Is Georgia football’s Zamir White ready to be the next star at RBU?

Zamir White is poised to become the next star running back at Georgia.

When you play running back for the Georgia Bulldogs, expectations are always high.

Georgia football has had so many outstanding running backs over the years, but has asserted itself in the last decade or so as RBU around major college football. The upcoming NFL season will proudly feature four former Dawgs as the starting running back on an eighth of the league’s franchises. Most Power 5 schools would be lucky just to have one and Georgia has four.

On Wednesday night’s Big Noon Kickoff webcast on Twitter, 2004 Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Matt Leinart and three-time national championship-winning coach Urban Meyer were prompted with who they think will be the breakout star in college football next season.

Leinart believes Oregon Ducks defensive end Kayvon Thibodeaux will be just that over in the Pac-12. Meyer harped on a pair of SEC East rivals, first speakingly highly of his former Ohio State player Trevon Grimes, now a wide receiver with the Florida Gators. He then followed it up with Georgia running back Zamir White, potentially as the next star at RBU in Athens.

“The other guy is Zamir White,” said Meyer. “Another guy I saw up close and personal and recruited out of high school. When he came out of high school, he was one of the best backs I’ve seen in the last five, six, seven years. Powerful, fast, has it all. So I went SEC, a guy from Georgia and a guy from Florida.”

The Zamir White Coronation will occur in Athens on the football field.

White enters his redshirt sophomore season at Georgia. The former five-star recruit in the 2018 class missed his true freshman campaign due to a torn ACL suffered in high school. 247Sports had White graded out at 0.9957. The Laurinburg, North Carolina native was the No. 1 running back in his class, the No. 1 player from his state and the No. 9 player in his recruiting class nationally.

As a redshirt freshman, White had 78 carries for 408 yards and three rushing touchdowns, serving as D’Andre Swift’s backup. White was gradually integrated into the Georgia offense, as he was only one year removed from having major surgery done on his knee. While fixing a torn ACL is a normal medical procedure these days, players don’t usually pop until year two post-op.

With Swift and Brian Herrien gone, it will be up to White and fellow tailback James Cook to take charge of the vaunted UGA ground game. White will have former Wake Forest Demon Deacons quarterback Jamie Newman handing the football off to him. While Newman is an incredible deep-ball and tight-window thrower, he’ll need to rely on White in the ground game to have success.

Georgia has won the SEC East the last three years, playing for a spot in the College Football Playoff in Atlanta every time. Running backs like Nick Chubb, Sony Michel, Elijah Holyfield and Swift have all paced the relentless Georgia rushing attack. All four of these great Dawgs before him have gone pro now. It’s up to White to carry the torch and get the Dawgs to the playoff.

White is next up as the featured player on Georgia football’s RBU stage.

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