ATHENS - Three players thought to be major contributors to Georgia football’s 2026 season will not play against the Auburn Tigers this weekend.
UGA RB Chauncey Bowens, WR Isiah Canion and Auburn transfer and UGA DL Amaris Williams are all listed as “out” on Wednesday night’s SEC injury report that schools are mandated to complete by conference rule.
Amaris Williams has been out for some time, and was never expected to play in this contest, but his status as well as that of Bowens and Canion backs up coach Kirby Smart’s comments after the 20-17 win over Alabama Saturday night.
“We're a beat-up football team right now,” Smart said at Bryant-Denny Stadium. “We have guys out left and right, and to have both those backs out and Isiah (Canion) out at receiver - tough deal, but we responded.”
One of those two backs that didn’t play Saturday night was not on the injury report Wednesday night, either. Nate Frazier has only played a handful of snaps since Georgia’s lopsided win at Arkansas. He was listed as questionable for two weeks, and played sparingly against Vanderbilt.
Frazier was not listed in the injury report last week at all, but did not play at Alabama - meaning the Dawgs were down two of their top three running backs for the huge showdown with the Crimson Tide.
It gave Dwight Phillips a massive opportunity to step up, and he did.
“What a great kid, man. This Dwight Phillips, man, y'all don't know how special this kid is,” Smart said after the win over Alabama. “He hasn’t complained one time since being here, and he's so tough for his size. (Mike_ Bobo came to me before the game and said, ‘Hey, Nate isn't going to go.’ I said, ‘We have to give it to Peanut (Phillips). He said, ‘Do you remember that game when we were at Georgia, and they gave the ball to Torin Kirtsey, and he weighed about 175.’ I don't know how many times Torin carried, maybe 30. I said, ‘If we have to give it to Dwight that many times, he can do it.’
Phillips only had to carry the ball 17 times against Alabama to get the win. He ripped the Tide for 120 yards - including a 31-yard run. His 7.1 yards per carry average against Alabama was only slightly lower than his season of 7.6.
There was some other news for the Dawgs in the injury report. Star DB KJ Bolden is listed as questionable for the game Satuday against the Tigers. The Bulldogs are starting to get thin in the secondary as well as fellow safety Tyriq Green is listed as out for the game.
Meanwhile Auburn’s top linebacker, Xavier Atkins, will not play this week against the Bulldogs. In five games this season Atkins has 37 total, 7.5 tackles for loss and three sacks, three QB hurries and an interception.
“He's not with the team right now,” Auburn coach Alex Golesh said "We'll revisit it next week or, we’ll meet again on Monday here; keep it in-house in terms of anything beyond that. Really, that'll be the only piece of it that I'll be addressing, but he won't be with us this week for the game on Saturday."
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