Georgia Football: Workload for Chubb Could Be Unprecedented in 2015

Georgia running back Nick Chubb is a beast. Any case to the contrary is nothing more than incendiary folly. As a true freshman in 2014, Chubb amassed 1,760 yards of offense and 16 touchdowns while finishing the season with eight consecutive 100-yard rushing games. 

But in 2015, Georgia will find out if Chubb is capable of carrying an unprecedented workload.

Regardless of coordinator, Mark Richt's offenses have always been balanced in every regard. While an equal emphasis on the passing and running game may be the most popular data set examined in this light, Georgia traditionally does a good job of spreading the ball around—even within both phases of the offense.

Case in point: Individual Bulldog runners have only accounted for more than half of the team's total rushing attempts on two occasions since Richt arrived in 2001. Further, no player has done the majority of the work on the ground since Knowshon Moreno in 2008.

Year	Leading Rusher	Carries	Percentage of Team Carries
2014	Nick Chubb	219	40.18%
2013	Todd Gurley	165	34.74%
2012	Todd Gurley	222	43.27%
2011	Isaiah Crowell	185	31.73%
2010	Washaun Ealey	157	35.28%
2009	Washaun Ealey	125	28.67%
2008	Knowshon Moreno	250	60.68%
2007	Knowshon Moreno	248	49.70%
2006	Kregg Lumpkin	162	39.13%
2005	Thomas Brown	147	32.67%
2004	Thomas Brown	172	39.63%
2003	Michael Cooper	156	28.21%
2002	Musa Smith	260	50.29%
2001	Verron Haynes	126	29.65%
Average			38.85%

Truth be told, Chubb is already in elite company among Richt-era running backs. Aside from Todd Gurley, he's the only true freshman to account for more than 40 percent of the team's rushing attempts. And even that figure is unrepresentative of Chubb's burden last year.

In the seven games missed by Todd Gurley in 2014, Chubb garnered 169 carries (on the season he toted the ball 219 times). And despite only a handful of carries in blowouts against Kentucky and Charleston Southern, Chubb still accounted for nearly 57 percent of the team's rushing attempts when Gurley was out of the lineup.

Opponent	Carries	Team Carries	Percentage of Team Carries
Missouri	38	58	65.52%
Arkansas	30	39	76.92%
Florida	21	32	65.63%
Kentucky	13	39	33.33%
Charleston Southern	9	37	24.32%
Georgia Tech	25	39	64.10%
Louisville	33	53	62.26%
Total	169	297	56.90%

Barring injury to the stalwart of the Bulldog backfield, that trend won't change in 2015.

On offense, new coordinator Brian Schottenheimer is a bit of an unknown quantity. But he's not likely to drastically alter many elements of what has become one of the most explosive offenses in the country.

In fact, according to Chip Towers of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, similar offensive philosophies made Georgia an attractive destination for the long-time NFL assistant. "Obviously, I'll have my fingerprints on it," Schottenheimer said of the playbook and offensive schemes. But he added, "It's going to be an easy fit, I think."

Chubb will make that fit easier.

With huge questions surrounding the passing game as Georgia looks to identify a starter at quarterback and replace receiving production voided by the departures of Chris Conley and Michael Bennett, the running game will be the focal point of the offense—at least in the short term.

And the state of Georgia's backfield lends itself to a disproportionately large concentration on Chubb. Put bluntly: It's hard to quantify exactly how valuable Georgia's other options will be in 2015.

Sony Michel, also a rising sophomore, played tremendously well at times in 2014, but he only ran the ball in eight of Georgia's 13 games and battled injuries throughout his inaugural campaign.

Keith Marshall was brilliant as a true freshman back in 2012, racking up 850 yards of offense and nine scores on just 128 total touches. But he's accounted for just 19 yards of offense since suffering an initial knee injury against Tennessee in early October 2013.

When Marshall (and Gurley) was hurt in 2013, Brendan Douglas was one of two freshmen running backs who stepped up. Douglas accounted for 345 rushing yards as a freshman on 84 touches. Last year, he carried the ball just 55 times for 230 yards. His utilization in the passing offense also declined from 172 receiving yards in 2013 to no catches in 2014.

The other back who carried the load alongside Douglas in the absence of Gurley and Marshall in 2013 was J.J. Green. After moving to defensive back in 2014, Green has moved to Georgia Tech.

Chubb is set to carry the ball an awful lot in 2015. He's one of the better backs in the country and rightfully deserving of those carries, but what remains to be seen is how well he holds up over prolonged periods of high usage.

To be fair, he carried the football a lot in 2014. And on a game-to-game basis, he toted the rock 30 or more times on three occasions. Accordingly, there's certainly no reason to assume he can't keep up with a heavy workload. 

John Bazemore/Associated Press

But now—more so than at any time in recent history—it looks like the Bulldogs offense will only go as far as its stud running back can take it.

That may sound like a daunting calling for a young kid from Cedartown, Georgia. But who's going to doubt Nick Chubb?

If Chubb stays healthy, his production could be Heisman-worthy when combined with the lion's share of rush attempts.

In 14 seasons under Richt, Georgia's offense has averaged just shy of 480 attempts per year. If Chubb matches Moreno's usage rate of more than 60 percent of all carries, he could register 290 carries. That's 30 more touches than any Georgia running back of the Richt Era.

That may sound unlikely, but 290 carries split over 12 regular-season contests and a bowl game yield a per-game average of just more than 22 rush attempts. Over the final eight games of the 2014 season, Chubb averaged more than 24 carries per game.

With that workload and seven yards per carry—slightly less than what Chubb posted last season—would make him the first single-season 2,000-yard rusher in Georgia history.

Unless otherwise noted, all quotes obtained firsthand and all statistics courtesy of Sports-Reference.com/cfb.