Georgia running back Branson Robinson out for season with 'ruptured patellar tendon'
Some tough news came out of Georgia Football on Wednesday regarding running back Branson Robinson.
According to Kirby Smart, the sophomore running back suffered a non-contact, ruptured patellar tendon injury during practice. The injury will unfortunately end his season, before we even get to Week 1.
“Kirby Smart speaking with media 10 days out from season opener next Saturday. Announces that sophomore RB suffered a non-contact, ruptured patellar tendon that will end his season,” tweeted DawgsHQ. “Tough news for a running back room already dealing with depth concerns.”
Earlier this offseason, Smart lauded Robinson’s abilities and improvements, and believed he was in for a big season.
“Well you see more things he needs to improve on, because you get to see more things period,” Smart said. “But you also see flashes of explosiveness, burst, of improvement. He’s had a couple runs where he’s really shown flexibility to drop his pads, take on contact, keep going.”
Robinson was a highly rated recruit out of Germantown high school in Madison, Mississippi, rated the No. 2 running back in the country and the No. 73 overall prospect in the 2022 class according to On3’s Industry Rankings.
Running the ball has come natural for him in his transition to the collegiate level, but Smart believed there’s still some other areas of his game he can improve upon.
“Knock on wood his ball security has been good, his pass pro could use some improvement but he’s worked hard on that, he had a couple really good pickups today. So I think these opportunities for growth for him have been really good,” Smart said.
Robinson made the most of his limited carries last season, rushing for 330 yards and three touchdowns on just 68 carries.
Versus Auburn last season he made a splash, rushing for 98 yards and a touchdown on a career high 12 carries. And in Georgia’s national championship blowout win over TCU, Robinson found the end zone twice, rushing for two touchdowns along with his 42 yards on the ground.
“You know he got lots of opportunities last year to run the ball where maybe you guys didn’t see it, but we saw it, he did it in practice. But he didn’t get as much pass protection and routes out of the backfield as he’s getting now so it’s given him a chance to really put himself in position to have a great fall,” Smart said.
Unfortunately, Georgia fans will have to wait for Branson Robinson to get back on the field, as his 2023 season is over before it ever got a chance to begin.
On3’s Kaiden Smith contributed to this article.