MOULTRIE – With Georgia’s top two rushers opting to head for the National Football League, former Packer Daijun Edwards could be in line for more significant playing time next season

“He’s about to get more opportunities,” Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said Wednesday during a stop at Colquitt County High School.

Edwards, who is the Packers’ all-time leader in career rushing yards with 4,413 and touchdowns with 66, has had 86 carries for 428 yards and has scored four touchdowns for Georgia over the last two seasons.

During the Bulldogs run to the national championship last season, the 5-10, 210-pounder carried 49 times for 210 yards and three touchdowns.

But Georgia’s leading ball carrier – Zamir White – declared for the NFL draft on Jan. 14.

Two days earlier, James Cook also had declared for the draft.

The two combined for 1,584 rushing yards and 18 touchdowns to help lead the Bulldogs to a 14-1 record.

That leaves Edwards, Kendall Milton and Kenny McIntosh as the most experienced holdover running backs heading into spring practice.

Smart had nothing but good things to say about Edwards, who also performed well on special teams for the Bulldogs.

“He’s a great kid,” said Smart, who is heading into his seventh season as the head of the Georgia football program. “He’s humble and he’s been working his butt off.”

Like Edwards, Smart himself was a somewhat unheralded player when he signed with Georgia following Bainbridge High’s 1993 football season.

Playing for his father, longtime Bainbridge High and Rabun County head coach Sonny Smart, the young defensive back helped lead the Bearcats to one of the program’s most successful seasons.

Bainbridge went 10-3 in 1993, producing the most wins in school history until the 2015 Bearcats went 13-1.

Kirby came under the wing of a young coach at Hutto Junior High named Earl Jefferson, who 18 years later would join the coaching staff at Colquitt County High.

By Kirby’s senior season, the Bearcats were one of the top teams in the state with outstanding running back Jonathan Butler pounding the football in Sonny Smart’s wing-T offense.

Bainbridge won four of its five Region 1-AAAA games that season, defeating Colquitt County, Valdosta, Lowndes and Tift County.

The only blemish on the Bearcats card was a 42-14 loss to Coffee in Douglas.

Colquitt County was one year away from going 15-0 and winning the program’s first state championship and started the 1993 season slowly, losing five of its first six games.

But the Packers rallied to win their final four regular-season games and also finished 4-1 in region games.

Colquitt beat Coffee 28-24 at home in the regular-season finale and then beat the Trojans again the next Friday night in the region playoff game to qualify for the state playoffs.

The Packers season ended with a 27-20 loss at Upson-Lee in the first round.

The Packers and Bearcats had met in the fourth game of the season, three weeks before Colquitt County began its five-game winning streak with a 10-7 win at Valdosta.

Bainbridge got 141 yards on the ground from Butler and a late Colquitt County rally was snuffed out by an interception by Kirby Smart.

It was Bainbridge’s fourth game. It was Smart’s fourth interception. He finished with 16 in his high school career.

The Bearcats went on to defeat Morrow 14-13 in the first round and Baldwin 21-0 in the second.

Their season ended in semifinals with a 28-3 loss at Dunwoody.

Sonny Smart spent one more year at Bainbridge before taking over the Rabun County program, which he led from 1995-2003 before retiring.

Kirby Smart signed with Georgia and played safety for the Bulldogs from 1995-1998.

He finished his career with 13 interceptions, a record that still ranks sixth all-time at Georgia.

He led the Bulldogs with six interceptions in 1997 and five in 1998, when he led the SEC in interceptions and was a first-team All-SEC selection.

Smart began his coaching career in 1999 as an administrative assistant at Georgia.

He then went to Valdosta State, where he was the defensive backs coach in 2000 and the defensive coordinator in 2001.

The next two seasons, Smart was a graduate assistant at Florida State under Bobby Bowden.

In 2004, he worked as the defensive backs coaches at LSU under Nick Saban, before returning to Georgia to coach running backs in 2005.

The next year, he coached the safeties for the NFL’s Miami Dolphins under Saban.

When Saban left Miami to take the job as head coach at Alabama in 2007, Smart went along and was named defensive coordinator.

He remained in Tuscaloosa until December 6, 2015, when he was named as the 26th head coach at Georgia.

He has posted a 66-15 record since returning to his alma mater.