Ad Disclosure
Don’t discount the importance (and emergence) of Zamir White heading into Florida
Published:
By the time Zamir White was a day removed from the best game of his roller coaster career, there were about 7 more intriguing developing storylines heading into Saturday’s Florida-Georgia showdown.
Want me to name all 7? Sure!
Dan Mullen’s SEC punishment following the brawl against Mizzou was one. The impact of potential Florida players suspended for their role in that was another. What about how Todd Grantham’s defense, despite missing 8 defensive backs against Mizzou, finally didn’t stink up the place and might actually have a little bit of momentum heading into Jacksonville? And of course, there’s Kadarius Toney, Kyle Pitts and Kyle Trask all looking more and more like All-Americans.
Oh, my bad. If you’re reading this, you probably want the Georgia storylines. Sure!
There’s the whole quarterback situation and whether Kirby Smart’s continued faith in Stetson Bennett IV is going to squander the Dawgs’ Playoff hopes. We also have to mention the plethora of defensive injuries that Georgia suffered on Saturday. Separate from that was the unfortunate traffic accident that Richard LeCounte was involved in after Saturday’s game against Kentucky.
One … 2 … 3 … yep. We hit 7!
That brings us back to White. In case you missed it Saturday amidst that hoopla, all the Georgia tailback did was record a career high in carries (26) and yards (136). The man they call “Zeus” might not have delivered a performance that was likened to a Greek god, but don’t discount why his emergence was important for Saturday’s clash with Florida.
Let’s start with the reason the Kentucky game was an obvious opportunity to feed White (26 times to be exact). Well, check that. There were several reasons that was teed up for White.
The previous week, Larry Rountree III got 37 carries in a Mizzou win against Kentucky. The Tigers held the ball for 43 minutes and completely lulled Kentucky to sleep. There was no reason Georgia, with an improving offensive line, couldn’t do the exact same thing a week later. It basically did. The Dawgs didn’t attempt a pass once on a 12-play, 86-yard drive to start the game. Coming out of the halftime locker room, it was White’s touchdown run that put the game away:
Zamir White in a 14-3 win vs. Kentucky : 26 carries for 136 yards & a TD (Career-highs in carries & rushing yards) pic.twitter.com/0eQ55VyHVy
— Lee Harvey (@MusikFan4Life) October 31, 2020
There was also the skill-player injuries that Georgia had heading into Kentucky. Without tailback Kenny McIntosh and receiver George Pickens, the plan of attack was limited. White’s understudy, James Cook, had to once again help out a quiet group of Georgia receivers. With Cook’s continued emergence as a pass-catcher, naturally, that meant more carries for White.
And of course, asking the suddenly-turnover happy Bennett to make 30 throws to beat Kentucky didn’t make much sense.
Why does all of that matter for the Florida game?
Right now, the Gators are clicking offensively in a way they haven’t in the post-Tim Tebow era. Sure, the sample size is small, but Trask has more touchdown passes (18) through 4 games than any SEC quarterback ever. There’s nothing run-of-the-mill with what Pitts and Toney are doing, either.
With that in mind, what would be a good plan of attack? Keep them off the field as much as possible. Georgia doesn’t want to get into a shootout with Florida. Bennett is too mistake-prone to win that type of a game. The better bet is to see if Florida can handle the physicality of White and the Georgia ground game.
Yes, Florida looked awfully good defending the run against Mizzou. The aforementioned Rountree had 14 carries for 36 yards. The fact that Grantham simplified Florida’s front and Kyree Campbell was back seemed significant. Granted, that was Mizzou. That wasn’t against an offensive line like Georgia’s. It also followed a 3-game start in which Florida allowed an average of 164 rushing yards per game.
In other words, yeah, feed Zeus.
That hasn’t always been a given for the Georgia tailback. Who knows how he’s feeling physically after he had his most work in a game since he became a 5-star sensation in high school. A couple of major knee surgeries delayed his direct path to becoming the next great Georgia back.
Saturday was White’s first 100-yard game in college. Had you told Georgia fans in 2017 that it wouldn’t happen until the middle of White’s draft-eligible season, they probably would’ve laughed you out of the room. But better late than never. White showed last week that he can handle that kind of workload and still pound away at a defense. Really, he’s been trending in that direction all year.
White is 5th in the SEC in carries (90), 8th in rushing yards (402) and he’s tied for 3rd in rushing scores (6). He’s actually averaging more touches per game (18.6) than D’Andre Swift (15.7) had in 2019.
Ironically enough, Swift’s career high in carries (25) came against Florida in his draft-eligible year. Sure, he was only able to scrounge together 86 rushing yards, and it was mostly Jake Fromm converting 3rd down after 3rd down against Grantham’s defense that proved to be the difference. But go back to the key sequences down the stretch. When Georgia was clinging to that 16-10 lead early in the 4th quarter, whose number was called? Swift. He got 5 carries on that drive, 2 of which were 3rd-down conversions. Then Georgia ran the play-action and got the bust in coverage for Lawrence Cager’s back-breaking touchdown.
If Georgia wants history to repeat itself, one has to think a heavy dose of White is in store.
It’s interesting that Smart said after Saturday’s win against Kentucky that White “never complains” or “gripes about touches.” Irrelevant it is now that a former 5-star recruit coming off 2 major knee surgeries was slowly eased into the flow at Georgia. Smart saw exactly what he could’ve hoped to see from White in his biggest game to date.
All the other noise will drown out his impact ahead of Saturday. But if Florida loses track of Zeus, well, it’ll be the same song, new verse in Jacksonville.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
