Some of the greatest running backs in Georgia football history were great from the start.
Herschel Walker scored two touchdowns during his Bulldogs debut in 1980, igniting a 16-15 win at Tennessee and a run to that season's national championship. Todd Gurley scored twice in his 2012 debut against Buffalo, including one from 55 yards out, and Nick Chubb lost a shoe on a 47-yard touchdown run during his first career game against Clemson in 2014.
Only time will tell whether Zamir White has a stellar career with the Bulldogs, but it appears that his debut will be against Austin Peay on Sept. 1.
"Zamir will be full-go with a protective brace," Georgia third-year coach Kirby Smart said during a news conference Friday afternoon before the Bulldogs held their first preseason practice. "He'll have his brace on, and we'll just have to monitor his volume, but he's not going to be limited in any way. He should be able to do all drills.
"He's just gaining confidence with his knee, and the brace will help with that."
White, a 6-foot, 210-pounder from Laurinburg, North Carolina, was the nation's No. 1 running back in the 2018 signing class. He rushed for 2,085 yards and 34 touchdowns and averaged 14.1 yards per carry as a Scotland County senior, but he didn't get to finish the season.
After having amassed 145 yards and three touchdowns on just eight carries during a second-round playoff game, White suffered a torn ACL in his right knee in the third quarter. White enrolled at Georgia in January and was limited during spring practice, but he continually drew praise from Smart while on the comeback trail.
"He's in a very similar situation to when I arrived (in 2016) with Nick Chubb," Smart said. "He went through spring, and it kind of reminded me of Chubb. You guys saw Nick doing some things that first spring back, some ball-handling and things like that, and that's kind of where Zamir has been.
"Zamir did a very similar protocol to what Nick did, whether it was karate or doing some things on mats. If anything, I would say he's ahead of where Nick was his junior year, because his injury was not quite as significant as Nick's was."
Bulldogs players who witnessed both recoveries believe there are similarities, with junior tight end Isaac Nauta saying, "Zamir reminded me of Nick on how he attacked it. He's the same type of guy, too. He's quieter and just went to work and got his knee right."
Chubb tore multiple ligaments at Tennessee in October 2015, but he opened his junior season by rushing 32 times for 222 yards and two touchdowns in a 33-24 win over North Carolina. Chubb finished his junior season with 1,130 yards.
"The big issue isn't whether Zamir is cleared but what kind of volume can he handle," Smart said. "Can he handle 7,000 yards on our GPS at practice? I don't know. We've got to monitor that and see where he hits each day and make sure we bring him back at the right pace."
The likely starter at running back for the opener is sophomore D'Andre Swift, who rushed for 618 yards and 7.6 yards per carry last season.
Smart provided several injury updates Friday, most notably that sophomore quarterback Jake Fromm will be wearing a splint on his left hand, senior receiver Terry Godwin will be limited for a few days with a "minor issue in his left knee" and sophomore defensive back Deangelo Gibbs (shoulder) has been cleared.
Georgia is attempting to win consecutive Southeastern Conference titles for the first time since Walker roamed, but Smart knows other objectives can wait.
"We've challenged them," Smart said. "This is going to be a tough, physical camp. All of them are. What's going to separate us from 13 other SEC teams is what we do between now and the first game. We're not preparing for Austin Peay. We're not preparing for South Carolina. We're not preparing for Auburn or anybody else on our schedule.
"We're preparing for us right now, and we've got to do a great job this camp of understanding the areas we've got to improve on."
Quarterback battle
Smart was asked whether true freshman Justin Fields could win the quarterback job in upcoming weeks given what Fromm accomplished last season.
"I look at it as whether Tyson Campbell can beat out Deandre Baker (at cornerback)," Smart responded. "Do Brenton Cox or Robert Beal have a chance to start over D'Andre Walker (at outside linebacker)? Certainly.
"When you start trying to make it a bigger deal than it is - to me, it's about who's going to play with the most consistency, who's going to be a natural leader and who's going to make the right decisions, and that's at every position."
Smart said the first-, second-, third- and fourth-team players would receive the same amount of repetitions the first several days and he and his staff will make decisions from there.
Robertson update
The NCAA this week granted immediate eligibility waivers for Florida receivers Van Jefferson and Trevon Grimes, but Smart doesn't believe that means anything for former California receiver Demetris Robertson, who transferred to Athens this summer after playing two seasons with the Bears.
"I think it would be presumptuous to think that makes it better for us," he said. "It's handled in a case-by-case basis by the NCAA. Obviously we're hopeful, but it's out of our hands. The NCAA will get back to us when they get done with the appeal."
Odds and ends
Smart said there are too many battles at too many positions to determine the leaders of the team right now. Senior defensive end Jonathan Ledbetter worked Friday at outside linebacker, with Notre Dame graduate transfer Jay Hayes at defensive end. When asked a couple of questions about the Ohio State situation, Smart said he's happy with the structure in place at Georgia and that he would not delve into hypothetical situations.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.