does.
“The bottom line is they have very good backs,” Stoops said. “I’m sure they’re going to want to feed the ball and get those guys going.”
Chubb and Michel were stymied by the Gators like never before. Among games in which he’s received at least 5 attempts, Chubb’s 20 yards last Saturday were a career low. Needless to say, Michel’s 2 yards were a career low, too.
“Me and Sony, we live together,” Chubb said Wednesday, according to 247Sports. “We’re close. Just me and him talking one-on-one, it was just kind of embarrassing. I think he had 2 yards. He came and told me, ‘That ain’t ever going to happen again, 2 yards.’ Same for me. We kind of agreed upon that. Me and him, personally, made a promise to get these guys going and get things rolling.”
The entire Bulldogs offense isn’t what we thought it would be before the season began. Quarterback Jacob Eason has been asked to shoulder too much of the load as a true freshman. His receiving corps has been inconsistent — way too many dropped passes — on a weekly basis. The offensive line has been a sieve lately.
Still, Chubb has made no excuses. He didn’t even get a chance to finish the schedule last year. He plans to do so in 2016.
“People remember what you do in November,” he said, “so hopefully we catch a little fire here and continue on.”
John Crist is the senior writer for Saturday Down South, a member of the FWAA and a voter for the Heisman Trophy. Send him an e-mail, like him on Facebook or follow him on Twitter.
John Crist is an award-winning contributor to Saturday Down South.
