ATHENS — Georgia tight end Brock Bowers set another record Saturday.
His return to action Saturday, 26 days have undergoing TightRope surgery on his left ankle, is a UGA record. It might be a national record, too, but there simply was no way to accurately research it in the moments following the Bulldogs’ resounding 52-17 win over Ole Miss on Saturday night at Sanford Stadium.
Former Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa generally is redited for coming back the quickest at only 27 days in 2019. Whether that’s an actual record or not, nobody in the Bulldogs’ locker room was surprised that Bowers did it more quickly.
“We knew it was in the realm because Tua did it in 27 (days),” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. “I mean, there was a belief he could do it but he would have to do something special. The day after it happened, his mother called and they wanted to be aggressive with it and treat it. ... He took a really aggressive approach to it and, well, he’s different.”
The 6-foot-4, 240-pound junior started against Ole Miss and finished with 34 yards and a touchdown on three receptions. He played nearly every snap until leaving the game for good after his 8-yard touchdown grab put the Bulldogs ahead 45-14 with 14:12 to play.
Whether that’s a record return-to-play for the cutting-edge procedure is unknown, but it’s definitely the quickest any Georgia Bulldogs player has made it back from the surgery. Offensive tackle Amarius Mims returned Saturday after having the procedure in mid-September but that was over eight weeks. Fellow tight end Lawson Luckie had roughly the same timeline after undergoing the surgery in mid-August.
Smart said he wasn’t sure how soon Bowers could come back, but he started feeling confident about this Saturday when he saw “a red blur” streak across a piece of video he was reviewing from practice earlier this week.
“There was a red blur way at the back of the film I was watching, and it looked like a guy flying across the field,” Smart said. “I said, ‘who is that? Oh, my God, it’s Brock.’ I knew we had a chance then. He’s just different. He took a path that no one takes with that injury. He just said, ‘this is what I’m doing.’”
“I didn’t have an expectation for Brock. I thought that Brock would do what he could, and Brock was hell-bent to get back out there.”
It had been exactly four weeks Saturday since Bowers sustained a high-ankle sprain after being tackled on the sideline following a run on a reverse against Vanderbilt. Dr. Norman Waldrop III of the Andrews Sports Medicine group performed the TightRope procedure on Bowers in Birmingham, Alabama, on Oct. 16.
Bowers started running pass routes on the side the week of the Missouri game, then returned to the practice field this past week.
“I’m not going to lie, I’ve seen Brock running and doing certain drills and stuff, and I’m just looking over there, I’m like, ‘That’s crazy,’” senior running back Kendall Milton said. “Like, he just got out of surgery, and he’s over there running and doing all type of stuff.”
Said quarterback Carson Beck: “He grinds. The guy was icing his ankle like 10 times a day, just over and over and over. He wanted to be out on the field. That’s the type of player he is. Obviously, to come back that fast and have a huge impact on the game is unreal.”
Bowers was not available for interviews after the game. More rehab, we presume.
The 2022 Jim Mackey Award winner as the best tight end in college football, Bowers entered the game second in Georgia history in touchdown catches (24), fifth in receiving yards (2,391) and sixth in receptions (160). Despite missing the past two games, he leads the team with 41 catches for 567 yards and four TDs.
Bowers served as a decoy for most of the first half. He finally caught his first pass of the game at the 11:40 mark of the second quarter with a 7-yard reception on a quick hitch in which he had to sidestep a defender as soon as he caught the ball. He’d haul in a 19-yarder over the middle later in the quarter.
Smart said Bowers was advised by some in his circle to not return to the Bulldogs.
“Those people will not be representing him, I can promise you that,” Smart said. “All it did was piss him off. ... He said, ‘why am I in this game if I’m not going to play?”
Smart said the irony is that Bowers probably made himself more millions by taking the aggressive approach that he did.
“All he did is stamp himself as a warrior that said, ‘I’m going to go out there and practice on Tuesday in front of 15 scouts, then I’m going to practice on Wednesday in front of 12 scouts and they’re all going to be over here going ‘Oh my God,” Smart said. “He’s got an opportunity to move up because of who he is.”
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