Caleb King ready to revive career at UGA

“It’s been a very long time,” King said.

In fact, it has been almost 34 months since he last started a game.

The wait might, or might not, end Sept. 5, when Georgia opens the season at Oklahoma State.

King, a former Parkview and Greater Atlanta Christian star, started preseason practice this week as No. 1 on Georgia’s tailback depth chart, but it is a tenuous status that hinges on how he measures up against four other scholarship tailbacks in practice this month.

“It’s very important to me [to start],” King said. “I’m not going to say I deserve it, but I know I have worked hard since I’ve been here.”

The position is in flux, not only regarding who will start but also regarding how many will play.

Coach Mark Richt said he’s open to having one featured tailback or to rotating several. Both Richt and offensive coordinator Mike Bobo said it’s too early to predict how the position will play out by opening day, let alone beyond, but Richt ventured that the rotating approach might be a good guess early “until guys have a chance to separate themselves.”

Many questions, all unanswerable three days into preseason, swirl around the position. Will Washaun Ealey, the latest high school sensation to hit campus, be ready to contribute from the get-go? Will Carlton Thomas’ playmaking ability, demonstrated in spring practice, demand serious playing time? Will Richard Samuel and/or Dontavius Jackson, both of whom missed spring ball with injuries, come on strong?

But the biggest question: Will King, once one of the nation’s most coveted recruits, seize the long-awaited moment?

He last started a game Oct. 13, 2006, when he suffered a broken leg — technically, a depressed fracture of the right tibia — in a game for Greater Atlanta Christian. (He had transferred to GAC from Parkview before his senior season.) Exploratory surgery determined the injury wasn’t as serious as first feared, and King’s leg was deemed 100 percent healed by the time he reported to UGA in summer 2007.

He was redshirted that season, and Moreno’s presence kept him mostly on the sidelines last season. He finished with 61 carries for 247 yards, 95 of the yards coming in the season-opening blowout of Georgia Southern.

King said he doesn’t believe the 34 months since his previous start has caused any rust in his game because of how much work he has gotten on the practice field the past two years.

“I wouldn’t say I’ve missed a step,” he said.

As a third-year sophomore, King has been in the Georgia program longer than any of the Bulldogs’ other scholarship tailbacks. He had a chance to get a jump on the starting job in spring practice, and coaches said he made notable progress, particularly as a blocker. But even as he emerged from the spring No. 1 on the depth chart, coaches said the position would remain up for grabs in the heat of August.

And so it is, with King — at 210 a few pounds lighter than last season — trying to hold off the competition.

“I think all of us are going to push each other and make each other better,” Thomas said. “Competition always makes you better.”

King welcomes it.

“It’s not pressure,” he said. “I’ve been playing football since I was 5. So I just go out there every day and relax. Just play football and have fun.

“They don’t give anything to you. Everybody came in on a scholarship. Football is a game where you have to earn it.”