Georgia football: 5 great Bulldogs who didn’t quite live up to the NFL hype

When Tim Worley first saw the field in the 1985 season as a true freshman, the Lumberton, NC native appeared to be the next player in a long line — a line that’s only kept growing — of great running backs to suit up for Georgia football. He wasn’t the leader out of the backfield but he had quite a bit of success in his limited work.

In that true freshman season, Worley took 116 carries for 627 yards and nine touchdowns, finishing second on the team in those categories. The hype was real going into 1986 as a sophomore but Worley suffered a horrific ACL tear that ended his season early. In fact, the injury was so severe that Worley also was unable to suit up for the 1987 season as he continued to rehab.

Finally back in the fold for the Bulldogs in the 1988 season, Worley looked the part of a Bulldogs great once again. He took 191 carries for 1,216 yards and an incredible 17 touchdowns on the season. Worley looked healthy and like he would be heading towards a promising career in the NFL thereafter. The Pittsburgh Steelers selected him with the No. 7 overall pick in 1989.

That looked to hold true in his rookie season as he rushed for 770 yards and five scores that year with the Steelers. However, he failed to match that total in either of the next two seasons in Pittsburgh. Though he spent six years in the league, injuries, arrests and suspensions marred his career and he went down as a surefire first-round bust out of Georgia.