Georgia tight end Brock Bowers wins national award for 2021 season

Georgia tight end Brock Bowers is the 2021 Freshman of the Year, Football Writers Association of America announced. He is the fourth player to claim the award since its inception in 2018.

Bowers led the Bulldogs offense with 56 catches for 882 yards and a program record 13 touchdown catches. He scored touchdowns in each of the final five games of the season, including the national championship against Alabama.

A four-star recruit in the 2021 class, Bowers was ranked the No. 2 tight end according to On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He chose Georgia over offers from LSU, Oregon, Texas A&M and plenty others.

Bowers joins Trevor Lawrence, Kenneth Gainwell and Will Anderson Jr. as players to claim the FWAA Freshman of the Year.

“I think this guy is one of the premier players in college football,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said in the days leading up to the College Football Playoff National Championship at Lucas Oil Stadium last Monday.

“I know he’s just a freshman, but this guy’s got great size, he’s a good blocker, physical and he’s tough,” Saban said. “He’s got wide receiver skills in every way, shape or form, which makes it difficult being a bigger guy for bigger guys to cover him and it makes it also difficult for smaller guys to cover him.

“So this guy is just a phenomenal football player all the way around.”

Georgia claimed its first national championship since 1980 this season, defeating the Crimson Tide by a score of 33-18. Bowers scored a 15-yard touchdown in the national title game that put the Bulldogs up 26-18 late in the fourth.

Georgia is set to lose many of the players that made it great next season, but Brock Bowers will return. The tight end will hope to pick up where he left off when the Bulldogs open the season against the Oregon Ducks on Sept. 3.