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Georgia will proceed with caution with the former No. 9 overall prospect in the 2018 class. Yes, that is prized running back Zamir White. White, to say the least, has had a bumpy start to his collegiate career. During his senior year of high school, he endured his first ACL injury which surprisingly only sidelined him for three months.
After his quick recovery, he was deemed healthy and cleared to play football. Head coach Kirby Smart claimed White would be brought along slowly during training camp, but even this didn’t stop White from injuring his ACL again.
According to 247 Sports, “White went down while covering a punt and his freshman season at Georgia was over.”
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With White almost being done with recovery again, the Bulldogs seem to be playing it conservative.
“I don’t know that I can answer [how much he’ll contribute.] That’s going to come in fall camp,” Smart said. “I think any time you have a non-contact ACL and then you have a second one, you’ve got to be careful because we’re talking about two different knees and completely non-contact injuries. When that happens, it makes you, hey, is the kid going to be able to progress this time as fast as he did last time. For us, he’s going to be able to do some. He’s running. He’s running really well. He’s doing a lot of straight-line stuff,” head coach Kirby Smart said.
“He’s just not going to be involved in the scrimmage and in the contact part.”
Thankfully for White, it seems that he is in the perfect place. The UGA football staff is very supportive and have also dealt with major running back injuries in the past.
“Ultimately, how do I know how he’s going to contribute to the team? I don’t know that,” Smart added. “I’m not going to know that until probably early in fall camp. I’m very pleased with his work ethic. He knows that’s his future. He takes care of his knee. He’s done everything we’ve asked him to do. I think Ron (Courson) is kind of one of the best in the country at dealing with this when you look at the significant injuries he’s dealt with (Todd) Gurley and Nick Chubb, especially at [running back.] [White] has somebody really good to rely on when it comes to that. Zamir has managed that really well.”
Georgia fans will have to wait to see White finally take the field. But with Whites talent, it is worth the wait.
