David Gabriel Georges

Physical Profile

Listed 6-0, 210 on 247Sports and reported at 220 by head coach Erik Kimrey entering the 2026 season, up from 5-11/200 at the time of his commitment, so the frame is still filling out without any visible loss of speed. This is a compact, dense build with the thick lower half and low center of gravity that defines a downhill SEC back; ESPN grades him 90 and slots him No. 2 at the position. Andrew Ivins (247Sports Director of Scouting) tagged him as a 205-plus-pound back with day-one physicality and compared him to Trent Richardson, which fits the profile of a runner who wins through mass, leg drive and short-area acceleration rather than pure long speed. No verified laser 40 or track marks were found, so the 'elite speed' descriptor from game scouts should be read as game speed and burst through the hole, not yet a tested number.

Play Style

Downhill, one-cut power runner who presses the line, reads blocks patiently, then plants and drives through the alley with a forward lean. He seeks contact at the second level rather than avoiding it, finishes runs falling forward, and possesses enough acceleration that arm tackles turn into long touchdowns, which is how a physical runner ends up averaging nearly 11 yards a carry. Observers noted a slow start in the 2026 opener before he 'went off' with three fourth-quarter scores, a wear-down profile typical of a back who gets stronger as defenses tire. Kimrey's 2026 assessment ('He's faster. He's more explosive. He's stronger. He knows the game better') points to a player who added scheme literacy and receiving comfort on top of the raw power that made him a national name.

Strengths

• Tackle-breaking and contact balance: Rivals' Charles Power calls him a 'violent runner who pairs high-end vision with supreme tackle-breaking ability,' and in the 2026 opener against Brentwood Academy he was rarely brought down by the first defender, routinely requiring two or three tacklers.
• Big-play production against real competition: 280 yards with touchdowns of 60, 53 and 51 yards against rival McCallie in 2025, then 435 yards and seven touchdowns in the playoff rematch, en route to Baylor's first undefeated season in 50-plus years and the DII-AAA title.
• Burst and acceleration through the lane: the 247Sports evaluation cites rapid acceleration once he identifies the crease, and the ~11 yards per carry across a 27-TD junior year reflects a back who converts vision into chunk gains rather than piling up 4-yard runs.
• Three-down utility already showing: engages in pass protection and catches the ball on screens and swings; the Brentwood opener showed 5 receptions for 78 yards and reps split out on the perimeter, a clear expansion of his role from 2025.

Areas to Improve

• Verified timed speed: he has no public track times or laser-timed 40 on the record, and his 20-plus pound weight gain since spring makes a tested number the key open question for whether his long speed holds at 220. Tennessee should want him to prove he can still finish the 60-yard runs, not just create them.
• Route tree and receiving polish: his catches to date are almost entirely screens, swings and manufactured perimeter touches. To be a true three-down back in Heupel's tempo spread he needs to run option routes and angle routes from the backfield against SEC linebackers.
• Pad level and ball security under heavy volume: as a power back who invites contact (26-27 carries in the opener), he will need to keep pads down and protect the ball through pile-ups, an area college coaches typically tighten with backs of this style.

College Projection

Immediate contributor and likely early-career starter at Tennessee. 247Sports' game scout projected he 'might be RB1 upon arrival,' and his physical readiness supports a true-freshman rotation role in 2027 with a lead-back workload by 2028. In Josh Heupel's tempo offense, which relies on inside zone and RPO handoffs against spread-out boxes, his combination of vision and tackle-breaking should produce efficient early yardage while the receiving role grows. He is the eighth five-star of the Heupel era and the fourth-highest-rated back Tennessee has ever signed.

NFL Outlook

Legitimate early-round NFL profile if the speed verifies. The Trent Richardson comparison captures both the upside (a 6-0, 220-pound back with contact balance and burst is a prototypical modern feature back) and the risk (power backs without verified long speed get devalued on draft day). Expect three seasons in Knoxville with a Day 1-2 ceiling driven by production; the receiving development and a sub-4.5 forty at the Combine would separate him from the mid-round power-back tier.

Best Fit

Tennessee is a strong fit: an uptempo spread that creates light boxes and clean one-cut lanes for a back who punishes tacklers in space, with a coordinator willing to give a lead back 20-plus touches. More broadly, he maximizes in a gap/inside-zone system that lets him get downhill quickly rather than a wide-zone scheme that asks him to string runs laterally; his value is between the tackles and through the second level, with screens and swings as the complementary passing-game piece.