"Who would you rank as the coaches most important to UGA's success?"
A DawgsCentral user posting under the name PiousMonken posed that question to me in the spring of 2023, and I quickly realized that a good answer would require quite a bit of consideration.
When thinking about the question, I kept coming back to an old football cliche, "It's not the X's and the O's, but the Jimmys and the Joes that make the difference." I found myself considering the players who suit up on Saturdays. Good gameplans and great play calls are key to the success of any college football program, but they are usually only as good as the personnel executing them. With that in mind, I decided to broaden the scope of the rankings beyond members of the coaching staff.
It sparked a series of longform articles called 23 For 2023. The premise was simple- Profile the 23 people who were most important to Georgia’s success on the gridiron in 2023. To create such a list, one must make value judgments on what on and off-field assets are most important to a modern college football program.
It focused on players and coaches within the UGA program. Collectively, the series served as a giant preview for the season ahead. It became a favorite of subscribers, and it forced me to ask questions that I hadn’t before.
This year, I am bringing the list back once again. Naturally, it will be called 24 for 2024.
With his former mentor now manning a microphone on ESPN, Kirby Smart is college football’s most accomplished coach. In 2024, Smart will have to navigate significant staff turnover and seismic changes within the sport itself. Georgia came up short of a third straight national championship in 2023, but winning it all this season would give the Bulldogs three titles in four years. That achievement would cement the program as a modern dynasty.
Whether or not Georgia can reach that lofty pedestal, and how they go about trying to do it, will be largely influenced by the roles these 24 individuals play.
Today we continue the rankings with #16 and #15. The first entries in this series have not been paywalled, but they will be as we enter the top 15. Let’s get after it…
Previous Entries
#23 - Will a True Nose Tackle emerge for the Dawgs?
#16 - Trevor Etienne + #15 - Josh Crawford
Georgia's football program came by the "RBU" moniker honestly.
Herschel Walker arrived in the 1980 season and went on a three-year tear through college football, leading the Bulldogs to an undefeated season and a national championship in 1980 before winning the 1982 Heisman Trophy. His 5,259 rushing yards (that total doesn't include his bowl game stats) remain the most ever by any player in the SEC.
For decades, those seasons cast a wide shadow over the Georgia program. Every coach and player who came to Athens did so looking to lead the Dawgs back to a promised land that none had reached since Walker carried the program to the top of the sport. The Dawgs came within 5 points of an undefeated season when Garrison Hearst ran for 1,547 yards in 1992. Mark Richt fielded multiple Georgia teams that looked capable of ending the title drought. The 2002 team went 13-1 and captured UGA's first SEC title since '82 with Musa Smith rumbling for 1,324 yards on the ground. The 2012 team was buoyed by freshman Todd Gurley and his 1,385 rushing yards a decade later. They came up 5 yards and a few seconds short of clipping Nick Saban's ascendant Alabama dynasty in the SEC Championship, but Richt would never come closer than that before being ousted from the program after the 2015 regular season.
Richt's final campaign started with great expectations after Georgia happened upon its next great back the season before. A true freshman named Nick Chubb flew onto the scene when he ran through multiple Clemson Tigers and out of his shoe for a TD on his second career carry the season before. Chubb's 47-yard TD flashed a blend of power and burst that made many whisper the name of Walker. When Gurley was suspended due to an NCAA investigation, Chubb showed he had the same type of stamina that #34 had possessed. He carried the ball 38 times at Missouri. Then he toted it 30 times for 202 yards the next week against Arkansas. He capped off that spectacular season with 266 yards rushing in the Belk Bowl against Louisville. That effort gave him a bowl game record and a season total of 1,547 yards. That tied him with Hearst for the highest single season total by any Bulldog not named Walker.
Chubb started his sophomore season like he ended his freshman one. He went for 745 yards in his first 5 games, and his 146 yards against Alabama were the lone bright spot in a blowout loss that sealed Richt's fate in the eyes of many. The next week in Knoxville, Chubb would suffer a knee injury so horrific that many wondered if he'd ever play again. Chubb did play again, but the next time he suited up for UGA it was with Kirby Smart at head coach.
Georgia's Burgeoning Dynasty Started on the Ground
Smart's debut came in Atlanta against North Carolina, and it probably would've ended in a loss without Chubb's somewhat miraculous return. He ran for 222 yards in a come from behind victory over the Tar Heels, but he struggled to regain his prior form as Georgia stumbled to an 8-5 record in year one of the Smart era. As he watched Georgia Tech players tear pieces out of Sanford Stadium's famed hedges, he vowed to return to Athens for his senior season. His best friend, roommate, and fellow 1000+ yard RB Sony Michel joined him. So did fellow seniors Davin Bellamy and Lorenzo Carter.
Those four players formed the emotional foundation of a team that would get out to a 9-0 start and avenge its only loss by beating Auburn in the SEC Championship. Late in that season, Chubb started to look like the back he had been before the injury. He broke a long TD run against Kentucky in a 151 yard performance in mid-November, and then made Oklahoma's secondary look silly after UGA fell behind to the Sooners in the CFP Semifinal at the Rose Bowl. His backfield mate would "run the Dawgs back to Atlanta" with a Wildcat carry in overtime. Nick had helped force OT when he took his own Wildcat snap in for a TD down on the goal line with the clock nearing triple zeroes late in regulation.
Kirby Smart's 2017 team ultimately came up just short of a national title, but they got the Bulldogs back to the season's final game for the first time since Walker was in a Georgia jersey. The team's style of play was easy to embrace for any Bulldogs who were raised on those previous glory years. They ran the ball on 68.7% of their offensive snaps, and relied on a hellacious defense to smother most opponents. Smart's team didn't just return Georgia to national relevance, it put the R-B back in RBU. In the end, Chubb finished second on the SEC's career rushing leaders list to Walker.
Georgia evolved, and it eventually broke its national title drought in 2021 with a balanced offense and an elite defense. It was the RB tandem of James Cook and Zamir White who delivered the final blows as the Dawgs wore down the Crimson Tide in Indianapolis.
Kirby Smart has brought Bulldogs fans good times that surpassed the wildest dreams of many. As we sit here today, Georgia hasn't lost a regular season game since November of 2020. There was the dream defense of 2021, and the ruthlessly efficient offense of 2022. It was Bowers and Bennett and so many others who ultimately delivered the grand prize to the program, but the plane may have never gotten off the ground without an inherited RB tandem that loved Georgia too much to leave her after an 8-5 season in 2016.
Dell McGee Helped Georgia Close its Borders
The man who coached their position room was a Peach State product in his own right, a formed high-school coach named Dell McGee. His rapport with coaches throughout Georgia provided crucial contributions to Smart's foundation. Between 2005-2012, McGee had built Carver-Columbus High School from a doormat into one of the state's most consistent programs, turning out NFL talent like Jarvis Jones and Isaiah Crowell along the way. The Dawgs have become a national recruiting powerhouse, but they built their brand with home grown talent before spreading their wings across the continent. McGee's roots were deep in the Columbus area, and he helped UGA close off the southern and western parts of the state to programs like Alabama, Auburn and Tennessee. Smart's staff won the types of in-state recruiting battles that so many UGA staffs before him often lost.
They landed Richard LeCounte, Andrew Thomas and Jake Fromm, three of the top five players in Georgia, during the 2017 cycle. All three played significant snaps as freshmen, with Fromm and Thomas becoming key offensive starters. used the momentum created by the 2017 season to land 8 of the state's top 11 players in the 2018 cycle. They put a wall up when five-star tackles Broderick Jones and Tate Ratledge came of age in the 2020 class. Georgia has always tried to keep its best players home, but the Dawgs began to have more and more options as the program rose to prominence in recent years. Naturally, there were some coaches in Georgia who didn't like that. They wanted to see the flagship in-state school recruit their players. McGee served as a translator of sorts for the program, and ensured that a strong level of trust remained between UGA and the high-school coaches who develop the talent the program needs.
This offseason, McGee got the job offer that he had long deserved, becoming the head coach at Georgia State in Atlanta. There was nobody happier for him than Kirby Smart, but with McGee's departure came an open position on the UGA staff. Many names were thrown around, but Smart eventually tabbed Georgia Tech WR coach Josh Crawford to take the reins of the Georgia RB room. One might wonder why Smart hired a WR coach to come oversee his running backs, but the logic behind the hire becomes obvious when considering who Crawford was replacing.
Hiring from Within the Peach State
Crawford spent 11 years coaching offensive football at some of Georgia's most prominent high-school programs. He was part of three Georgia 6A state championships across stops at Colquitt County, Valdosta, Lee County, Jefferson County and Greater Atlanta Christian. Smart first interviewed Crawford when WR coach Bryan McClendon left Georgia for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Kirby strongly considered hiring Crawford, but he decided to hire former UGA OC James Coley away from South Carolina instead. When the RB position opened, Smart knew who he wanted to bring in.
"Felt so strongly about him as a football coach," said Smart. "I don't think you have to be any certain position if you're a good football coach. That was evident across the state, the places he's coached in our state. I have a lot of respect for the places he's coached, how he's done, and we think he fits our program.”
Crawford jumped to the college level at Western Kentucky in 2021. That season he coached outside receivers for one of the sport's most prolific offenses. QB Bailey Zappe threw for 5,967 yards and Crawford had a 1900 yard receiver and a 1400 yard receiver. He was promoted to WR coach/co-OC for 2022 and hired to Georgia Tech by Brent Key after that season. Like McGee, Crawford came to Athens with a reputation for being a fantastic recruiter who knows how to relate well to players. Crawford recruited four-star WR Isaiah Canion to Tech during his time there, which was considered a major coup for the program. In Athens, Crawford gets to recruit to a program with a rich history of running back excellence while tapping into the relationships he's built across the state of Georgia in past years.
UGA's 2024 RB Room Could be its Deepest in Years
Any concerns about Walker's lack of experience coaching running backs at the college level should be eased by the fact that he played the position at Morehouse College from 2004-2006. It helps that Crawford has the good fortune of rolling into a running back room that is already well stacked with talent. McGee landed four-star Roderick Robinson in the 2023 class out of California and his final haul in the 2024 cycle included five-star Nate Frazier, four-star Dwight Phillips Jr. and four-star Chauncey Bowens. He also inherits Branson Robinson, who was the #1 rated running back nationally in the 2022 recruiting class.
Through almost two weeks of fall camp, this group looks like the deepest and most competitive RB room that the Bulldogs have had in years. Frazier has made quite the first impression, flashing excellent lateral quickness and top end speed that should be enough to force his way into the rotation despite not enrolling until this summer. Branson's form after returning form a ruptured patellar tendon has been nothing short of a revelation. Always a strong, powerful back, the Mississippi native now looks quicker than before the injury according to sources. Roderick Robinson was named the California Player of the Year by MaxPreps after rushing for 2,378 yards and 37 TD's as a senior at Lincoln High School in San Diego. He did all of that at 240 pounds, displaying unusually smooth footwork for a back of his size. After a year in UGA's conditioning program, he is playing at 230 pounds and carrying just 6% body fat. He could end up being one of the most physically unique running backs in UGA history, and that's saying a lot. Roderick is battling turf toe issues in camp, but he did score a long TD on a wheel route in last weekend's scrimmage. That's a reminder that Robinson is not just a battering ram. He is a well-rounded back with soft hands and receiving skills who can hurt opposing defenses in multiple ways.
Those 3 running backs all appear ready for action, but it appears that they will start the season behind transfer Trevor Etienne. Of all the players on Georgia's 2024 roster, none represent the new era of college football more than Etienne. Last fall he was playing against the Bulldogs when they faced hated rival Florida in Jacksonville. By Christmas Eve, Etienne had announced his intentions to transfer to the other side of the rivalry and enroll at Georgia for his junior season.
From Overlooked to Sought After Transfer
Etienne is the younger brother of former Clemson star Travis Etienne. The elder Etienne racked up 4,952 rushing yards in college and amassed over 6,000 yards from scrimmage during his time with the Tigers. He had over 1600 yards rushing in both 2018 and 2019, averaging nearly 8 yards a carry over those seasons. He finished his time at Clemson as the ACC's all-time leading rusher and his 70 career rushing TD's are 18 more than the next closest player in conference history.
If you head west on Interstate 10 out of Lafayette and drive for about 45 minutes, you'll quickly reach the small town of Jennings, Louisiana. It was here where Travis and Donnetta Etienne raised their boys. A family with creole roots, Travis Sr. worked in the oil industry while Donnetta was a nurse at a local hospital. Jennings has a population of almost 10,000 people today, and perhaps the small size of the town is why the Etienne brothers were both somewhat overlooked coming out of high-school. Travis was a four-star recruit, but only the nation's 15th highest rated RB. His success would lead one to think that Trevor might have gotten a closer look from the recruiting services, but at 5'9" and 218 pounds he was not seen as a priority recruit by some of the services. On3 ranked him as a three-star and the nation's 59th best running back. 247 had Trevor as the cycle's 46th best back. The coaches evaluating him seemed to disagree, and Etienne landed scholarship offers from most of the SEC's top programs as well as Clemson. Instead of choosing to follow his brother, Trevor went to Gainesville to play for the Gators. His brother had been drafted to Jacksonville and his family had relocated there, and Etienne said that he felt like he had already experienced Clemson for four years after being there a lot for his brother's games.
Etienne proved any doubters wrong off the bat in Gainesville. In his debut at home against Utah, Etienne ran for 64 yards on just 5 carries, with 48 of those yards coming after contact. On just 5 rushes he forced 5 missed tackles, serving notice that he was extremely elusive for a 200+ pound back. Despite being the most talented back on the team in the eyes of many, Etienne only eclipsed 12 carries in a game twice his freshman year. One of those games was against Florida State where he put up 129 yards on 17 carries. He would finish 2022 averaging 6.1 yards a carry behind a mediocre offensive line while running for 719 yards on just 118 attempts. A skilled pass catcher, Etienne only saw 9 targets with 9 receptions for 66 yards in his first college season.
Many expected his work rate to be higher in 2023, but Etienne's rushing attempts only jumped up 12 carries. He managed 756 yards last year with 8 TD's, but he was second on the team in carries behind Montrell Johnson. A former Louisiana transfer, Johnson had followed head coach Billy Napier to Florida after his freshman season in 2021. Etienne, and other critics, felt like Napier might be favoring the wrong running back when distributing carries amongst his room. Etienne had more yards per carry, more yards after contact per carry, and more missed tackles forced than Johnson in 2023, but he remained second in the pecking order. At the end of the season he decided to transfer.
Etienne talked about the decision to transfer out of Gainesville on the Real Talk Georgia podcast in March. "I’d been with Florida for two years. I went through that whole process of rebuilding. It was kind of still rebuilding. And I felt like there was a lot of uncertainties," said Etienne. "A lot of questions was unanswered. There was a lot of unknown going on. And I felt like ‘I can stay here and do what I’ve been doing for another year or two, or bet on myself and take a chance somewhere else.’ So pretty much to sum it up, I could either be RB2 on a losing team or go somewhere and possibly be RB1 and win a natty.”
Etienne was one of the best players to enter the transfer portal last December, but he was tied to Georgia almost from the start. That wasn't due to other teams not pursuing him, but Etienne's priorities were more grounded in competing for titles than fishing for the biggest NIL deal around. He later said that Georgia and Ohio State were the only two schools he considered, and he delivered UGA fans an early holiday present by dropping his commitment on Christmas Eve.
Etienne was attracted to the functional nature and tight bonds of the Georgia locker room, and he embraced UGA's offseason skull sessions that focus on team bonding. “That’s definitely something, I’d say, that Florida didn’t have," said Etienne. "Our locker room wasn’t the closest. We got along, but coming here and seeing all the guys get along — I feel like having those goal sessions, I feel like that plays a big part. Coming from another program, I see how y’all interact with each other. I see how y’all care and love one another. That made it a lot easier for me to get to know everyone, because we’re all getting along.”
Etienne is Ready to be Georgia's Home Run Hitter
For Crawford and the rest of the Georgia staff, there is no mistaking why Etienne joined the program. The rising junior was disgruntled by the lack of playing time he got at UF, and is looking to be the feature back in Georgia's offense. Sources have unanimously told DawgsCentral that they expect him to be UGA's clear #1 man in the backfield. He wowed both staff and players with his combination of speed, lateral quickness and ability to run through contact when he started practicing with Georgia back in the spring.
Though he rarely got large chunks of carries in games at Florida, Etienne has shown that he can be the type of back who gets better as the game wears on. Against Tennessee last season, Etienne ran for 172 yards on 23 attempts. He forced 10 missed tackles over the course of the game and averaged 5.26 yards after contact per a rush attempt. Florida ran a lot more zone scheme than gap scheme over the past two seasons, but 13 of those 23 carries against the Vols came on zone runs while 10 came in gap.
Looking at his tape, Etienne seems comfortable behind both blocking schemes. That should help UGA break tendencies in 2024. There were stretches of games in 2023 where it felt like Daijun Edwards and Kendall Milton ran better behind one scheme versus the other. The 2021 and 2022 Bulldogs were almost 50/50 in terms of gap versus zone runs called. That allowed them a release valve if a defense started keying on the run game. Last year's Bulldogs were a zone scheme team on almost 67% of carries. It will be interesting to see if that was because of the skill set of Edwards and Milton or more about Mike Bobo's preferences as a play caller. In Etienne, Georgia has a well-rounded back who can break big runs at any time.
Etienne should also help UGA's passing game out of the backfield after the Bulldogs took a step back in that department in 2023. For his career, Etienne has 30 receptions on 30 targets. He averaged 9 yards after the catch per reception last season, and he could provide Carson Beck with a lot of easy yards on checkdowns in 2024.
With Etienne on the roster, RBU has another super star level running back. Georgia has always loved and embraced elite backs in a unique way, and Etienne could be the next player to be embraced by Bulldog Nation. When talking to friends of the site who are familiar with the Etienne family, there were some who believe that Trevor is the more talented Etienne brother. If that's anywhere close to true, the potential for Trevor's 2024 campaign seems limitless.
With a schedule that could stretch to as many as 17 games, there will be more opportunities than ever before for a strong back to put up gaudy statistics. Georgia is likely to manage Etienne's carries against lesser opponents, but his top end speed gives him the home run ability that UGA hasn't had in the backfield since maybe D'Andre Swift. The Florida offensive line he played behind last year wasn't great, but Etienne has the ability to turn a crease into a big gain. With UGA's OL paving the way and Beck's arm talent keeping defenses honest, Trevor could create multiple chunk runs every week of the season.
For new RB's coach Josh Crawford, it's the perfect time to transition into the program. Crawford has developed a reputation as a coach who demands excellence one every rep while creating competition. This year's RB room has at least four guys who should demand regular touches, and that should make all of them better. The ceiling for what Etienne and the rest of the UGA RB's could accomplish is sky high. It may be looked back on as McGee's final gift to a program that he gave his heart and soul to for 8 years. That should give Crawford plenty of ammunition on the recruiting trail in the years ahead, ensuring that Georgia continues to bring in backs who can carry on the tradition of the school known as RBU.
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