Healed from ankle injury, Chubb looks like his old self

Nick Chubb cut quickly to his right, looking for room to run up the field.

As he patiently let his blocks set up, he ran through a hole that opened in between the right tackle and the outside defensive back. The lone South Carolina defender with a chance to bring him down early was only able to grab a handful of jersey and nothing else.

He didn’t hang on.

From there, Chubb cut past a defender and kept his balance after contact. He bounced off another and dragged him for additional yards after he also got a hold of the white No. 27 jersey. He was finally brought down but not after 40 yards picked up on the play.

It was a vintage Chubb run.

“He broke that one and I was like, ‘Oh crap, it’s on today,’” center Brandon Kublanow said. “So that was a lot of fun and always good to see Nick out there.”

Chubb made those types of runs earlier this year in a 222-yard performance against North Carolina, which was the first game he played since he made his return from a gruesome knee injury during the 2015 season.

But since, he’d been limited in terms of production. He wasn’t able to run for 100 yards against Nicholls State, Missouri or Mississippi, and sprained his ankle against the Rebels. He only carried the ball once for 3 yards against Tennessee while recovering from an ankle injury.

But through the injury and an offensive line that’s steadily improved over the past few weeks, Chubb was finally able to break through with the kind of showing in Sunday’s 28-14 win over South Carolina that made him a household name nationally.

“I thought he was more explosive and fresher this week, but I also thought he was that way at Ole Miss up until the injury occurred,” head coach Kirby Smart said.

Chubb ran the ball 16 times for 121 yards and two touchdowns against the Gamecocks, which broke a streak of four games played without 100 on the ground.

While he won’t say it, he’ll surely want to begin a new streak of games with 100 yards. Dating back to his first-ever start against Missouri in 2014, Chubb ran for 100 yards in 13 consecutive games. The Bulldogs are 12-3 in games the past three years when Chubb broke the 100-yard barrier.

“It’s a mindset, to come out here and get physical,” Chubb said. “We got the big boys up there rolling. It was working for us, opening up for us.”

Getting Chubb chances to make plays in the running game is a focal point of Georgia’s offense and is something the Bulldogs hope to see more of in the second half of the season.

“Absolutely, it’s what you want to do,” Kublanow said. “It’s what we built our program on here, is running the ball. So, it’s something we’re getting back to and keep improving on.”

One of Chubb’s 100-yard games during the 13-game streak came against Vanderbilt in 2015, when Chubb run for a 2015-best 189 yards.

Of course, Chubb will look to replicate that performance when the Bulldogs host the Commodores Saturday at Sanford Stadium.

“That’s our goal every week, attack them on the ground,” Chubb said.

This story was originally published October 12, 2016 at 8:24 PM with the headline "Healed from ankle injury, Chubb looks like his old self."