ATHENS – Brock Bowers is ready to go again for Georgia football against Tennessee on Saturday.

The All-American tight end confirmed his ankle passed its first test of game action in the 52-17 win over Ole Miss last Saturday.

Bowers, who suffered a high ankle sprain at Vanderbilt on Oct. 14, caught three passes for 34 yards including a TD during the 45 snaps he played.

“I’m feeling pretty good, a little sore after the game, but that was to be expected,” Bowers said after practice on Tuesday night. “I mean, I just hadn’t played in three or four weeks.”

Thirty-one days, to be precise, with his ankle surgery taking place 29 days before he was back on the field playing.

There was no specific timetable for Bowers’ return at the time of the surgery, as much of the decision-making came down to his ability to hit performance “markers,” according to Coach Kirby Smart.

The junior’s swift recovery still raised plenty of eyebrows, including those of his teammates.

“Every time I saw him, he was in there doing rehab, doing something to get better,” Georgia guard Tate Ratledge said.

“And then one day at practice, we’re doing a period and you look back behind you and there’s Brock, just sprinting across the field. And you’re like, ‘Okay, he shouldn’t be doing that yet, but here he is.’”

Bowers was disappointed not to play in Georgia’s wins over with Florida (43-20) and Missouri (30-21), but that made him work even harder to regain full-speed running movements.

The rehab became a game in and of itself for Bowers.

“I liked the rehab process because it was going fast,” Bowers said. “It was always kind of like the next day, I wanted to see what I could hit, see what I could pass from the other day, so it was kind of fun in that way.”

Bowers provided a highlight in what was likely his final home game, slipping behind the Ole Miss safety to haul in his first touchdown catch since facing Kentucky on October 7.

“We repped that play, I swear, every single week, every single day for, like, three years, and that was the first time we actually ran it in the game and it was the right coverage to throw the [me] the ball,” Bowers said.

“It felt really good just getting back, scoring and celebrating on the sideline with all the dudes.”