UGA’s 5-star RB Zamir White out for all of 2018
Georgia’s RB depth took a major hit during Saturday’s scrimmage when 5-star true freshman RB Zamir White suffered a torn ACL that will keep him out for the entire 2018 campaign.
Published on Sunday, 8/19/18, at 4:30 p.m. Eastern.
When you’re considered one of the top-five running backs in Georgia football history, you’re in the company of some elite stallions that toted the rock for the Bulldogs. Along with Herschel Walker, Todd Gurley and Garrison Hearst, Nick Chubb and Sony Michel are in that iconic group (with apologies to Robert Edwards, Knowshon Moreno and Tim Worley, among others).
After coming oh-so-very close to tasting the school’s first national title since Walker led UGA to the 1980 championship, Chubb (2nd round to the Browns) and Michel (first round to the Patriots) are no longer around.
With D’Andre Swift, Elijah Holyfield and Zamir White, however, Kirby Smart had to feel good about his RB situation despite the losses of two of the school’s all-time greats. After Saturday, though, things are looking a tad dicey in the UGA backfield.
During the team’s scrimmage yesterday, White tore his ACL and won’t play in 2018. The Athletic’s Seth Emerson was the first to report the news.
White, a true freshman that enrolled early in January and was ranked the nation’s top prep RB in this most recent class, tore the ACL in his left knee on a non-contact play covering a punt. White tore the ACL in his other knee last November.
Now Swift really needs to stay healthy. Despite his third-string status last year, Swift was an instant factor as a true freshman. He rushed 81 times for 618 yards and three touchdowns, averaging 7.6 yards per carry. Swift also had 17 receptions for 153 yards and one TD. Holyfield ran for 293 yards and two TDs with a 5.9 YPC average.
In other injury news, Alabama LB Christopher Allen is out for the year with a knee injury. Allen, a true sophomore, was expected to get a lot of playing time after making six tackles in seven games as a freshman in 2017. Allen joins junior Terrell Lewis as LBs who won’t be available for the Crimson Tide this season.
UCLA’s starting senior LB Josh Woods is also out for the season after injuring his knee at Thursday’s practice. Woods started six of seven games for the Bruins last year before being sidelined with an injury. He had 30 tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss, one sack and one QB hurry.
In the final few minutes of the latest Games Galore 45 pod, I hit on a bunch of injury news from this past week. The most important might have been the loss for Gary Patterson’s TCU Horned Frogs, who won’t have last year’s Big 12 Co-Defensive Freshman of the Year, Ross Blacklock.
Blacklock went down with a season-ending injury last week. He started all 14 of TCU’s games at nose tackle as a true freshman, producing 27 tackles, 4.5 TFL’s and two sacks.
