Georgia coaches have high hopes for freshman running backs Branson Robinson, Andrew Paul
Georgia has a pair of freshmen running backs that the Bulldogs might be counting on to be a part of the rotation this fall. Branson Robinson and Andrew Paul both arrived this summer – Robinson chose not to early enroll while Paul signed in February – but are already making a push for playing time. With Kendall Milton dealing with a hamstring injury early in camp, that’s opened the door for even more opportunities for Kirby Smart, Todd Monken, Dell McGee and the rest of the Georgia staff to see the youngsters at work.
“I think anytime you talk about being able to help a team, it’s probably easiest at a skill position, at an early age,” Smart said on Saturday after Georgia’s first scrimmage of the season when asked about the day that Robinson and Paul had. “When you look at the history here, we have had freshman wideouts lead our teams a lot of times in receiving. And at running backs, we’ve had more of an old head, like there’s always two old guys. It’s not a lack of running backs being able to, we’ve had more experiences backs.”
“These two young guys are different,” he continued. “They’re a little heavier, thicker, run behind their pads and they probably don’t show up best until days like today, because they’re a little harder to tackle. You don’t see that in practice every day. I thought both those guys [Andrew Paul and Branson Robinson] had good scrimmages. Not great, they’re not where they need to be, not where they need to be in pass-pro, but they are hard to tackle and they’re thick. I’m very pleased with where they are. Neither one going through the spring hurts their development in terms of number one, special teams, and number two, picking up pressures. We need them to come along, because durability is always an issue at back. I don’t think I’ve been through a year here where we didn’t have one of our top three backs miss a game. If that happens, one of those guys better be ready to step up and play.”
Robinson ranked as the No. 2 running back in the Class of 2022 according to the On3 Consensus coming out of Madison, Miss. The Germantown product grew up following Herschel Walker’s daily routine of push ups and sits ups until he could hit the weight room in high school. That helped him fill out a 5-foot-10 frame with 220 pounds, being able to push the pounds around in the weight room and defenders on the field. As a junior, he carried the ball 121 times for 1,179 yards and 15 touchdowns. As a freshman, there were similar numbers, rushing for 873 yards and 12 touchdowns on 119 carries.
As for Paul, his breakout didn’t quite happen as early in his high school career. In fact, it didn’t happen until the very end. Paul helped lead his Paris Episcopal School team to a third-consecutive TAPPS Division I state championship finishing his senior season with 271 carries for 2,616 yards and 41 touchdowns while also adding 208 yards and another three scores in receiving. His junior year, Paul rushed for 747 yards and 10 touchdowns while notching 883 yards and 11 scores as a sophomore. Both of those seasons he carried the ball over 100 times. Paul signed with Georgia in February after a late push from the Bulldogs to beat out the likes of Clemson and Michigan, among others.
“They’re going to be really good players,” Georgia offensive coordinator Todd Monken said about the freshman duo. “What’s interesting is whenever this started, 10-15 years ago, when players came at mid-semester; at one point there were four to five of them and you had 18 or 20 that didn’t come. Now it’s the reverse of that. You have most of your class coming in at mid-semester. You are so used to freshman being up to speed a little bit more. But missing the Spring takes a toll on any player that was not here because you’re asking a lot of them. They’re both going to be tremendous players. They’re working awfully hard at their craft, and every day we install. Summer is not the same. It’s really not because you have the physical part. Every day, we install, and the defense installs. We keep going, and it compounds the looks. It’s one thing if we kept the same place, and they changed, or vice versa. But now they’re changing looks, and we are changing plays. You think ‘Holy Cow,’ and you can become overwhelmed. It’s hard at that point to really see their true skillset because they’re processing and not playing fast, but I think they’re both going to be tremendous players.”
