What Kirby Smart said this week about Brock Bowers' injury

The Georgia Bulldogs were dealt a blow last week when tight end Brock Bowers was injured in a win over the Vanderbilt Commodores. Bowers underwent surgery this week and will likely miss the Florida-Georgia game next week.

Bowers is one of the best players in the country and has become the go-to target for first-year starter Carson Beck. He leads the Bulldogs in receptions (41), yards (567), and touchdowns (4). Last season he gave Florida fits, hauling in five passes for 154 yards and a touchdown.

Georgia head coach Kirby Smart met with the local media on Tuesday during the bye week and updated the status of Bowers and detailed how Georgia can replace him.

Everything Kirby Smart said about Brock Bowers during the bye week

On Brock Bowers and his injury

Smart: “I don’t think it’s as much about any of that as it is – the more I’ve learned, and I’ve slowly become a bigger expert on this tightrope surgery, not just because of Brock but we’ve multiple guys and I’ve talked to other teams, Hugh Freeze, Shane (Beamer), several of the guys in our conference have dealt with this injury. It’s much more common, all over the NFL. It’s happening at a higher rate I guess, and a lot of studies have been done on it.

“To get healthy, you need to get back moving that ankle as soon as you can, meaning get on it, get weight bearing, and we’ve had guys go through this process. Brock will take on that same rehab process, and his surgeon and Ron (Courson) will work together on that to get him back. It won’t be done any different. The key is, we’re trying to get him back healthy. 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 guys that have come back really slow. Each one is different.”

Smart on who can step up with Bowers out… 

Smart: “Yeah, I’ve talked to the team about, you know coaching football for 25 years and every year you have different challenges. This year is no different than any other year, the challenges are only different. One of big key DNA traits is resiliency. So this team has been extremely resilient. I have 100 percent confidence they’ll be resilient.

“If they think one guy is going to replace Brock Bowers, they’re wrong. If anybody thinks they have to be Superman, they don’t need to be on our team. Because they’ll be disappointed. Superman is not real. He’s dead, he’s not alive, he’s not real. You can’t try to be that guy. There is no player that we’re asking to step up and do more than you can. As a collective effort, every player is going to do more. That includes defense getting turnovers, special teams getting better field position. Other guys get the opportunity to touch the ball and make the most of it.”

On seeing Bowers deal with this… 

Smart: “I mean, it’s hard for Amarius Mims. You know, it’s hard on me for Lawson Luckie. It’s hard on me for Branson Robinson. I don’t mean that in any negative way towards Brock. There’s a lot of guys on our team that have been dinged up and hurt. I mean, Ty Ingram-Dawkins hasn’t been able to go the entire year. I mean he went one game I guess and we had to shut him down. Brock is aware other guys have to deal with this too.  

“Brock’s aware that other guys have to deal with this, too. We had, at one time, I think seven or eight starters that had been out. I have empathy for all of them and not one more than the other, you know? I don’t look at Brock’s as more significant because he’s a greater player asset. They all have value. We’ve got walk-on kids that are having to have surgery. It’s tough anytime a player loses practice time and play time.”