Georgia's Brock Bowers, Chris Smith win SEC Players of the Week
Georgia tight end Brock Bowers earned SEC co-Offensive Player of the Week honors on Monday, sharing the award with Arkansas’ Raheim Sanders. In Georgia’s 42-20 win over Florida this past weekend, Bowers hauled in five passes for a career-high 154 yards and one score, a 73-yarder that took just a little bit of luck. Meanwhile, Christopher Smith won Defensive Player of the Week all to himself with seven tackles including a sack against the Gators.
Bowers’ 73-yard score certainly made all the highlight reels, but it might not even have been his most important reception on the day. That title would go to a 29-yard pickup on 4th and 7 as Georgia took advantage of a free play after Florida jumped offsides. Bowers was taken down inside the 5-yard-line, and the Bulldogs would score on the next play to make it a three-score game.
“He got touches, he got opportunities, he made the most of them,” Georgia head coach Smart added. “He makes a lot of contested catches. That catch on fourth down, I don’t think that was going to be a first down. I think it was going to be fourth and two and we’ve still got to convert. Well, it didn’t matter. He went and got the ball. He makes a lot of plays on the ball. He is the ultimate competitive excellence guy. (Todd) Hartley talks about it all the time. Competitive excellence is when it’s 50-50 or when you’ve got to go make a play, can you make it? We’ve seen him do it over and over again.”
“They jumped, so we knew we had a free play,” Bowers recalled. “I just took off, was hoping he’d throw it to me when I saw it was man and he did. I just jumped up and grabbed it.”
Bowers has now won Offensive Player of the Week twice in his career. He first won it after a three touchdown performance against South Carolina earlier this season. However, that stat should be taken with a grain of salt considering Bowers twice won SEC Freshman of the Week last year on days that he could have been up for Offensive Player of the Week. Bowers also won the league’s Freshman of the Year award at season’s end in 2021, setting program records in all three categories for tight ends with 56 catches, 882 yards and 13 receiving touchdowns on the year. His 13 scores through the air is a program record regardless of position.
This is the third time that Smith has won Defensive Player of the Week. He first won it after his performance against Clemson in 2021 with the game’s only touchdown on a 74-yard pick six in the season-opener. He followed that up with another strong start to the season against Oregon, having an interception on top of six tackles.
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“Well, first off, he was a really good prospect in high school. He played corner, he played safety. He could do it all. He came here. We flirted with him at corner and safety. He kind of played wherever we needed him to play. And he’s done that ever since coming here,” Smart said about Smith last week. “He’s taken reps for two to three years at corner, he’s taken the safety, he’s played nickel star. I mean, he’s one of these versatile DBs that can kind of do it all because he understands leverages. He knows where his help is. He’s an instinctive football player. And we’re lucky to have him and really proud of the way he’s — you know, he didn’t have success right away. He’s one of the guys that truly became a better football player through development, practice habits, learning the system. And he had some good players in front of him when he first got here. And he’s been able to work his way into a good football player.”
This is the sixth different week that a Georgia player has received some sort of recognition from the league this season. Christopher Smith won Defensive Player of the Week after the season-opener with six tackles and an interception against Oregon followed up by Brock Bowers’ Offensive Player of the Week accolade for his big day at South Carolina. Kicker Jack Podlesny then won Special Teams Player of the Week each of the last two weeks for his performances against Kent State and Missouri. Finally, Branson Robinson took home SEC Freshman of the Week honors after his 98-yard day, one-touchdown day against Auburn.
Bowers, Smith and the Bulldogs have their biggest test awaiting them this coming Saturday. No. 1 Georgia hosts No. 2 Tennessee at Sanford Stadium in a game that’ll go a long way towards deciding the SEC East.
Kickoff for Saturday’s clash is set for 3:30 p.m. ET on CBS, but there are a couple of big things happening before then. First, the announcement of the first College Football Playoff rankings of the season comes on Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. ET. There’s a possibility that Georgia, ranked No. 1 in the most recent AP and Coaches polls ahead of No. 2/3 (AP/Coaches) Tennessee, could find itself behind the Vols. Then of course to get game day started, ESPN’s College GameDay and SEC Network’s SEC Nation will be on site in Athens Saturday morning.
