Brock Bowers, Georgia Football News: Draft Scout Player News

08/03/22 - TE Brock Bowers, Jr/2024, Georgia

Few offensive coordinators get the chance to draw up plays to utilize as many talented tight ends as Georgia's Todd Monken did this offseason. Brian Ferentz came close. The Iowa offensive coordinator in 2018 coached the first pair of tight ends to go in the first round of the NFL draft from the same school in T.J. Hockenson and Noah Fant. "If you have two first-round tight ends, shoot, if you're the offensive coordinator they want to fire you no matter what anyways," Ferentz told the Banner-Herald. "If you don't put your two best players on the field at the same time, they definitely want to fire you. Shoot, my mom could look out at our roster in 2018 and know that our two best players offensively were those two tight ends." Brock Bowers may have gone in the first round already after his record-setting 2021 season as a freshman for Georgia, but he's not draft eligible until 2024.

Bulldog tight end Arik Gilbert is viewed as someone with first-round potential and Darnell Washington could be an early-round pick with a big junior season. Ferentz studied Georgia game film - an offense he viewed as similar and with good carryover schematically to his own - in preparing for a bowl game against Kentucky. He saw plenty of Bowers and Washington - a player he recruited out of Las Vegas - and the now departed John Fitzpatrick and he saw plenty of 12 (1 RB, 2 TEs, 2 WRs) and 13 personnel (1 RB, 3 TEs, WR). "The real trick is not getting them on the field at the same time, that's easy," said Ferentz, who coached the tight ends from 2018-2021 and is entering his sixth season as Iowa's OC. "There are a lot of offenses out there that live in a two-tight end set the majority of the time. It's a little bit less common now. …The real trick becomes how do you ensure those guys are the ones getting the ball? That's no easy feat." - Athens Daily Banner

Jr/2024