Brock Bowers Embraces New Roles This Spring

Now entering his Junior season, Brock Bowers spoke to the media at length regarding how his role on the team continues to evolve as he enters what will almost certainly be his encore as a Georgia Bulldog.

After bursting onto the national college football scene as a Freshman in 2021, Brock Bowers has been nothing short of spectacular over the course of his first two collegiate seasons. It did not take long for the Junior tight end from Napa, California to emerge as Georgia’s most prolific offensive threat. The buzz around Bowers emanating out of spring practice and fall camp prior to his Freshman season in 2021 quickly translated to on-field production. 

He led the Bulldogs in receptions (56), receiving yards (882), and touchdowns (14) en route to the program’s first football national championship in 41 years. Yet, as dominant as his Freshman season was, Bowers followed it up with a Mackey Award-winning Sophomore season in which he once again led the Bulldogs in receptions (63) and receiving yards (942). Already having set single-season program records for receiving touchdowns (13) and receptions for a tight end (63), Bowers enters 2023 looking to continue his assault on the Georgia record books in what will almost certainly be his encore as a Georgia Bulldog.

The Junior tight end who enters 2023 as one of the premier players in all of college football, met with the media for the first time this spring on Tuesday, speaking at length on the evolution of his role in the Georgia offense and on the team at large. Coming off of the program’s second-consecutive National Championship, Georgia must replace a number of key leaders from the 2022 team. His elite on-field production combined with his experience in the program make Bowers a natural candidate to emerge as one of the primary leaders on the 2023 team. For his part, Bowers is embracing that new role: “I’m one of the older guys now. It’s just kind of shocking to me because I feel like I haven’t been here very long. I’m just trying to take a little bit more of a leadership role.”

Brock Bowers celebrates with Kirby Smart at the National Title against TCU, Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

Brock Bowers celebrates with teammates inside Sanford Stadium.

On the field, Bowers is acutely aware of the magnitude of the loss of former position mate Darnell Washington: “Yeah, I mean we are going to miss Darnell. He was like a first-round pick, so always going to take a little bit of a hit like that.” Measuring in at 6-foot-7 and weighing 270 pounds, Washington was a crucial component to Georgia’s rushing success in 2022 and his devastating blocking ability will be difficult to replace in 2023. While Bowers is more prominently known for his skillset as a receiving threat, he understands that filling the blocking void left behind by Washington begins with him. To that end, Bowers expressed the need for him to “continue to get stronger in the weight room” and use spring practice to “be able to be more dominant in the run game.”

Yet, while Bowers is the headliner in Georgia’s tight end room, the room is stacked with other talented options that will also help mitigate the loss of Washington. Bowers specifically singled out Sophomore Oscar Delp as a player he expects to show significant improvement in 2023. After posting 5 catches for 61 yards in 13 appearances as a Freshman, Delp is looking to take the next step in his development this spring. 

According to Bowers, Delp is doing exactly that: “He’s just been doing a lot better. I mean, moving people, route running, everything is just on another level.” In terms of specifically helping to mitigate the loss of Washington in the run game, Bowers also revealed, “Delp’s coming in there, he’s put on a little weight and he’s been blocking pretty good so far this camp and just has to sustain and just try to fill that role.” The Bulldogs also reloaded at the tight end position in the 2023 class adding two four-star prospects in Peace Spurlin and Lawson Luckie. When asked about their progress, Bowers was complimentary of Spurlin and Luckie: “They’ve been doing good. Just buried in the playbook right now. It’s a big transition from high school, that’s just how I felt about it. Yeah, they’re getting it and they’re making a lot of plays, so they’re looking good.”

Spurlin, as Dawgs Daily reported Tuesday night, will be out the remainder of the spring due to a shoulder injury that required surgery. 

Through two collegiate seasons, Brock Bowers has established himself as the most dominant and productive tight end in college football, but as an upperclassman in 2023, he will be asked to take on new roles and expand his skillset to take his game to the next level.