Georgia RB Nate Frazier counts first-year struggles as blessings and he's paying it forward
ATHENS, Ga. — Georgia running back Nate Frazier‘s freshman season was impressive overall and borderline spectacular at times. It was not, however, without adversity.
The California native packed up his things last June and moved over 2,200 miles to Athens, Georgia. His plan was to fight for playing time in a Georgia backfield that had added Trevor Etienne from the transfer portal and brought back a pair of big bruisers in Branson Robinson and Roderick Robinson. What the running back position eventually became wasn’t anywhere near what it was supposed to be.
Roderick was hurt during camp, Branson went down before the midpoint of the regular season with a knee ailment, and Etienne suffered fractured ribs in the Bulldogs’ win over Florida. Frazier, all of a sudden, was Georgia’s feature tailback.
But what preceded the move into a bigger role was something that helped Frazier get better. During a three-game stretch that included Kentucky, Alabama, and Auburn, Frazier played just 18 snaps on offense. He had zero in the Bulldogs’ loss to the Crimson Tide.
Why? Holding onto the football and pass protection were giving him trouble on the practice field The former four-star prospect says that he didn’t get down on himself or the process. Frazier kept chopping and he’s better for it.
“I’m appreciative of everything that happened for the (reduced) snaps,” Frazier told reporters on Tuesday. “I just remain humble and just continue to work. I know there were a lot of areas that I needed to grow in, so me personally, I wasn’t upset at all. I just knew I just need to work harder and just grow and just get better at anything I possibly could. So it didn’t make me mad at all. I just put my head down to work.”
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Unfortunately the fumbling issues didn’t disappear once Frazier took on a bigger role. He put it on the ground twice in the loss to Ole Miss and once, almost twice, against Georgia Tech. But Frazier kept plugging along.
In the process of rounding out his own game, the fireball of a tailback matured as a leader. Rather than get frustrated with a lack of playing time, check out, and focus on the next steps of his career, Frazier bought into the pillars of Georgia’s program.
He thought about his “why,” which is his family back home. Frazier grasped the whole idea that each practice is a chance to get better and not just an obstacle to clear before Saturday. Now he’s passing that along to others despite the fact that he hasn’t been on campus for a full calendar year.
“One thing I told Bo (Walker) is just don’t rush the process,” Frazier said when asked about his message to the freshman tailback. ‘Mainly just trust the process. Trust what Coach (Kirby) Smart, Coach (Mike) Bobo, and Coach (Josh) Crawford are telling him, and then everything will work out. And just work hard. The main thing for him, I just told him, just make sure you just give effort. With everything you do just give effort, and then everything will be fine.”
