ATHENS — Todd Hartley had a correction to make. Much of the world had been pronouncing the name of new tight end Benjamin Yurosek incorrectly.
“So first off, it’s Yu-rah-sek. He’s Polish,” Hartley said. “I learned that during the recruitment process.”
Yurosek was one of the three new tight ends brought in by Hartley this season. The transfer arrives from Stanford and hopes to bring some veteran help to the tight end room.
One that has to replace perhaps the greatest tight end in the history of college football in Brock Bowers.
“Whether Brock was there or he wasn’t, pre-Brock and post-Brock, you approach it the same way,” Hartley said. “It’s my job to make sure that my unit plays, practices, prepares to the best of their ability. It’s also my job to make sure I get every ounce out of them that I can.”
Which is why Hartley still has a ton of confidence in the Georgia tight end room. Even with losing Bowers, the tight ends coach believes Georgia still has the best group in the country.
“If you’re not going to have belief in your players, how are they going to believe in you,” Hartley asked. “So I show belief and confidence in my guys every day and I think they’re best ones in the country,” Hartley said. “And that’s our standard, to be the best tight end room in the country.”
Upholding that standard will be Oscar Delp this year. While Yurosek is the shiny new toy at the position, Hartley made it crystal clear that Delp is the guy for Georgia at the tight end position.
He’s had to wait his turn for that role, as he’s played behind Bowers and Darnell Washington in each of his first two years on campus. But just because Delp was with two NFL tight ends didn’t prevent him from seeing the field.
He found a way to make winning contributions in each of those seasons. Entering his third year in the program, Hartley wants Delp to expand his role in a number of ways.
“From freshman year, he’s bigger and stronger. He’s always been really good at the point of attack,” Hartley said. “We’ve worked really on consistently catching the football, he’s improved that. But the growth in his leadership ability, the growth in his maturity has been the most pleasant surprise for us. That’s really what we needed in that room and our offense.”
Delp will rarely come off the field for Georgia. The Bulldogs intend on using multiple tight end sets moving forward, which puts a competition between Yurosek and sophomore Lawson Luckie for those reps.
But Hartley knows Georgia will need all three of those tight ends to make winning contributions if the Bulldogs are going to follow through on Hartley’s promise.
“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,” Hartley said of Luckie. “We’re going to need all three of those guys to play significant roles for us this year in order for us to be good in that room and in our offense. His response to having been there is no different than having those two freshmen there. He’s going to go do his job to the best of his ability.”
Hartley admitted he’s going to miss coaching Bowers. How could one not?
The Georgia tight ends coach, now in his sixth season at Georgia, is confident that Bowers’ excellence is only going to push the current tight ends to another level. Hartley lightly compares elements of Delp, Luckie and Yurosek to Bowers and what they bring to the table.
The Bulldogs may not have a nationally known entity like Bowers to start this season. But by the end of the year, Hartley firmly believes there won’t be too many questions about the ceiling of his group.
“Yeah, he is a monumental player in the history of Georgia football, and I don’t think you’ll ever replace that,” Hartley said. “But guess what, I’m going to coach Oscar Delp just like I coached Brock Bowers and do the same for Lawson Luckie and Ben Yurosek and those two freshmen as well. I’m not going to coach them any differently.”
