Brock Bowers showcases competitive spirit, establishes dominance in talented tight end room

Want to know just how competitive Georgia tight end Brock Bowers is? You won’t have to look any further than Kirby Smart’s opening comments at SEC Media Days this week in Nashville.

Smart shared a story from summer workouts. Bowers, a rising junior who’s led the Bulldogs in receiving each of his first two years on campus, and the tight ends were doing what the head coach called “box drills.” It consisted of players sprinting down the long side of the football field before jogging across the end zones, creating a box with their route. Well, freshmen Pearce Spurlin and Lawson Luckie had plans to beat Bowers one particular day and schemed up a strategy.

“I don’t think these tight ends would claim for this to be true — but one day our younger tight ends had decided that they were going to finally get Brock. They were going to beat Brock on the boxes,” Smart said. “So they took turns, which you’re not supposed to do, running as fast as possible down the straight away, the 100 yards you run down the straight away, and they were going to eventually beat Brock. Because while one of them was sprinting, one of the others would be resting and they had to try to beat Brock.”

“Well, not only did Brock win every one of those races, he beat every single one of them turn by turn by turn while they rested and waited up, and they just couldn’t beat the old vet,” Smart continued. “It just shows his work ethic and how hard he competes at everything he does, and does it with silence.”

Bowers said it didn’t take long for him to realize what was going on when the youngsters were teaming up on him. Instead of letting it happen, he took it upon himself to win – and make himself even better in the process.

“I don’t like to lose in anything we do, conditioning and stuff like that,” Bowers said. “I remember one of the mornings we were running, and I hate to lose so, Pearce was jogging one and Lawson was sprinting. Then Pearce all the sudden sprinted one out of nowhere, and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh. I’m sprinting the whole time.’ It was tough, but we’re always pushing each other to make each other better so that’s good.”

Spurlin and Luckie both were top 10 tight ends in this past year’s recruiting class. They joined a room already having Bowers and Oscar Delp, a Mackey Award winner and the No. 2 tight end for the Class of 2022. So, when they’re pushing each other, it’s talent pushing talent – exactly what Smart wants to see each and every day.

“I think a big thing it has to do with is Coach Smart and his staff, especially Coach Hartley who coaches the tight ends,” Bowers said when asked how Georgia has gone about establishing itself as TEU. “He is a great football coach as well as coaching us off the field and trying to be the best version of ourselves that we can so that we can be great fathers and friends off the field too.”

YOU MIGHT LIKE: Georgia Bulldogs planning to make Brock Bowers an even bigger part of offensive identity this year

Georgia must go about replacing Darnell Washington at tight end this year after the 6-foot-7, 280-pound big man was selected in the third round by the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Bulldogs are no stranger to that though with Washington being the fifth Georgia tight end taken in the NFL Draft since 2019.

Over that time, the position has changed. Players like Bowers, and others that Hartley has recruited, have helped make that possible. It’s also just a sign of the changing nature of the game.

“You can make that case. I think the NFL has certainly trended that way,” Smart said on the idea of tight ends exemplifying the position-less nature of the sport offensively now. “I don’t know if that was true with Darnell because what you know more as a traditional, old school tight end fit what Darnell was. What Brock is is more position-less football, but for it to be position-less football you’d have to have a lot of Brocks. I don’t know that we have guys that are the same caliber as Brock at tight end or other positions for that matter.”

“We’re going to play the 11 best players that give us the opportunity to be successful. If that’s seven wide outs, if that’s two running backs, if that’s four running backs or two tight ends or 13 personnel, we can go through all the numbers. Every offensive coach will tell you and every head coach will tell you we’re going to get the best 11 players on the field,” Smart added when asked about how the offense changes without Washington around. “Last year Darnell Washington and Brock Bowers were two of our best football players. That is probably yet to be determined this season.”