Georgia’s Kirby Smart enters first season with numerous offensive questions

Georgia running back Nick Chubb (27) struggles for extra yardage against Alabama linebacker Reuben Foster (10) in the second half of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Oct. 3, 2015, in Athens, Ga. Alabama won 38-10. (AP Photo/Brett Davis)

HOOVER, Ala. – For someone with a distinguished defensive background, Georgia first-year head football coach Kirby Smart sure talked a lot of offense Tuesday during his SEC media days debut.

The Bulldogs are moving on from the 15-year Mark Richt era with a three-man competition at quarterback and with talented tailbacks Nick Chubb and Sony Michel rehabbing injuries. Chubb has been out since last October, when he tore knee ligaments on the first play from scrimmage at Tennessee, and Michel suffered a broken forearm earlier this month in an ATV accident and spent nearly a week in the hospital after undergoing surgery.

“It’s an injury we don’t have a lot of experience with, because it’s not a normal football injury,” Smart said. “We experienced this last year with (former Alabama tailback) Kenyan Drake, but that was one bone, and it didn’t come out of the skin. In Sony’s situation, there are just a lot of unknowns.

“I don’t think we’ll know about his availability until the first or second scrimmage. People say six to eight weeks. Kenyan’s was less than that, but Kenyan’s injury was less than that.”