The No. 12 Georgia Bulldogs (7-2) are staring down a second consecutive season without a College Football Playoff appearance if they can’t take down No. 7 Tennessee (8-1) on Saturday.
That task just became a lot tougher to pull off as Georgia’s leading rusher Trevor Etienne was ruled out with an injury on Thursday.
The 5-foot-9 junior has accrued 477 rushing yards and scored seven touchdowns for the Dawgs, clinging for dear life in a stacked SEC.
Georgia is coming off a rough 28-10 loss to Mississippi in Week 11, and another falter this week would certainly eliminate it from the conference title race let alone playoff consideration.
Top rushing duties will fall to backup Nate Frazier, who has racked up a healthy 333 yards and three touchdowns on the year so far.
Tennessee has the ninth-best rushing defense in the FBS, but Georgia has only the 104th-best rushing offense, averaging 124.1 yards-per-game with Etienne healthy.
The Dawgs may find some semblance of hope in the fact that the Volunteers could be without one of their key starters as well on Saturday.
Star freshman quarterback Nico Iamaleava also appeared on the injury report Thursday, listed as questionable as he remains in concussion protocol.
Iamaleava missed the second half of Tennessee’s Week 11 contest against Mississippi State after taking a hard hit.
Saturday’s matchup can be considered an SEC elimination game of sorts, with both programs vying for two highly coveted spots to Atlanta for the conference championship game.
