Kirby Smart considers whether Brock Bowers injury can motivate players

The Georgia football team suffered a significant blow when star tight end Brock Bowers was sidelined by a sprained ankle.

Bowers underwent tight-rope surgery on his left ankle on Monday, with the goal of getting him back up to full speed as quickly as possible. Still, Bowers is expected to miss a few weeks.

Will his absence serve as motivation for the rest of the offensive skill position players?

“I don’t think we need that to have motivation,” coach Kirby Smart said on Tuesday. “The motivation is to be great. I don’t know that it creates that edge or what, but I’m just focused on what we’re going to do tomorrow.”

What Georgia will have to do is replace its best weapon on offense.

Bowers led the team in receiving with 41 catches for 567 yards and four touchdowns. He hasn’t been a huge threat rushing this year, at just six carries for 28 yards, but he provides the versatility to be able to carry it out of the backfield.

He’s an easy safety valve for quarterback Carson Beck. Alas, Georgia will have to operate without him for the time being.

Timeline for Brock Bowers return

Smart offered few details on a potential timeline for Bowers’ return. The tight-rope surgery is designed to cut down on the amount of time a player will miss by directly addressing the problem.

Still, it’s unknown if Bowers will be out just a couple weeks or even more time.

“The key is that we are trying to get him back healthy,” Smart said. “There is no timeline for when he comes back to play. The timeline is when he’s healthy, and I don’t think you could put a timeline on it because historically there’s been guys that came back really fast and there’s been guys that come out really slow. Each one’s been different.”

Georgia will follow the same rehab process it has used for other players who have undergone the tight-rope procedure.

“I’ve slowly become a bigger expert on this tight-rope surgery not because of Brock because we’ve had multiple other guys and so have other teams,” Smart said. “It’s much more common. It’s all over the NFL. So it’s happening at a higher rate, I guess you’d say, and a lot of studies have been done on it. Philosophically, to get healthy, you need to get back moving that ankle as soon as you can, meaning get on it, get weight bearing, move around. We’ve had guys going through this process so Brock will take on that same rehab process.”