![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/Breida-Matt-250x600.jpg\")
The world is finally figuring out what Georgia Southern fans have known all along \u2014 Matt Breida is one of the best running backs in the country. Period.<\/p>\nThe world is finally figuring out what Georgia Southern fans have known all along \u2014 Matt Breida is one of the best running backs in the country. Period.<\/p>\n
After two weeks of the NFL regular season with the San Francisco 49ers, Breida was the leading rusher in the league and won the FedEx Ground Player of the Week award. As of week six of the regular season (and Georgia Southern magazine press time), Breida is sixth in the NFL for rushing yards and first in the NFL for yards per carry. Not bad for a player who wasn\u2019t invited to the NFL scouting combine and went undrafted.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt like I should\u2019ve been drafted the whole time,\u201d said Breida. \u201cIt gave me that extra chip on my shoulder. And now that I\u2019m finally on the team that had faith in me and trust in me, it feels that much better. You always want to go where you\u2019re wanted, and just to be here every day, you know, you can\u2019t take anything for granted because so many guys wish they could be in your position. So I\u2019m just happy where I am right now and I just can\u2019t wait to play more football.\u201d<\/p>\n
His professional performance shouldn\u2019t have come as such a surprise.<\/p>\n
At Georgia Southern, Breida turned in Heisman-level seasons in 2014, when he rushed for almost 1,500 yards and averaged a national-best 8.7 yards per carry; and 2015, when he rushed for more than 1,600 yards and averaged a nation-high 7.9 yards per carry. Even with his disappointing 2016 season (under a first-time head coach and struggling new offense), Breida is still No. 22 on the NCAA\u2019s all-time yards-per-carry leaders. All time.<\/p>\n
But it was that 2016 season that made scouts skeptical enough not to invite him to the NFL scouting combine. Their skepticism was proven to be folly, however, at the Eagles Pro Day in March of 2017. Breida dominated the field at the combine even in his absence. He ran the 40-yard dash in a staggering 4.37 seconds, jumped 42\u201d high, and broad jumped 11.2 feet \u2014 all measurements that would\u2019ve put him in first place at the combine. He also bench pressed 225 lbs. 23 times, a thirdplace finish.<\/p>\n In his second year with the 49ers, Breida was going to be part of a Georgia Southern alumni running back duo. The 49ers acquired NFL running back and former Eagle quarterback Jerick McKinnon in a four-year contract worth almost $37 million. Both players were excited about sharing an all- Eagle backfield. On Sept. 1, however, during a preseason practice, McKinnon tore his ACL, which sidelined him for the season.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen it happened, it was probably one of the worst days I had this year,\u201d said Breida in an interview with NFL Network. \u201cJerick\u2019s worked so hard to get to this point and to get where he\u2019s at in his career. To see it all end in one day and on one play that was non-contact was pretty freaky and pretty crazy. But one thing about Jerick, he\u2019s going to bounce back. Ever since then, he\u2019s been positive, upbeat. He\u2019s never let this keep him down. And I know next year when he comes back he\u2019s going to have a great year.\u201d<\/p>\n McKinnon has been a cheerleader for Breida on Twitter and on the sidelines. When the two players were at Georgia Southern, Breida was only a freshman and rarely got his number called on the field, but seeing the young running back develop into an elite professional stoked McKinnon\u2019s Eagle pride.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the thing I was most excited about was just to see how far he\u2019s come along,\u201d said McKinnon. \u201cBut you know, ever since I got here, he\u2019s been everything a Georgia Southern player is \u2014 he works hard, comes to work every day. Head on straight. Just trying to find ways to get better each and every day.\u201d<\/p>\n How much better he\u2019ll get remains to be seen, but Georgia Southern fans will be watching, ready to say, \u201cWe told you so!\u201d<\/p>\n \u2014 Doy Cave<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Matt Breida adds his name among elite NFL rushers The world is finally figuring out what Georgia Southern fans have known all along \u2014 Matt Breida is one of the best running backs in the country. Period. After two weeks of the NFL regular season with the San Francisco 49ers, Breida was the leading rusher […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":6891,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[58],"class_list":["post-6889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletics","tag-fall-2018"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/Breida-McKinnon-2-rev-550x542.jpg\")