All-American. Mackey Award. National titles. What more can UGA football's Brock Bowers do?
Brock Bowers has packed a bunch into two college football seasons.
All-American. Mackey Award winner. A big part in Georgia football winning back-to-back national championships.
How about adding a first to his resume before his career almost certainly wraps up after the 2023 season by declaring for the NFL draft?
Bowers seems to have a real shot to become the first tight end ever to win SEC Player of the Year.
“Oh, yeah, Brock is one of a kind,” cornerback Kamari Lassiter said. “The guy comes in and works day-in-and-day-out. A first-guy-in, last-guy-out kind of guy.”
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Bowers could even generate Heisman Trophy consideration for nation’s top player. Only two tight ends have ever won the award, the last Notre Dame’s Leon Hart in 1949.
Florida’s Kyle Pitts who finished 10th in 2020 is the only tight end to finish in the top 10 in voting since Notre Dame’s Ken McAfee in 1977.
“I think it would take a lot,” Bowers said. “Just because a tight end positional value isn’t super high. Quarterbacks are usually the best player on the field because they’re like the field general. That’s why they usually win the award.”
Bowers’ Mackey Award for nation’s top tight end is in his living room at his home in Napa, Calif.
He’s not a typical tight end. He not only can run away from defenders after making a catch, but he’s a dangerous runner who rushed for 109 yards and three touchdowns last season.
Bowers, who led Georgia with 63 catches for 942 yards and 7 touchdowns last season, expects new offensive coordinator Mike Bobo to use him in a similar fashion as Todd Monken did, but “kind of throw a few of his own wrinkles in there.”
Bobo knows the good thing he has in the 6-foot-4, 240-pound Bowers.
“If a guy's got a unique ability to make plays and plays that turn into explosives, we've got to do a good job as a staff of finding plays and designing plays that get him touches,” Bobo said.
Bowers makes plays even when it looks like he may not. His catch against Florida when he somehow came up with the ball after it hit off a Florida player’s helmet and hand and then batted the ball twice before securing it and turning it into a 73-yard touchdown may be his favorite play.
“I thought it was just dumb the way it happened,” he said.
He added: “Scoring in both of the national championships is pretty cool, too.”
Bowers was asked by Atlanta radio station 92.9 FM if there’s a new way he could be used on offense.
“If Coach Bobo, I’d love to throw it,” said Bowers, a triple-option quarterback his freshman year of high school. “I don’t know if I have the accuracy to do it.”
That would be about the only thing Bowers can’t do with a ball in his hands.
“He's extremely talented,” tight ends coach Todd Hartley said. “He can run, he can jump, he can catch, he's tough. What makes him special to me is his competitiveness. He is the ultimate competitor. The kid doesn't want to lose at anything.”
Bowers gets upset when Hartley pulls him out to get young, talented tight ends behind him reps.
“When I take him off and limit some of his reps, he gets pissed off,” Hartley said. “He says 'Well what did I do wrong?' Nothing, buddy. Just stand right here. It's okay. You know what, you should want it that way. Kids should be pissed off when they don't get their reps. That tells you he wants to be great.”
Bowers has 20 touchdown catches in two seasons, 11 away from topping Terrence Edwards on the Georgia career list.
Defenses will certainly be ready for Bowers, but Georgia will continue to try to find ways to get him the ball.
“We're going to try,” coach Kirby Smart said. “There's not a game that we play that we should not have ways for him to touch the ball.”
Bowers is succinct with his answers in front of a microphone, but speaks up often in tight end meetings even when Hartley wouldn’t mind a freshman getting a chance to answer.
“He's extremely smart, and he's very humble,” Bobo said. “He reminds me a lot of a guy like Nick Chubb when I was here before that just went and worked every single day. He tried to get better no matter what he had done the day before, the game before, the year before.”
Chubb, now an NFL star with the Browns, is viewed by Georgia fans with reverence. Bowers is well on his way down that same path, but first he’s got more football for the Bulldogs ahead in 2023.
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Georgia football tight end Brock Bowers not done making his mark
