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Kirby Smart’s team is no longer No. 1, and this Saturday in Athens his 2nd-ranked Georgia team that escaped disaster at Missouri will have to deal with Auburn star running back Tank Bigsby.
And Smart knows that disaster is always a possibility whenever the junior gets the ball, either on a run or on a pass out of the backfield.
“Run game and pass game, he’s explosive,” said Smart during his Monday press conference.
Bigsby has 326 yards rushing in 2022, although he doesn’t have a 100-yard game since Week 1. He’s averaging 4.7 yards per carry, and he’s scored 4 times on the ground. Bigsby also has 13 catches, and he’ll be trying to lead the 3-2 Tigers to a monster upset of the battered but still unbeaten Bulldogs.
“He’s a great guy out of the backfield, can catch the ball,” Smart said. “He catches screens well, he’s vertical on his run game. He’s tough, yards after contact, he’s one of those backs, like the good ones, they get better with their carries and he’s extremely physical and runs with low pad level and is one of these typical SEC backs that you better bring your lunch pail when you come to tackle them.”
We’ll see if Smart’s defense can contain Bigsby on Saturday afternoon.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
