Kendall Milton spearheads dominant Georgia attack on Senior Day

ATHENS, Ga. — Senior Day is always special, and it certainly was for running back Kendall Milton. The fourth-year out of Fresno, Calif. had his best game in a Georgia uniform in his final game between the hedges, helping the Bulldogs beat Ole Miss 52-17 Saturday night.

On just nine carries, Milton put up 127 yards, an average of 14.1 per attempt. It was just his second 100-yard day and a career-high total as Milton found the end zone twice.

“I’m just playing at the ability God allowed me to,” an obviously excited Milton said after the game. “Before the game in my prayers I always ask, ‘Don’t let me do too much. Let me do what you think I’m ready for.’ I feel like up to this point, week by week He’s been doing that. I’m going to do the same prayer next week and do whatever He thinks I’m ready for.”

“To be honest, this is real Georgia Football to me. This is the Georgia I grew up watching, the Georgia I came in to as a freshman. This is the standard of Georgia Football,” he added about the run game’s big night. “I feel like, we’ve got it on the right track right now.”

Like a lot of players, Milton’s career has been filled with highs and lows. He came in as a highly touted prospect, the No. 7 running back in the country and a top-50 player overall. His commitment was supposed to give Georgia it’s next big thing at RBU. Instead, injuries have been the biggest storyline of his time in Athens.

Milton missed a combined 10 games his freshman and sophomore seasons as he suffered MCL sprains each year. As a junior in 2022, he was looked towards for a big year with Zamir White and James Cook gone, but it was Milton’s classmate Daijun Edwards who emerged as the secondary option to Kenny McIntosh.

Milton once again missed time during that 2022 season, only a pair of games with soft tissue injuries, and he’s been banged up throughout 2023 as well. Hamstring injuries limited him in spring practice and fall camp. He fought through to play before yet another MCL sprain – this time a less serious one – set him back some.

Milton however has a touchdown in each of the last five games for Georgia. He’s still just second on the team to Edwards in carries, yards and rushing touchdowns, but the Bulldogs seem to have a 1-2 punch with the pair of seniors.

“Kendall ran really hard tonight. I thought that was like the toughest and hardest I’ve seen him run,” Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said after the game. “He ran through tackles, he ran through people’s face. He ran like he was mad. He approached the whole week that way. He’s really stepped up and become a more vocal leader. I think a lot of the credit goes to Kendall and Daijun, but a lot of that credit goes to the offensive line too. We felt like we had the ability to keep fresh. We had three tackles rolling, we had three guards rolling. To me, that was the special. I’m not taking anything away from Kendall because Kendall was the best Kendall tonight.”

Milton was aware of the offensive line’s impressive play too. He promised them dinner if he was able to hit the 100-yard mark and plans to pay up. It’s all just a part of an offense that seems to be kicking into a different gear with all of its weapons back, including a healthy Milton.

“It showed up in the first half. If we don’t have a snafu there and get a little aggressive, we probably score four touchdowns,” Smart said of the healthy offense, one that totaled 611 yards including at least 300 both on the ground and through the air. “They’re potent. You’ve got a quarterback and you’ve got pass protectors and you’ve got weapons, first time that I thought Mike (Bobo) and his staff had a, I wouldn’t say a full cupboard, but Brock was close. He may not have been 100 percent. Some of the other guys, Mims is not quite all the way. It’s nice to see those guys out there together.”

“Obviously super proud of everybody. Defense, special teams, offense, we all played so well and executed at such a high level,” quarterback Carson Beck added. “O-line was rolling, running backs were rolling, pass game was rolling. Offense was rolling, it’s always fun to go out there and compete like that … When the run game works like that, you really can call whatever you want to. They’re worried about the run, now we’re going to try to throw it over their head. When an offense is working together, it just becomes impressive.”

Georgia goes on the road to Knoxville to take on Tennessee next Saturday in its final SEC game of the regular season. Kickoff time is set for 3:30 p.m. ET on CBS.