The Georgia Bulldogs say they continue to play with a “chip on our shoulder” because of all the naysayers who said they couldn’t win without Todd Gurley.
Gurley, who was the Heisman Trophy front-runner when he was suspended indefinitely 10 days ago, missed his second consecutive game as a result. The Bulldogs have now won two SEC road games by the combined score of 79-32 in his absence.
“We heard a lot of the naysayers say we wouldn’t be anything without No. 3,” senior receiver Chris Conley said after Saturday’s 45-32 win over Arkansas. “We love Todd, but we feel like we are a team that has capable players to fill in for our starters when they go down. The guys took his loss to heart. We know how to win in this conference and we’ve got to continue to prove it.”
There is still no clear return date for the junior tailback. As of Friday, Georgia had not submitted its eligibility reinstatement request to the NCAA.
But the Bulldogs expect him back eventually, and they expect to be even stronger for having played without him.
“It’s a very big deal,” senior cornerback Damian Swann said. “Everybody in the world knows how good of a player Todd is. Everbody knows. But I think we’re showing how good of a team we are and how many other good players we have. A lot of guys got overlooked because Todd’s going for 160 and three touchdowns every week. That’s all that popped up on ESPN.
“But we’ve got Nick Chubb, we’ve got Chris Conley, we’ve got Malcolm Mitchell back. Look how the defense played in the first half. We’ve got a complete team.”
Quarterback Hutson Mason said the Bulldogs tired quickly of the talk from national pundits who counted Georgia out when Gurley went out.
“I think we’ve gotten rid of all the outside garbage,” he said. “We don’t listen to that. We just continue to prove people wrong, which is awesome.”
“We’ve grown as a defense and we’ve grown as a team”We’re been put in some tough situations. We lose our star running back two games and we shut out one team and win two on the road. That’s not done very often. I think we’re building something here that we can keep building on.”
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