Why Nick Chubb Is the Best Candidate for SEC Player of the Year in 2015

In 2014, Nick Chubb backed up his 5-star status and then some.

The Georgia star finished second, behind Auburn senior Cameron Artis-Payne, for the most rushing yards in the SEC.

He did that as a true freshman despite limited touches in almost half of Georgia's games, when he backed up the later-suspended and injured Todd Gurley.

When he got his opportunity to take over, Chubb showcased an all-around running game that was beyond his years. Speed and strength, agility and acceleration, tiptoeing and trucking—Chubb checked off all the boxes for an elite back.

This season, if Chubb avoids the off-field trouble and on-field injuries that hurt Gurley, he should run away with the title as the best player in the SEC.

Here's why.

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Time to Improve on a Stunning Debut

Three other true freshman running backs in the SEC (LSU's Leonard Fournette, Georgia teammate Sony Michel and Auburn's Roc Thomas) were rated higher than Chubb coming out of high school.

Even with more carries than Fournette, Michel and Thomas, Chubb averaged more yards per touch than the trio ranked ahead of him—and everyone else in the SEC.

His mark of 7.06 yards per carry was the best for any SEC running back with at least 100 carries since Arkansas' Felix Jones ran for 1,162 yards on 133 carries in 2007.

In the seven games following Gurley's suspension, starting with Georgia's blowout victory over eventual SEC East champion Missouri, Chubb averaged 189 yards per contest. That is more than Wisconsin's Melvin Gordon averaged per game, and he led the nation in that category.

Now that he will be Georgia's No. 1 running back from the opening kickoff of the season, Chubb has the potential to put up more dizzying stats in his sophomore campaign.

And if his spring break workouts were any indication, per 247Sports' Rusty Mansell, he definitely did the work to accomplish just that this offseason:

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Strength of Georgia's Front Five

With that said, even the most talented of running backs will struggle at the college level if he doesn't have adequate offensive line play in front of him.

Good news for Chubb and Georgia fans everywhere: The Bulldogs' offensive line is so much better than adequate.

Georgia is returning four of its five starters on the offensive line that paved the way for Chubb, Gurley and Michel to average an SEC-best 257.8 rushing yards per game.

Although the Bulldogs have to replace longtime center David Andrews, they have a great amount of experience and talent in their projected starting line:

Name	Position	Career Starts	Recruit Rating
John Theus	LT	35	5-star
Brandon Kublanow	LG	14	4-star
Isaiah Wynn	C	1	4-star
Greg Pyke	RG	13	3-star
Kolton Houston	RT	19	4-star

Not only is Chubb going to get better after his first season at Georgia, his blockers up front are going to continue developing their skills and chemistry with one another.

That's how you improve on a top-15 rushing attack.

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Focal Point of Georgia's Entire Offense

With the Bulldogs breaking in a new quarterback and replacing their top two receivers from the 2014 season, a lot of Georgia's offense is going to rely on the legs of Chubb.

Bleacher Report's Andrew Hall wrote in February that Chubb's workload in 2015 might be something Georgia fans haven't seen since Knowshon Moreno was between the hedges:

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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.

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Georgia still has talented depth at the running back position behind Chubb in Michel and Keith Marshall, who missed most of 2014 with an injury.

But with the success rate he enjoyed last season and the injury history for both Michel and Marshall, the Bulldogs will probably be in the position to use Chubb more than what they're used to in a normal running back rotation.

Part of that change might come from new offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer, who was more of a run-first guy in the NFL.

Simply put, Georgia fans can expect the Bulldogs to "run the dang ball" in 2015.

And that ball will mostly be carried by Chubb, whom Hall says has the potential to produce the best season in Georgia history:

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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.

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If Chubb even comes close to those numbers, he'll definitely be on the path to New York City for the Heisman Trophy ceremony.

Although recent history suggests that award will most likely be handed to another quarterback, that's never been a problem for the top-player award in the SEC.

Recruiting information courtesy of 247Sports.

Justin Ferguson is an on-call college football writer at Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @JFergusonBR.