Mark Richt was speaking at the UGA Days event here Thursday evening, and one of the first questions he fielded was about Georgia’s latest star at tailback, Nick Chubb.
Not surprising considering Chubb grew up in Cedartown, 20 miles south of the Rome Forum and Civic Center at which Richt and other Georgia dignitaries were speaking. And according to a recent historical report, the Chubb family has been settled here since the 1850s. In fact, a small hamlet near here once was known as “Chubbtown.”
Richt was asked by a local reporter if he’d ever had a player as impressive on and off the field as Chubb, who came out of nowhere to rush for 1,547 yards and score 16 touchdowns as a freshman last season.
“There’s been a lot of great players here and a lot of guys who did a lot of great things off the field,” Richt said. “Chris Conley is an example, but I could name a bunch of guys I could name.
“But Nick, we were going over academics this morning. We spend about an hour and a half with our academic staff going over every single player and every class and how they’re doing. So we went over Nick’s academics and I said, ‘I really don’t believe in cloning, but if you were going to clone somebody, it would be Nick.’ He’s just a great talent, a great student, very humble person, hard worker, doesn’t hardly say a word kind of guy. Hopefully he doesn’t change.”
Chubb had a stellar high school just down the road here. He was a star recruit coming out of Cedartown High after rushing for 2,690 yards and 41 touchdowns his senior season. But Richt admitted the Bulldogs didn’t expect to get the type of production they did out of Chubb.
“Not that big,” he said with a laugh. “Because we didn’t think he’d get that many carries with Keith (Marshall) and with (Todd) Gurley and Sony (Michel). They knew coming in there was going to be the sharing of the load. We thought that was going to be a really healthy thing for everybody. As it turned out, three of those four names names I mentioned weren’t able t to play for a good bit of the season. So he had to carry the load.”
One young fan wanted to make sure that would be the case again this season. In the question-and-answer session of the program, a boy named Nate asked Richt, “will you make sure Nick Chubb gets 35 carries a game?”
The arena erupted in laughter and Richt invited the boy to the stage and asked him if he’d like to be a running backs coach one day.
Richt highlighted a program attended by more than 500 fans and alumni Thursday night. UGA President Jere Morehead and basketball coach Mark Fox also took turns on the podium.
Speaking to reporters beforehand, Morehead said the university remains hopeful that construction on a new indoor practice facility could begin by January 2016. He could not provide a timeline as for how long the proposed $30 million project would take to complete.
“The soonest construction could begin is January,” Morehead said. “You don’t want to interfere with the preparation of the football team. But it’s hard for me to tell you a firm date until our construction engineer evaluates everything and gives us a plan. I would expect we’ll have more to say about it at the athletic board meeting in May.”
Fox spoke briefly about the recent departure of junior forward Cameron Forte, who plans to utilize the NCAA’s postgraduate transfer rule to play closer to his Arizona home next season. Fox said he did not believe Forte was “poached” from Georgia, as others have been.
Fox said guards Kenny Gaines (foot) and Juwan Parker (Achilles) are recovering from postseason surgeries and should be able to resume workouts in June. He also confirmed that the Bulldogs are still recruiting Jaylen Brown, the state’s No. 1 prospect.
As for football news, Richt didn’t have a lot to offer. He said he does not expect any other admissions casualties from the incoming recruiting class, which includes 21 players who have yet to arrive on campus. Linebacker Gary McCrae has decided to attend a junior college.
“We think everybody else is in the race pretty good,” Richt said. “Most of them are in very good shape. Some have some work to do, which is typical until you get final grades in. But we knew (McCrae) was going to have to go through that process.”
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