'Toughness wins out' for Georgia RB Daijun Edwards
Daijun Edwards is a man of few words, but he continues to let his play do the talking on Saturdays. After a career-high 118 yards against South Carolina earlier this season, Edwards did even more damage versus Vanderbilt. Matching the 20 carries he had in the in over the Gamecocks, Edwards diced the Commodore defense up for 146 yards and his sixth touchdown of the season.
“I thought Daijun did a great job all day,” Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said in his postgame press conference. “I mean, he runs with such great toughness, great balance. A lot of good perimeter blocking for him to help him out.”
Edwards had three of Georgia’s six runs for over 10 yards on the day in the 37-20 road victory. All three of his went for at least 20 yards including a 62-yard scamper late in the game to give the Bulldogs a goal-to-go situation. Just three plays later, Edwards punched it in to make it a three-score game.
“The run game stepping up there in the end, those four minute situations where we’re trying to run the clock out is important. It kind of put the game away for good,” Georgia quarterback Carson Beck said. “That’s huge. Huge for our offensive linemen, Daijun to have that run.”
“He’s workman-like,” Smart added to his earlier comments on the senior back. “The guy’s got great vision, great toughness. He’s really hard to tackle. His balance is so tough. He does not take many tough shots. He’s got good wiggle, really good short yardage guy, really patient, hits the hole. Where would be right now without Daijun? I don’t know, because his toughness has won out.”
Georgia may need even more of Edwards’ toughness to win out over the next couple of weeks. Not only are the Bulldogs playing a tough slate of five games to close out the season after the bye – three against ranked opponents sandwiched with rivalries – but they may be doing it without their best offensive player for some time.
“I thought our guys did a great job,” Smart said in assessing the offensive performance without Brock Bowers. “The red area stalled out a couple times, had to kick field goals, and that’s probably a good thing for Peyton Woodring to go out there in that wind that we had and to nail some critical, crucial field goals. Really proud of him for that, and really proud of the offense on the day. I mean, they did some good things. Threw the ball in the perimeter, missed some explosives, and got sloppy with the ball there. One ball got tipped, and then Carson had the fumble. You can’t turn the ball over and do that. But when you don’t punt, I can’t say that you didn’t play good offense.”
The Bulldogs are back in action a week from Saturday (October 28th) in Jacksonville to take on the Florida Gators. Kickoff time is set for 3:30 p.m. ET on CBS.
