Georgia tight ends create tough matchup, must play well for Dawgs against Ducks

Georgia’s tight ends have been hyped up all offseason. Now the time is here for them to showcase those skills on a big stage playing against No. 11 Oregon and the Ducks’ talented inside linebackers in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game.

“I think it’s arguably one of the best groups in the nation. It’s hard to find a group that has as much talent in their room, their tight end room. Obviously we really love our tight ends here, but they’ve got a great group. A lot of talent,” Oregon head coach Dan Lanning, who went up against the tight ends every day in practice last year as the Georgia defensive coordinator, said this week ahead of the game. “You could call them tight ends, but the reality is they’re a matchup issue as a wideout as much as they are at tight end. So it’s something that we have to be conscious of in our game plan and where we put our guys in position to be successful.”

“They do a great job of using them in a lot of different ways,” he continued. “One of the big decisions is how are you going to match their personnel. If you decide to go big and play physical, which Georgia obviously can do, you might be outmatched in how you can cover. And if you decide to go smaller and put yourself in position to cover, well now they might outmatch you when it comes to bully-bully ball and they’re able to run it. They do a great job of mixing it up.”

Last season, Brock Bowers led the team in receiving from that tight end spot as only a freshman. His 56 catches for 882 yards and 13 touchdowns was the most ever be a Georgia tight end. His receiving touchdown record was best regardless of position. All of that earned Bowers SEC Freshman of the Year along with several national honors, and it’s got him on the Preseason All-America First-Team for just about everybody who puts one out.

But Bowers isn’t the only threat in that tight end room. Darnell Washington and Arik Gilbert were both named to the preseason watch list for the Mackey Award too. On3 ranked Bowers, Washington and Gilbert all as top-six tight ends in the country this offseason. And it feels like both of them are just touching the surface of their potential.

Don’t forget about Oscar Delp either. He’s the No. 2 tight end in the Class of 2022 and has put together a strong summer that could have him in contention for meaningful snaps. All that adds up to a headache for opposing defensive coordinators trying to figure out the best way to cover them.

Georgia linebacker Nolan Smith has been on a defense that’s had to try and figure out how to defend them. And from the sound of Smith’s voice talking about the challenge, you can tell he’s not envious of any team that’s got to do it on game day.

“It’s a three headed monster,” Smith said, speaking about Bowers, Washington and Gilbert. “You go from Arik and covering Arik to go fight Darnell down there in the box but also Darnell they’ll shift out. I would just say, Coach Monken is having a field day because they do all type of things with our tight ends and they’re all really good in space, out of space, inside the box, blocking, with their hands. I’ve got to give a shoutout to my dog Coach Hartley. He does a great job with those guys every day and he pushes them. Shoutout ‘Tight End Tough.'”

Tight end tough. That’s certainly how opposing defenses feel that it’ll be to defend them. But Oregon has players of All-American caliber that’ll be tasked with doing it at time. That would be Noah Sewell, Justin Flowe and the rest of the inside linebacker room.

“I don’t know how much they’ll be matched up on those guys. Those guys are inside and the tight ends are outside, so I don’t usually look at it as a matchup between tight ends and inside backers. It could be a matchup where when one is blocking one of them, one might be covering them, but might be a DB too,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. “Are they going to play nickel, play regular? Those are all questions that will be answered the day of the game. They have a tremendously talented inside linebacker room. Both two kids we recruited here and tried to get here, and we had some pretty good inside linebackers when they decided to come. We felt strongly enough they were good enough to come here and play, so they’re talented.”

“Our tight ends are really good football players,” he continued. “They are conscientious. They work hard. We need them to be successful regardless of who we play because they’re good players, and good players got to play well.”