ATHENS, Ga. - Nicholls State entered Sanford Stadium on Saturday as a lightly regarded Football Championship Subdivision program, but the Colonels had a pair of defensive linemen who were familiar to the Bulldogs.
Marcel Andry and Ronald Ollie were prominently featured in the six-part Netflix series "Last Chance U," which chronicled last season at East Mississippi Community College. Andry and Ollie were dominant on the field if not always in class, but they fulfilled their academic responsibilities to earn scholarships to Nicholls.
"I had seen them on TV," Georgia tailback Nick Chubb said. "Those guys are big, and they're good players, too."
Chubb got to experience that up close, rushing 20 times for just 80 yards. It was the first time in his career that he had double-digit carries without a 100-yard game.
The 6-foot-2, 310-pound Ollie had four tackles in his Nicholls debut, while the 6-2, 290-pound Andry had two tackles, including a stop of Chubb for no gain midway through the second quarter on third-and-2 from the Nicholls 5-yard line. Georgia had to settle for a 23-yard William Ham field goal and a 10-0 lead on the next play.
"I'm not surprised by this at all," Andry said. "We worked hard and did a good job all week preparing for these guys. Our coaches did a very good job of breaking down the film and put us in good situations, and we did a good job of tackling.
"Nick Chubb is a very good running back, and his name speaks for itself, but we did a very good job as a unit of putting a hat on him."
Ollie, who broke into the Georgia backfield midway through the first quarter and drew a holding penalty from Dyshon Sims, chose not to speak to the media afterward.
The Bulldogs wound up rushing 39 times for 167 yards, averaging 4.3 yards per carry. Georgia was hoping to build on its opening performance, which included 289 rushing yards in the 33-24 win over North Carolina in Atlanta, but its offensive line struggled up front against the sizable Colonels.
"We've got to get better," Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. "We can't change the guys out, because we've got no free agency. We have to take what we've got, and we've got to get those guys better."
Said Chubb: "They outhit us for almost the entire game. They did a lot of slants and stuff we had never seen. We didn't have any tape on those guys, so we didn't really know what to expect."
Georgia freshman tailback Brian Herrion had eight rushes for 47 yards, while junior Sony Michel's return from a broken forearm yielded three carries for 3 yards. Michel did have a 12-yard reception on the third play from scrimmage.
Andry is hoping Saturday can be the start of a new chapter of his life, one that can be even more productive than before, even if cameras aren't always around.
"'Last Chance U' had a big impact on me," Andry said. "Afterwards, a couple of Georgia's players were like, 'Y'all boys are famous,' and I'm like, 'I'm not famous,' but there has been a lot of positive feedback. It was pretty accurate. We went through some tough times as a team, but it brought us closer together, hopefully like this game will do for us this year.
"Again, I'm not surprised. We work hard, and I was just doing my job. Nick Chubb is tough, but we were coming with it, too."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.