Oscar Delp Prepared For Increased Role in Georgia's Offense
As the top-ranked tight end in the 2022 class, Oscar Delp came to Georgia with high expectations, but with two future NFL tight ends ahead of him on the depth chart, opportunities for playing time were sparse in his first season in the Georgia program. However, with Darnell Washington's departure to the NFL, Delp has been presented with an opportunity to seize a larger role on Georgia's 2023 team. Meeting with the media on Tuesday, Delp discussed his initial transition to the college level and the steps he has taken to earn more playing time in his second year on campus.
Georgia sophomore tight end Oscar Delp met with the media after one of Georgia's fall camp practices on Tuesday, August 16.
Delp was among a small group of players in Georgia's second-ranked 2022 recruiting class that joined the team for bowl practices in December 2021. Once he arrived on campus, it did not take long for the Cumming, Georgia native to realize he needed to make significant improvements before he was ready to compete in the SEC.
“I was in there my first day in pads. I wasn’t even on the roster yet or at the school yet, but the freshmen come in and practice with the team for that camp. The first person I went against was Travon Walker, and he literally just — I didn’t even know what I was doing or what a six-tech was,” Delp said. “It’s just a drill where they basically put one-on-one and just run at each other and the best man wins. He basically just walked me back as far as he wanted. That’s when I knew I had to do a lot of things to play in the SEC and play for Georgia.”
Despite his talent and prep ranking, through most of Georgia's run to the a second-consecutive national championship, playing time was hard to come by for the freshman tight end. Mackey Award-winner Brock Bowers and future second round pick Darnell Washington dominated playing time at the position, but when Washington went down with an ankle injury early in the second quarter of Georgia's College Football Playoff semifinal game at the Peach Bowl against Ohio State, it was Delp who came off the bench to replace Washington for the remainder of the game. According to Delp that experience helped propel him into an important offseason for the sophomore tight end.
To kind of look back on that now and be like, ‘OK, I did that.’ I kind of got that big first game out of the way. I just kind of got that off my shoulders. So I’m really excited for this season and to hopefully play in some more really big games. I’m just really excited for this season.”
Georgia sophomore tight end Oscar Delp goes through warm-up drills before Georgia's game against in Williams-Brice Stadium against the South Carolina Gamecocks on Sept. 17, 2022.
Still, while he gained valuable experience in the College Football Playoff, Delp recognized he needed to attack the offseason in order to prepare himself to take advantage of the opportunity presented by Washington's departure. According to the sophomore tight end, the focus of his offseason work was reshaping his body in order to make him a more effective blocker.
“Definitely grown the most in, like, the run-blocking aspect part of the game. Just working on those fundamentals I didn’t focus on as much in high school like my footwork and just really getting stronger in the weight room and just being able to move those bigger guys on the line,” Delp explained. “The biggest thing was just getting stronger in the weight room and really just getting my legs stronger, chest bigger, arms stronger and everything. Just working out a ton and trusting the strength coaches and the strength staff and the nutrition staff and just eating everything they told me to. Just buying into the process and really trying to just put on as much weight as possible and get used to it running around in it and playing fast and playing big.”
As a prep star at West Forsyth High School, Delp spent the majority of his time flexed out as a featured part of the passing game, as opposed to playing the more traditional in-line role of a tight end. Now, however, after the physical gains he made during the offseason and the strides he made as a blocker during spring practice, the 6-foot-5, 245-pound tight end has a new found appreciation for the more physical aspects of playing the position.
“It’s something I really had to learn from high school,” Delp said. “I mean, now I feel like I enjoy blocking. When a big play’s called where I know I have to make a big block, like, I get excited for it. It’s almost like the same as making a big play. I mean, Coach Hartley says sometimes he’d rather us just own the line of scrimmage than be that tight end room that makes all these catches. I mean, really we look at it like a run-first offense and tight end room rather than all those big catches and pretty stuff.”
