ATHENS, Ga. - Before tearing multiple knee ligaments at Tennessee last season, Georgia tailback Nick Chubb had tied Herschel Walker's school record with 13 consecutive 100-yard games.
Now Chubb is on a different streak, one he hopes to reverse Saturday afternoon when the No. 12 Bulldogs (3-0, 1-0 Southeastern Conference) play at No. 23 Ole Miss (1-2, 0-1).
After exceeding expectations following his return from injury with 222 yards on 32 carries in the 33-24 win over North Carolina in the season opener, Chubb has been held to 80 yards on 20 carries by Nicholls State and to 63 yards on 19 rushes by Missouri last Saturday night. The last time Chubb went two straight games without amassing 100 yards, Todd Gurley had yet to serve his four-game NCAA suspension midway through the 2014 season, but the 5-foot-10, 220-pound junior is not sounding the alarms heading to Oxford.
"We're feeling good about everything," Chubb told reporters this week. "We're all working hard."
Georgia expected to be a run-first team entering Kirby Smart's inaugural season as head coach, and that was reflected in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game, when the Bulldogs had 52 carries for 289 yards. The Bulldogs rushed 39 times for 167 yards against Nicholls State, an FCS program with 22 fewer scholarships than Georgia, and had 38 carries for 101 yards at Missouri.
The Bulldogs averaged a robust 5.6 yards per carry against North Carolina but had that dwindle to 4.3 against Nicholls and 2.7 versus Mizzou, when freshman quarterback Jacob Eason and junior receiver Isaiah McKenzie had to bail them out in a 28-27 triumph.
"We wanted to limit what we thought was a really strong point for them," Missouri coach Barry Odom said. "There were times we put an extra hat in the box to try and eliminate that, but credit Georgia for making good in-game adjustments. Their quarterback played really well, and their receivers made some catches.
"I wanted to establish our front seven and sometimes our front eight by getting an extra guy in there. We had some success at times, but we didn't always respond real well to the counter on top of some of the things they did in the passing game."
There have been no shortage of questions this week regarding Georgia's offensive line. Smart was asked this week about lineup changes and quickly said, "We've looked at every combination we can, and we'll continue to do that."
When Chubb was asked about the blockers up front, he said, "They're doing the best they can, and we have trust in them. I will never holler at them unless I need to. Those are my guys."
Georgia is not lacking for veteran linemen, with Rhode Island graduate transfer Tyler Catalina joining a starting mix that includes seniors Brandon Kublanow and Greg Pyke, junior Isaiah Wynn and redshirt sophomore Lamont Gaillard. The Bulldogs are competing for their third offensive line coach in as many seasons - Will Friend (2014), Rob Sale (2015) and now Sam Pittman.
"I think philosophically that there can be changes in how you play people and what protections you use," Smart said. "Some O-line coaches are different from others, and I'm certain there have been some changes in that room in that dynamic, but a lot of the plays have been the same. You've changed the coaches, but a lot of the personnel is the same on the offensive line."
Said Gaillard: "It's been an adjustment, but Coach Pittman has done a good job of working with us and providing great detail and getting us where we need to be. We've done a good job of protecting our quarterback, so it's just something we have to pick up and get better at to have a good game against Ole Miss."
Smart insists, even after Eason threw 55 passes against the Tigers, that Georgia's identity of a physical, run-first team isn't going to change. Chubb is certain that better days are around the corner, and Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze fully expects the Bulldogs to fix their recent run-game woes.
"There are good run defenses in this country these days, and I don't know that people talk about that enough," Freeze said. "Running the football, in a lot of cases, has become very difficult against the way people play the run and add extra hats to it. The respect we have for Georgia's run game is enormous, because we've seen the explosive runs that they can create with the backs they have.
"You have to play locked in for 60 minutes, and that's what hurt us last week against Alabama. We played many good snaps, but we gave up way too many explosive runs, and we have the same respect for this run team as we did last week."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.