Nate Frazier’s 2024 season already showed what he can do with the ball in his hands. The bigger question for Georgia in 2025 is what he can do when he is not carrying it, because Kirby Smart says the most significant growth has come in the part of the job that does not show up on a stat sheet.
Smart said Frazier has taken the biggest step in leadership inside the running back room, and that matters for a Georgia offense leaning on familiarity. The Bulldogs’ top two leading backs are back for the 2025 season, which gives the unit a chance to build on what was already a productive fall. Georgia finished fourth in the SEC in rushing last season at 182 yards per game and a little over two rushing touchdowns per game, a sign that the ground game took a real step forward.
Frazier was a major part of that. In 2024, he made an immediate impact in his first game and ran for 947 yards and six touchdowns. Over his two years in Athens, he has totaled 1,618 rushing yards and 14 touchdowns, numbers that help explain why he is now being described as a central piece of the offense rather than just a promising back.
What Smart said he wants more of
Smart’s comments this week made the development picture pretty clear. He said Frazier’s leadership in that room is where he has grown the most, and he added that Frazier takes personal ownership of the energy around him. Smart also pointed to the fact that Frazier, Chauncey Bowens and Dwight Phillips came into the program together, which has helped shape the group dynamic.
The on-field goals are just as specific. Smart said Frazier has worked on stamina, carrying the ball further downfield, pass protection and pass receiving. Becoming a weapon catching the ball out of the backfield, Smart added, has been a big focus. That is an important clue about how Georgia wants to use him. It is not just about giving him more carries; it is about making him harder to substitute against and more versatile once the play starts to unfold.
That kind of expansion matters because Frazier’s body type and production already suggest a runner who can handle a real workload. At 5-foot-10 and 205 pounds, he has the frame to absorb contact, and the 947-yard season confirmed that he can turn volume into production. The next step is about adding answers when defenses try to take away the obvious lanes.
There is also a broader team reason this is worth watching. Georgia’s run game took a big step forward last fall, but returning to that level in 2025 will require more than a repeat of last season’s production. It will require growth from the backs who already know the system and can help set the tone for the rest of the room. Frazier appears to be doing exactly that.
His value, then, is becoming two-fold: he is one of Georgia’s most reliable rushing options, and he is also helping define the standard for the backfield. That combination is often what separates a productive player from a foundational one. For Georgia, that distinction could matter a lot once SEC games start piling up.
