Kirby Smart explains path to playing for Georgia TE Brock Bowers
ATHENS, Ga. — Brock Bowers‘ status for Saturday’s game between No. 2 Georgia and ninth-ranked Ole Miss is a hot topic of discussion this week. After Kirby Smart shared updates on the star tight end that seemed positive both Monday and Tuesday, he seemed to pull the reins back a little bit during Wednesday’s SEC coaches teleconference.
“I think there’s a lot of markers he has to hit. There’s more than just the marker of speed,” Smart said in the aftermath of social media’s reaction to Marcus Rosemy-Jacksaint sharing that Bowers hit 19-20 miles an hour on the GPS this week, just over three weeks removed from surgery. “One of the first things you look at with this injury is acceleration and deceleration, not just GPS speed. When you’re deceleration numbers and acceleration numbers get closer to what your norm is, because we have a baseline on all these guys, then you feel much more comfortable about it. But you have to get to that point. Straight line speed is not football unfortunately. Maybe on kickoff or something else, but in other areas you have to have more than that. He’s working towards that, and I’ve never seen a person work as hard as he has to try and create an opportunity for himself.”
Bowers underwent the surgery on Monday, October 16th after suffering the injury in the first half versus Vanderbilt that Saturday before. The typical timeline for return from a tight-rope ankle procedure is considered to be 4-6 weeks, and Smart said this week that what Bowers is doing falls right in line with other players in the program that have had the same surgery.
“I don’t think we put the future stake at risk at all. That’s a medical decision that, we’ve got a great staff here, unbelievable doctors and the surgeon that did the surgery, all those things are taken into account,” Smart added. “They have boxes to check, and when you check the boxes, it turns back to the player and what their comfort level is, and then it turns to the coaches to how affective they can be. Those things have to all be checked off before you can even go there.”
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“It’s not a risk of a long term career type thing,” he added. “What it boils down to is, can he help us win? Is he comfortable with that, and do we think he can do the things he has to do to help us do it? He’s got to hit those numbers and check off those boxes we talked about with acceleration and deceleration before that’s even a decision.”
Prior to his injury, Bowers had totaled 41 catches for 567 yards and four touchdowns, all still team-highs despite the two games missed.
Georgia and Ole Miss kickoff Saturday night at Sanford Stadium at 7:00 p.m. ET on ESPN. The network’s premiere pregame show will also be in Athens to feature the contest with College GameDay airing at 9:00 a.m. ET on the same channel.
