ATHENS — Understandably there have been a lot of questions about tight end Benjamin Yurosek to start fall camp.
The Bulldogs brought in the transfer from Stanford this offseason and on the surface, his game possesses some similarities to that of former Georgia standout Brock Bowers.
“He’s a kid that’s played a lot at the major level of college football, and he was very productive,” Georgia tight ends coach Todd Hartley said. “Couple of injuries here and there, but he was productive. 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.”
Far less discussed this fall has been sophomore tight end Lawson Luckie. A year ago, Luckie was seen as a potential breakout candidate following a really strong spring. But an ankle injury in Georgia’s first scrimmage stalled his development. He didn’t really begin to make plays again for Georgia until the bowl game against Florida State, when he caught his first career touchdown.
Now entering his second year in the program, Luckie is presented with an opportunity to make an impact for the Bulldogs. And even with the addition of Yurosek, the sophomore from Norcross, Ga., isn’t planning on slowing down.
“I think Lawson has high competitive character,” Hartley said. “Similar to Brock. Lawson wants me to always give him. He’s always asking for more roles, more plays, more tape. He has that nature about him where he wants to be the best. Obviously you want all your kids to be that way and some are more outwardly spoken about wanting to be that way. It motivated him even more to be the best tight end in that room.
“He doesn’t see it as a, ‘I have to compete with this guy for playing time,’ but in reality he knows that’s probably the truth.”
Yurosek only has one year of eligibility remaining. He also wasn’t with Georgia in the spring, as he was finishing up his degree at Stanford. That’s part of the reason, to date, Luckie has been running ahead of Yurosek in drills.
“He’s a little bit behind, but he’s very intelligent,” offensive coordinator Mike Bobo said of Yurosek. “He’s done a great job of continuing to get in the playbook. We’re asking him to do things that maybe he didn’t do at Stanford. I’ve seen him accept that, accept that challenge.”
Georgia does bring back Oscar Delp at the position and he is expected to be Georgia’s top tight end for the 2024 season.
Bobo though plans to use multiple tight end sets that were a staple of the Todd Monken offense.
That is what makes the competition between Luckie and Yurosek so important for Georgia, even with Hartley noting that Georgia will need all three tight ends to make an impact for the Bulldogs this year.
“Here at the tight end position, you’re going to learn how to play in the core, you’re going to learn how to move, to be an H-back so to speak,” Bobo said. “You’re going to learn when we split you out and how to run routes. We try to do it all and have a big volume of offense. All positions for us offensively, it takes a lot of learning. We put a lot on them. But that position in particular, because it’s the run game and the pass game that they’re heavily involved in, it takes a guy that’s extremely bright.”
Georgia feels confident Luckie checks all of those boxes for the Bulldogs, as does Yurosek.
How those two perform in the key scrimmages for Georgia during the month of August will go a long way in shaping how the results of their position battle play out.
The Bulldogs open the 2024 season against Clemson on Aug. 31.
