FAYETTEVILLE -- It might be a couple more days before Georgia freshman tailback Nick Chubb gets over the soreness from helping the Bulldogs run over Missouri 34-0 last Saturday at Faurot Field.
"Yeah, I'll be very sore," Chubb told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "The most I carried in high school was maybe 35."
Coaches told Chubb before the game he might get 45 carries.
"I thought they were joking," he said. "Turns out they weren't joking at all."
Chubb got the ball on 42 of his team's 87 snaps with the Bulldogs' top two tailbacks missing the game -- juniors Todd Gurley (suspension) and Keith Marshall (ankle injury).
Chubb had 38 carries for 143 yards and 1 touchdown and caught 4 passes for 31 yards. He outgained Missouri, 174-147.
Gurley's status for the No. 10 Bulldogs' game against Arkansas Saturday in Little Rock is uncertain because of an ongoing investigating into whether he violated NCAA rules by accepting money for signing memorabilia, so Chubb might have to continue to carry a heavy workload.
The most carries Chubb had in five games before Missouri were 11 against Tennessee, but Bulldogs Coach Mark Richt said he never asked for a break as his attempts mounted last Saturday.
"He didn't complain," Richt said. "He didn't look fatigued.
"Sometimes you watch a back as a game goes on and you think, 'We've got to get him out of there.' His body language never showed that to me."
Chubb -- rated among the top running backs nationally by most recruiting services last year when he was senior at Cedartown (Ga.) High School -- had the most carries by a Bulldog since Vernon Haynes' 39 against Georgia Tech in 2001 and the second-most by a freshman behind Herschel Walker's 43 against South Carolina in 1980.
"That's a Georgia tradition," Chubb said. "We run the ball. You have to keep pounding them. Things will open up sooner or later."
Chubb averaged 3.8 yards per carry against Missouri.
"It was a very physical game for him, that many carries and the type of runs," Richt said "There weren't a lot of times where there was just a lot of space.
"He earned every bit of it."
Chubb had 21 carries for 59 yards in the first half against Missouri and 17 for 84 in the second half.
"The thing that's engaging when you're watching the film is he seems to get a little bit stronger as the game wears on," Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema said. "He's a guy that reads things very, very well.
"He breaks tackles. He's explosive and understands what they're asking him to do. They have a package there at Georgia that obviously was fitting Gurley very, very well and fits him [Chubb] very well as well."
Gurley averaged 154.6 rushing yards in Georgia's first five games. He rushed for 198 yards against Clemson and 208 against Tennessee.
"I know he's a great football player," Arkansas defensive coordinator Robb Smith said. "I know the situation that's going on. We'll take that one day at a time and we'll be ready to face the Georgia Bulldogs, whoever's out there for them."
Richt said Sunday night he has no idea when Gurley might be cleared to play, but that the Bulldogs are approaching the Arkansas game as if he won't be available, which is what he said in the immediate aftermath at Missouri.
"I have no idea, I really don't," Richt said. "We'll just have to wait and see what comes out of this process."
Richt said Chubb, who has 69 carries for 367 yards and 7 catches for 62 yards in this season, didn't surprise him against Missouri because of how he has looked in practice and games.
"Todd obviously is a guy that's gotten a lot of attention from the yards he's getting and being an elite guy, but every time Nick got in there he looked pretty impressive," Richt said. "We didn't really change the plan much.
"All of our backs basically run the same plays, so it really wasn't a big deal as far as scheme."
Richt said it's possible Marshall, who has missed the past three games, may return to practice this week.
"Just watching him run straight ahead last week, he looked really good, but I didn't see him try to change direction or anything like that," Richt said. "No quick cutting motions or anything like that.
"So I really don't know if he's as close as he looked to me just running straight ahead."
If Gurley and Marshall aren't back for Arkansas, the Bulldogs figure to keep running straight ahead with Chubb.
Sports on 10/14/2014