This season, the comparisons between UGA’s dynamic running back duo of Todd Gurley and Nick Chubb have been exceedingly hard to ignore. When Gurley was suspended for four games, Nick Chubb stepped in and played well – ok, more than just well – as the starter. But this true freshman, 18-year-old beast of a running back should be drawing comparisons to another Georgia running back legend besides Gurley. Which one you ask? Well, let’s just say he won the Heisman Trophy in 1982 and is known as one of the best players to ever don red and black. Think about it: Nick Chubb could be UGA’s next Herschel Walker.
Now you’re probably saying, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, pump the brakes there. He’s only a freshman.” But hear me out. Who was the last running back you can remember that protected the ball like a veteran beyond his years? Who was the last running back you can remember that ran with authority, speed and brute strength? Who was the last running back you can remember to show such durability? It is not outside the realm of possibility that Nick Chubb could surpass Walker’s totals from his freshman season (though admittedly, the comparison is not quite apples to apples, since Chubb’s stats would include bowl performance and an extra regular season game), and he didn’t even start the entire season.
Chubb currently has an impressive 1,216 all-purpose yards and 11 total touchdowns. But, take a look at the stat lines for Chubb in the last five games, which were the games where he either started or played an integral part in the offense (he only had 34 total touches in the first five games):
| Date | Opp. | Score | Car. | Yards | Avg. | Long | TD | Rec. | Yards | Avg. | Long | TD |
| 10/11 | @Missouri | W 34-0 | 38 | 143 | 3.8 | 18 | 1 | 4 | 31 | 7.8 | 12 | 0 |
| 10/18 | @Arkansas | W 45-32 | 30 | 202 | 6.7 | 43 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 8.0 | 8 | 0 |
| 11/1 | Florida | L 38-20 | 21 | 156 | 7.4 | 43 | 1 | 5 | 59 | 11.8 | 18 | 1 |
| 11/8 | @Kentucky | W 63-31 | 13 | 170 | 13.1 | 55 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 |
| 11/15 | Auburn | W 34-7 | 19 | 144 | 7.6 | 20 | 2 | 2 | 48 | 24.0 | 27 | 0 |
In those five games, Nick Chubb has not been held to fewer than 143 yards rushing or 170 all-purpose yards. He rushed for 815 yards on 121 carries and 7 touchdowns, with a robust 6.7 yards per carry. Herschel Walker, in his freshman season, played an integral role in nearly all 11 games – he did not start the first game against Tennessee, but he went in and made his presence felt – and rushed for 1,616 yards on 274 carries with 15 touchdowns. That’s an average of 5.9 yards per carry, and an average of 24.6 carries per game.
Just for fun, let’s take Todd Gurley out of the mix for a second and imagine Nick Chubb was the starter at the beginning of the season. In the past five games, he has averaged 24.2 carries per game, so if you extrapolate and apply his performance over the 10 games Georgia has played, he’d be sitting there with 242 carries and 1,621 yards with 14 touchdowns. Do those numbers look familiar? Yep, they look flat out Herschel-like.
The sample size is relatively small with Chubb, but is it really so hard to envision that he could have put up the gaudy numbers calculated above after seeing him dominate game after game? Not at all. There is no denying it – Nick Chubb truly could be one of the most prolific and accomplished running backs Georgia has ever seen. And Georgia has seen its fair share.
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