Georgia football's Kendall Milton returns home to California hitting his stride

Kendall Milton is heading home in a good groove with Georgia football.

The running back will wrap up his junior season at SoFi Stadium, home of the NFL Rams and Chargers where the No. 1 Bulldogs and No. 4 TCU play Monday for the national championship.

It’s 228 miles from Milton’s hometown of Clovis in the Central Valley to the big city of Los Angeles via California 99 South to I-5 South.

“I’ve got friends through Elias Ricks and Bryce Young, just a lot of friends throughout Southern California,” Milton said of the Alabama players. “I was out there quite often, especially training for football. I was back and forth a whole lot. All through Inglewood, Gardena, I was through there a whole lot.”

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Milton is playing some of his best football down the stretch of this season.

The 6-foot-1, 220-pounder has scored a touchdown in three of the last five games including an 11-yard run in Georgia’s 42-41 Peach Bowl win Saturday night after the Bulldogs fell behind 14 points in the second quarter.

Milton has rushed for 267 yards on 26 carries during that stretch, good for an average of 10.3 yards.

“It means a lot to me, going through this whole season and gaining confidence in myself and knowing that my teammates are also gaining confidence in me,” Milton said. “Just doing what I can to help us to the end goal, that means the most to me.”

On his touchdown run in the semifinal game, he broke the tackle of Ohio State’s Ty Hamilton in the backfield, went right, cut back and powered his way into the end zone.

Milton went nearly a month between games while dealing with hamstring and groin injuries, the latest maladies in a college career where he’s also been sidelined by knee and shoulder injuries.

He rushed for a career-high 113 yards on 8 carries in the SEC championship win over LSU including a 51-yarder, his longest as a Bulldog.

“It meant a lot to me,” he said. “Everybody wants to make those big plays in big games. Get the crowd roaring.”

Milton is Georgia’s third-leading rusher behind Kenny McIntosh and Daijun Edwards with 559 yards on 75 carries with seven touchdowns. His 7.5 yards per carry is two yards better than any other Bulldog scholarship tailback.

“I think we’ve got an unselfish room, but I also think we have an unselfish team overall,” running backs coach Dell McGee said. “There’s only one football. Everyone wants to touch it, everyone wants to score but at the end of the day, all of our offensive skill guys have bought into just having team success

Some view Milton as a transfer candidate given he entered as the No. 54 overall prospect in the 2020 class by the 247Sports Composite, that he’s far from his home state and he could go elsewhere and get more carries.

His role at Georgia figures to grow next season with McIntosh moving on to the NFL after accepting a Senior Bowl invite. Milton talked in the offseason about teaming with McIntosh to form a formidable duo like Zamir White and James Cook before them, but is upbeat about what’s next.

“I feel great,” he said . “This opportunity is something I’ve been dreaming about since a little kid. Just being able to kind of take on a bigger role on the team. …I feel like with what I’ve took on these past few years, what I’ve learned, I feel like it’s made me ready for the moment I’m in now and only is going to make me ready for the moments that are going to come.”

Like Monday when Milton will try to shine hours from home.

“Being back in the state, being close to the family, it means a lot,” Milton said. “Especially the opportunity to play in such a big game, I’m definitely excited.”

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Georgia RB Kendall Milton will play close to home for CFP championship