Dan Lanning explains the difficulty of facing Brock Bowers, Georgia tight ends

Tight end might be the most loaded position on Georgia’s roster, and that’s saying something given the depths of the Bulldogs talent. And new Oregon head coach Dan Lanning, formerly the Georgia defensive coordinator, has the unenviably task of scheming against Brock Bowers and the rest of the tight ends.

Lanning knows the challenge he’s facing. Because of the versatility of Bowers and the other tight ends — namely Darnell Washington and Arik Gilbert — a defense can matchup one way, only to get gashed in another.

“I think it’s arguably one of the best groups in the nation. It’s hard to find a group that has as much talent in their room, their tight end room. Obviously we really love our tight ends here, but they’ve got a great group. A lot of talent,” Lanning said. “And you could call them tight ends, but the reality is they’re a matchup issue as a wideout as much as they are at tight end. So it’s something that we have to be conscious of in our gameplan and where we put our guys in position to be successful. They do a great job of using them in a lot of different ways. One of the big decisions is how are you going to match their personnel. If you decide to go big and play physical, which Georgia obviously can do, you might be outmatched in how you can cover. And if you decide to go smaller and put yourself in position to cover, well now they might outmatch you when it comes to bully-bully ball and they’re able to run it. They do a great job of mixing it up.”

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The task of guarding Bowers, maybe Georgia’s best offensive weapon, is particularly challenging. Lanning doesn’t want to overly highlight or focus on Bowers to the detriment of the rest of the defense.

“Ultimately, Brock is a really talented player and if you make the focus strictly Brock, there’s enough other good players on that other side of the ball that are going to beat you,” Lanning said. “So you have to be conscientious of where he’s at at all times. He does a lot things really well. Whether it be him in the screen game, blocking. He’s a really good blocker. I still remember when Brock first got to campus for us at Georgia and I looked out the window and him and Chaz Chambliss are striking the sled on their own. He works really hard. That shows up and that’s kind of carried over on the field for him. But, I don’t think we can make him our lone focus. And the teams that had success, they still lost those games, so I’m not going to necessarily follow their plan.”