Growing up fast Richard Samuel brings maturity to UGA running backs

photo Richard Samuel has a chance to be Georgia's starting tailback in the Outback Bowl after missing the past five games following ankle surgery.

Georgia's tailback position contains three players who have been suspended this season, but it also includes a 20-year-old graduate.

Redshirt junior Richard Samuel earned his degree in sport management earlier this month but hasn't been on the field since tearing ligaments in his ankle during a 10-yard run on the final play of the 24-20 win over Florida. On the same day Samuel underwent surgery, Bulldogs coach Mark Richt announced that Isaiah Crowell, Carlton Thomas and Ken Malcome would serve single-game suspensions for the ensuing contest against New Mexico State.

It's been a pretty chaotic position ever since.

"Richard has been around the program a while and has got some maturity about him, and that group had a lot of inexperience," Richt said. "When he was in there, they were just a little more grown up. There was more stability there and more maturity there, so we've definitely missed him."

The 6-foot-2, 243-pounder from Cartersville is hoping to practice at full strength this morning when the No. 18 Bulldogs hold their first workout in Tampa for next Monday's Outback Bowl against No. 12 Michigan State. Georgia players arrived in Tampa on Monday and had a welcome dinner provided by Outback Steakhouse.

Samuel has been much more rule enforcer than rule breaker since January 2008, when he arrived in Athens as a 16-year-old early enrollee. He spent this past summer doing his internship under Georgia senior associate athletic director Carla Williams, who supervises academic support services as well as compliance.

Yet it's another female figure, his mother, who really has shaped Samuel's focus. Samuel grew up in the Virgin Islands and didn't play football until he was a 14-year-old sophomore at Cass High School, and his mother almost pulled him off the team that year because he had an 88 average in one of his classes.

"I give her a lot of credit," Samuel said. "She's the reason I've graduated on time. The only thing I haven't been able to control are the injuries."

Samuel made six starts at tailback during the 2009 season before getting pushed down the depth chart by Washaun Ealey and Caleb King, a troubled tandem no longer in the program. He moved last year to inside linebacker, but a torn meniscus two weeks before the season opener clinched a redshirt year.

Tailback became his home again this past July after Ealey and King went elsewhere, and he started the first two games before Crowell took over. Samuel got a third start when Crowell was suspended for the first quarter at Vanderbilt, and then came his performance against Florida.

With Georgia trailing 20-17 entering the fourth quarter, Samuel reeled off gains of 7, 9 and 10 yards and had the go-ahead score from 4 yards out.

"I think that was his best performance," Richt said. "I think he thought it was his best performance. Sometimes you need one of those games to give you the confidence to do it every single game. I think he was just hitting his stride when he got slowed up."

Samuel's career-best performance was a 104-yard showing at Arkansas in '09, but an 80-yard touchdown run accounted for most of that. His 17-carry, 58-yard effort against Florida was more thorough, but then there was that last play.

"I finally felt like I was starting to prove my worth," he said. "Now people are wondering 'Can this guy stay healthy?' I hope to come back stronger than ever and pick up where I left off.

"I'm very excited about this game, and I hope to show that I'm not a one- or two-game guy."

Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.

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