Chubb Has Already Joined Georgia’s Greatest Ever Backs as Bulldogs Smash Cardinals . Well, in their swan song of 2014, the Georgia Bulldogs put their offensive package squarely onto the broad shoulders of a sensational freshman that is already moving into a rarified UGA running back atmosphere where such names as Herschel Walker, Charley Tripp and Todd Gurley have tread. And Nick Chubb certainly delivered as the 13th-ranked Bulldogs smashed the 20th-ranked Louisville Cardinals 37-14 Tuesday night in the Belk Bowl at Bank of America Stadium. Against former Georgia defensive coordinator Todd Grantham’s nationally 6th-ranked defense, Chubb punished the Cardinals for a staggering 266 yards on 33 carries and touchdown runs of 31 and 8 yards. That rushing total is not only the second best single-game mark in school history, behind Herschel Walker\’s 283 total against Vanderbilt in 1980, but it also is a new Georgia bowl record and also a Southeastern Conference bowl record. Running for more than 100 yards for the eighth straight game, the 5-10, 228-pound Cedartown product broke at least three tackles on his 31-yard touchdown gallop in the first half and then set still another Bulldog bowl record when he took the ball on a lead play at Georgia’s own 3-yard line and busted an 82-yard jaunt down the right sidelines before a Louisville defensive back with an angle on Chubb brought him down at the Louisville 15. That run would eventually lead to a 2-yard touchdown by Georgia’s other talented freshman tailback, Sony Michel, and boost the Bulldogs’ lead up to 27-7 with 5:41 left in the third quarter. With Chubb averaging a cool 8.1 yards per carry, Georgia as a team romped for 305 yards on the ground against a defense that came in surrendering only 93 yards per outing, third best in the NCAA statistics. “I’m very proud of our team,” said head coach Mark Richt, who twice screamed out, “How Bout Them Dawgs!” in the post-game award ceremonies on the field. “It was a year that I thought we had overcome a lot,” Richt said. “I think this game was maybe very similar to the type of season we had as far as losing some key people and other guys having to step up and make plays and just continue our focus and continue to fight. Just really, really proud of everybody. Our players, especially our seniors, a lot of our seniors get a lot of attention because they played a lot, they made plays. They made tackles and catches and touchdowns and all those types of things and threw touchdown passes. There’s a lot of our seniors that were scout teamers. They were seniors that were walk-ons. But, all those guys are very important to our program and I just want to wish them the best because they deserve it. They’re Dawgs for life and we’re going to be there for them to help them transition to life after football which is very important to me to let our guys know that and to follow through with that. “I thought our coaching staff did a super job,” continued Richt. “Great game defensively tonight. Their offense has been averaging over 30-something points a game and we were able to hold them to 14. Even towards the very end when they were trying to get seven more on the board, they kept fighting until the very end and I’m proud of the job they did. Our offensive staff pulled together under some adversity. Anytime you lose a coach like Mike Bobo, you’ve got to rally. You’ve got to come together and do that. I know Will Friend is going on to Colorado State with Mike, but Will chose to stay for this bowl game and that was key to our success. It would have been very difficult to run this bowl game without Will there with those offensive linemen. I think they played their tails off for him and for Georgia. John Lilly obviously did a good job of honing the game plan down. Plan B made it a little bit simpler. Nick Chubb did a beautiful job, but he couldn’t do it by himself. He showed everybody in the country again that he’s a pretty talented young man. I’m real proud of Nick,” said Richt. “You have to give Georgia all the credit; they did a great job running the football,” said Louisville head coach Bobby Petrino, whose Cardinals finished the season at 9-4. “We couldn’t get off the field on third down, I think that really hurt us throughout the night, they did a really good job of executing on third downs. He’s (Chubb) just a really good running back,” said Petrino. “He’s hard to tackle and he’s got great vision. There were a number of times where we had guys there to make the play and he just made them miss or ran over them. It was a tremendous performance by him; they also have a great offensive front. They know what they are doing and they do a good job of sustaining their blocks.” But while Georgia’s No. 27 turned out to be the worst nightmare possible for Grantham’s Louisville defense and was easily the Bulldogs’ bowl-game MVP, this Bulldog victory – which enabled Georgia to finish 2014 at 10-3 and quite possibly a top 10 national ranking – Nick Chubb was hardly the only bright spot for the Red and Black on this chilly night in Charlotte, N.C. Playing his last game for Georgia, senior quarterback Hutson Mason completed 10-of-15 passes for 149 yards including a 44-yard touchdown strike to Chris Conley for the Bulldogs’ first score of the night. And all that came in the first half as Mason, due to a vision issue, had to give way to backup quarterback Brice Ramsey in the second half. And senior wideout Conley capped his sterling career with four catches for 80 yards including the TD reception from Mason. Michel aided Chubb’s effort with 33 yards on 11 carries and the touchdown and also had a brilliant 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown nullified due to a block-in-the-back penalty. And defensively, Jeremy Pruitt’s Georgia defenders also stood tall, checking a Louisville offense that was averaging 30 points per game to just the two touchdowns and 14 points. Indeed, it was quite a bounce-back from the dismal afternoon against the Georgia Tech defense exactly one month ago. Freshman safety Dominick Sanders played big all night for Georgia, picking off two Louisville passes and hauling one back 40 yards to the Louisville 9-yard line to set up a 22-yard field goal by Marshall Morgan. And still another freshman, outside linebacker Lorenzo Carter, shared tackle honors for the night with senior linebacker Ramik Wilson, both making eight total stops. Each also showed one sack and one tackle-for-loss. Then came redshirt freshman Aaron Davis and senior end Ray Drew with seven tackles each. And so while Nick Chubb, who as usual deflected praise toward his offensive linemen, is a runaway winner for our Player of the Game on this outstanding evening for Georgia football, we have to toss the Coach of the Game award to two different guys. That would be John Lilly, who took over the play-calling chores for now Colorado State head coach Mike Bobo and tutored an offense that compiled 505 yards … the 305 on the ground and another 200 even through the air lanes as Brice Ramsey spelled starter Mason and added 51 yards passing on four of nine completions, with one costly interception. And that would also be, yes, outgoing offensive line coach Will Friend, whose guys up front kept pounding the Louisville front seven until Chubb continually cracked it. Needless to say, the Cardinal defense hadn’t encountered an offensive front like Georgia’s the entire season long. Clearly, though his mind had to be on his future job as Bobo’s offensive coordinator in Fort Collins, Colorado, Friend had his linemen ready to play against a tough Louisville defense and they did the job to the tune of that 500-yards plus worth of offense.
Posted on: Thu, 01 Jan 2015 22:27:09 +0000
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