ATHENS — The legend of Georgia tight end Brock Bowers only continues to grow.
After having TightRope surgery 26 days ago on his ankle, Bowers is back on the field for Georgia. The tight end dressed out during warmups and went through pregame warmups on Saturday. He was first in line while working with Georgia’s tight ends.
Georgia coach Kirby Smart has done his best to try and temper expectations of a return for Bowers.
“That’s what we hope,” Smart said on Bowers playing on Saturday morning. “I don’t know if he’s going to be 100 percent but he’s done a goo job during the week of working towards the benchmarks he’s got to do. We’ll see how he is, game-time decision.”
Despite missing the last two games, Bowers is still the team’s leading receiver on the season, catching 41 passes for 567 yards in the team’s first six games of the season.
Bowers was able to practice this week, doing more than he had in recent weeks for Georgia. The star tight end picked up the injury in a win over Vanderbilt on Oct. 16.
“Brock’s been looking good. I’ve been watching him. He seems like he’s progressing fast,” teammate Marcus Rosemy-Jacksaint said. ”He’s been hitting, I’ve heard he hit some high speed, 19, 20, something like that. He’s progressing. He’s looking to get back. We’re excited for him to get back on the field… We’re just hoping and we’re just waiting.”
Georgia has been able to win without Bowers, putting up 43 points in a win over Florida and then scoring 30 points last week against Missouri. The Bulldogs have won both of those games, improving to 9-0 on the season.
It has been raining all day in Athens and thus the field is slick. It will be worth watching how many snaps Bowers ends up playing, given the traditional recovery timeline for the injury is four to six weeks. Former Alabama quarterback Tua Tagavoila had the surgery back in 2018 and returned to play 27 days later.
The Bulldogs are hoping to see star offensive tackle Amarius Mims return to the starting lineup as well on Saturday. He suffered an ankle injury in Georgia’s Week 3 win over South Carolina. Mims had TightRope surgery, the same Bowers did, and has missed the past six games for Georgia. With Mims on the mend, Georgia has started Xavier Truss at right tackle and Dylan Fairchild at left guard.
Georgia won’t be a fully healthy team on Saturday, as inside linebacker Jamon Dumas-Johnson will miss the game with a forearm injury. In his absence, Georgia will turn to freshmen CJ Allen and Raylen Wilson.
A win for Georgia on Saturday would be massive for the Bulldogs as they could punch their ticket to the SEC championship game. It would also be a big boost to Georgia’s College Football Playoff resume. The Bulldogs are currently the No. 2 ranked team in the country.
