Georgia's elite tight end recruiting continues with latest commitment

Just a few years ago, dynamic wide receivers were the prized offensive recruiting positions. But after Georgia took home back-to-back national championships on the backs of its run game and tight end play, that position has become a premium one in the recruiting world.

Georgia’s use of tight ends like Brock Bowers and Darnell Washington has helped usher in a mini-revolution on the field across the country, as other SEC programs have loaded up at that spot in recent years. But nobody is doing it like Todd Hartley.

The Bulldogs’ tight ends coach is recruiting his position group as well as any assistant in the country not named Brian Hartline. With the commitment of 2025 four-star Ethan Barbour earlier this week, Hartley has landed a commitment from at least one of the nation’s top five tight ends in the 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 classes.

“What makes him special is the way that he recruits, the way he makes you work hard and the way he’s going to take care of you,” Barbour told DawgsHQ’s Jeremy Johnson of Hartley. “They work hard in practice. Every day he’s pushing you to the best of your ability. He’s trying to make you the best man and football player that you can be. He makes you work hard and he’s going to make sure that you get treatment… He’s making sure you take care of your schoolwork. He’s basically like another father.”

Added 2024 four-star tight end Jaden Reddell when he committed in May: ““There’s evidence that he’s able to take college tight ends and put them into the NFL and develop them. And he’s just really easy to talk to. It’s not all football, and we had a connection outside of football and him being my future coach.”

Bulldogs tight end room loaded for years to come

While the aforementioned Washington is in the NFL and Bowers is almost certainly headed there after this season, the cupboard will be far from bare in Athens.

The Bulldogs have signed or committed in the 2022-2025 classes:

– 2022 No. 2 TE Oscar Delp
– 2023 No. 2 TE Pearce Spurlin
-2023 No. 8 TE Lawson Luckie
-2024 No. 2 TE Jaden Reddell
-2025 No. 1 TE Elyiss Williams
-2025 No. 5 TE Ethan Barbour

And UGA isn’t afraid to deploy multiple tight ends at the same time. Last season, the Bulldogs ran 58 percent of their plays from a multi-tight end formation, including 54 percent from 12 (1 running back, 2 tight ends) personnel.

“I think it’s just different, so much of college football is 11 personnel, so when you play 12 it’s always different from a defensive perspective because you know what sets they can make,” Smart said last year before Georgia’ College Football Playoff game against Ohio State. “They can be a little more multiple but you probably lose some speed when you do that and that’s probably what makes ours different is we don’t sacrifice a lot of speed from 11 to 12 like some teams might.”

This season, Bowers is again leading the team in targets and catches, while Delp has notched eight catches of his own. Next season though, it looks to be a wide open position with Luckie returning from injury and Reddell expected to join the team in December after the Early Signing Period.