Returning for Final Year is Right Choice for Georgia's Aaron Murray

 

Aaron Murray won’t be throwing his hat in the ring for the NFL draft this year, he’s coming back to take care of some unfinished business at the University of Georgia.

If the trees in your front yard just suddenly bent over, that was the effect of a few hundred thousand members of the Bulldog Nation breathing a huge sigh of relief.

Murray has already broken just about every conceivable passing record at Georgia, and is closing in on some SEC records as well. He’s already got influential gurus like Tony Dungy saying he should be the number-one overall pick, and he’s played in two SEC Championship games.

But in the end, staying in Athens was really the only choice that made sense for Murray. He’s in a position that few find themselves in, and he is smart to take advantage of it.

Now Murray can take a year, and pretty much devote it completely to football. He can take his Underwater Basketweaving course, or perhaps a tricky semester of Pocket Billiards (yes, that’s an actual course offering at UGA. I took it), and spend the rest of his time being the BMOC and honing his already excellent skills as a passer.

He can sit in the film room with Mark Richt and Mike Bobo for hours of entertainment, and not have to fret about that 8:00 am Human Development class.

In short, he can spend a year truly enjoying the college experience in Athens, and focusing on the business at hand…

Winning an SEC and BCS Championship.

The only real reason that Murray would have for entering this year’s draft is the relatively weak quarterback class that he’d be up against. But even if he faces stiffer competition next year, he should still easily be a top-10 pick. If he adds a ring or two and perhaps some additional *ahem* hardware to his trophy shelf, he will more than likely be Georgia’s second number-one overall pick in the last six years, (possibly third, depending on how things go for LB Jarvis Jones in the 2013 draft).

This could be an even stronger Bulldogs team in 2013, depending on how well some of the young defensive players pan out. Georgia just needs to break the barrier of that elusive SEC Championship again, and make their way to play for the crystal trophy.

With Aaron Murray at the helm, all this and more are possible.

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Michael Collins is a Rant Sports NFL and MLB Network Manager, and Atlanta sports columnist. Follow him @GaSportsCraze on Twitter and here on Facebook