ATHENS — Even with how well Todd Hartley has recruited for the Georgia tight end room, the Bulldogs had some needs at the position.
The room was on the younger side, with now junior Oscar Delp being the most veteran player. He’s also the most proven player in the tight end room, with just 29 career receptions.
Fortunately for the Bulldogs, Stanford transfer Benjamin Yurosek fit a lot of requirements Georgia was looking for.
“He does have that maturity, and that senior leadership that the room might have been lacking because you know we have a lot of younger players in that room,” Hartley said. “He’s fit right in.
“He fits our room from a toughness and physicality standpoint. He’s physical on the line of scrimmage. He fits our room from an athletic standpoint. Dude can run and catch.”
Yurosek was a late arrival to this Georgia team, as he spent the spring finishing up his degree at Stanford.
For most, parachutting into a program like Georgia would be a challenge. The Bulldogs do things a specific way, and as Kirby Smart has often said, Georgia isn’t for everybody.
Yet Yurosek has been able to hit the ground running, thanks to all the football he played at Stanford.
“He’s a smart dude. He’s a big dude,” Delp said. “You can tell he’s played a lot of football and he knows how to play football. He’s there, he’s helping us out every way he can, he’s learned the offense just like everyone else, and he’s done a really good job of that. He’s helping us out. Whether that’s run blocking or catching, he’s doing it all.”
Georgia knew it was going to have to replace Brock Bowers this season. Delp has stepped up with the all-world tight end now catching passes for the Las Vegas Raiders. Even with the addition of Yurosek, Delp is the clear No. 1 option at the position.
The Bulldogs have also been pleased with the developments of sophomore tight end Lawson Luckie as well this fall. With Georgia still planning on running plenty of two tight end sets this fall, Georgia knows it will need contributions from all three players at the position.
There’s always risk involved in acquiring a player from the transfer portal, even someone with Yurosek’s background. But so far, the transition has gone as well as Georgia could have hoped.
“Even though we didn’t have a lot of familiarity with him, he didn’t play in our league, we didn’t know that much about him, we knew those other things and they checked the boxes for us,” Hartley said.
The biggest concern with Yurosek is his injury history, as he was limited to just six games last season with a shoulder injury. Georgia though isn’t going to ask Yurosek to put the offense on his back or be the newest version of Bowers.
The Bulldogs envisioned a specific role for Yurosek, and they feel confident he can fill it.
“You just know that coming from Stanford he’s going to be able to handle the high academic load that Georgia is going to give him, he’s going to be able to handle the NFL pro-style type of offense, it’s what they did there,” Hartley said. “Those things were already a given, and then you turn the tape on and he does run well, he does catch, he hits the physical attributes that you look for too.”
