UGA Football: Bowers’ Highlight Reel Keeps Growing

There is almost certainly something Georgia tight end Brock Bowers can’t do on a football field, but we haven’t seen it yet. He hasn’t attempted a pass yet or tried a field goal, but everything else the star sophomore has been asked to do, he’s done at an extraordinarily high level.

“You saw it last year and in practice every day. Brock is a freak athlete,” wide receiver Ladd McConkey said Monday. “It’s nothing new to us. You get used to seeing it at times when he makes plays like that. He’s the real deal, and he deserves everything he’s been given. I’m just happy he’s on our team.”

The “play like that” McConkey was referring to was Bowers’ 78-yard catch and run for a touchdown in Georgia’s 48-7 win at South Carolina last week. Not a lot of tight ends have many 50-plus-yard touchdowns in their careers. Then again, not a lot of tight ends are like Bowers, who is building off his stellar freshman season by becoming one of the best and most explosive and versatile players in the country.

Bowers showed again Saturday, in No. 1 Georgia’s often sloppy and sluggish 39-22 win over Kent State, just why every Georgia player, coach and fan is happy the 6-foot-4 and 230-pound sophomore is a Bulldog.
On the Bulldogs’ second play from scrimmage, a second-and-10 from the Georgia 25-yard line, Bowers took a handoff on a jet sweep, ran around the right side, and was gone. One week after he scored on a 78-yard pass play, Bowers scored on a 75-yard run.

“I mean, I just took it. No one was there so I just took off; I was thinking, ‘This is a long ways.’ At the end I was like, ‘That was a long ways,'” Bowers said with a big smile.

“I was still blocking,” right guard Tate Ratledge said. “I just heard cheers and looked up, and next thing I know, Brock’s just outrunning everybody. It was pretty cool.”

A week ago, he scored on a 5-yard end-around run. On Saturday, he scored on the same play, this time from the 2. Unlike last week, when Bowers also had a 6-yard touchdown catch along the left edge of the end zone, he didn’t have a receiving touchdown against the Golden Flashes. But Bowers did still finish with five catches for 60 yards, to go along with his two carries for 77 yards and two scores.

At halftime Saturday, the Golden Flashes had 124 yards of offense and 13 points. Bowers, meanwhile, had 131 yards (77 ground, 54 air) and two touchdowns.

Bowers said he was used in a variety of ways back at Napa (Calif.) High School, even playing a little running back. But he didn’t know how he’d be used by offensive coordinator Todd Monken once he got to Georgia.

“You always kind of like hope to be used, so I’m happy with it,” Bowers said. “I never really expected it, but it’s happening.”

Bowers added: “Monken’s always making stuff up for the defense that we’re playing and the things we did last week. It’s always fun to see and fun to learn.”

Ask yourself this: Is there a player in the country, at any position, that you would rather have over Bowers? Is there a more dynamic and dynamite player in college football? If there is, the list isn’t long.
A year ago, Bowers was Georgia’s leading receiver, finishing with 56 catches for 882 yards and 13 touchdowns. He also had four carries for 56 yards, including a 12-yard rushing touchdown against Vanderbilt.

We all got a first glimpse of that Bowers speed that he showed against South Carolina and Kent State in the second game of his career, against UAB. Lined up wide right early in that game, Bowers caught a short pass from Stetson Bennett and blew by everyone on his way to an 89-yard touchdown.

Asked about that play recently during a Quick Chat, and whether or not it proved or validated anything in his mind about his ability to make big plays at this level, here was Bowers’ answer: “All I was really thinking on that play was, just run [laughs]. It didn’t really validate me or anything like that, I guess. I was just playing.”

Through four games in 2022, Bowers has 15 catches (behind running back Kenny McIntosh’s 21 and McConkey’s 16) for a team-high 276 yards and two touchdowns. And with his two scores Saturday, Bowers is tied with running back Kendall Milton for the team lead in rushing touchdowns with three. Bowers has three carries for 82 yards and three scores this season, which is about as efficient as it gets.

“It’s great seeing him block because he can block, he can catch a ball and do a lot of things with it,” Ratledge said. “Having somebody like that on your offense is a relief because you know he can end a drive like that by taking one however long it needs to be taken.

“He’s explosive, and a really great guy, too.”