Kirby Smart explains how Kendall Milton is handling return from injury
ATHENS, Ga. — Georgia running back Kendall Milton has battled injuries throughout his career. In the past year alone he’s dealt with various soft tissue setbacks with his groin and hamstring, causing him to miss time here and there. This past Saturday though, Milton wasn’t going to be watching from the sidelines.
“Kendall is dying to get out there,” Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said this week. “The guy has a great heart, great soul. He loves this program, he’ll give anything for this program, and it kills him not to be out there. He has not been able to practice most of camp due to his injury. We’re dealing a little bit now with, ‘All right, how does he stay warm and able to do it?’ When he’s used to playing, right, he plays in a rotation at running back, but he played on all the special teams. Now he’s not doing that. When he’s not in on offense, he sits over there, gets cold, got to stay warm, goes in at halftime, leg tightens up, and doesn’t have what I call the camp stamina.”
“He didn’t really go through camp. He worked out, ran, did what he had to do, but he could not get himself in playing shape just by camp,” Smart continued. “So we’re really battling that now to get him back right. I think he said himself, if you asked him, ‘I’m running 92%.’ That’s what he quoted it as. I don’t think his stamina is at 92%. I think when he is 100% conditioned, he’s at 92%, and we’re trying to fight that to get him back.”
Milton didn’t say that when DawgsHQ was there. He told us that he was feeling good – and he certainly looked good when in action. The Fresno, Calif. native led Georgia in rushing with nine carries for 53 yards. He also had the longest run of the day for the Dawgs, rattling one off for 37 in the second quarter to set up a score later in the drive.
For as much as Milton wants to be on the field in the early games, Georgia knows they must do everything to have him ready for the long season that’s ahead. The Bulldogs don’t need to rush him back, just as they don’t need to do either with his backfield mate Daijun Edwards. That being said, both are participating in practice this week, and according to Smart, Milton is looking good.
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“It’s a delicate line, right? Do you bring him back and try to play him and get him in shape, or sit on the shelf and you don’t get carries,” Smart said on Milton. “That action he got the other day was like scrimmage one and scrimmage two, because he didn’t get to play in those.”
“I thought he looked as good as he has looked in a long time yesterday,” he added on Wednesday during the SEC Coaches Teleconference. “I don’t know what percentage because I didn’t ask him that, but just off the tape I thought he had a little more explosive and a lot more confidence. He hit faster numbers. He felt good. I think it’s a stamina issue according to the trainers that he has started to build up his stamina, and that probably helped with that Saturday. I mean, as long as he keeps moving and stays warm, he does well.”
Smart said after the game on Saturday that Milton felt his hamstring tighten up a little bit on him as the game went along. That was a result of sitting for too long and the stamina factor the head coach spoke about. This Saturday, the Dawgs will look to keep him active more to prevent any sort of tightness as Georgia takes on Ball State. Kickoff time from Sanford Stadium is set for 12:00 p.m. ET on SEC Network.
