Georgia’s Brock Bowers stands out as MVP necessary for No. 1 Bulldogs to keep dynasty on track

AUBURN, Ala. — Georgia tight finish Brock Bowers walked off the sphere at Jordan-Hare Stadium to an ovation that rivaled A-list celebrities after they arrive on the pink carpet. The Bulldogs celebrity from around the nation in Napa, California, had simply put on a efficiency for the ages, catching 4 passes for 121 yards and the game-winning rating in No. 1 Georgia’s 27-20 comeback win over Auburn within the Deep South’s Oldest Football Rivalry.

The efficiency no longer most effective solidified Bowers as a valid Heisman Trophy candidate but in addition proved he is essentially the most treasured participant for a Georgia program that hasn’t wanted a real MVP all the way through its present run headlined via back-to-back nationwide identify victories.

Bowers is trainer Kirby Smart’s “cheat code.” When issues were not running via 3 quarters on Saturday, Smart dialed up Bowers’ quantity and he spoke back with catches of 37 and 28 yards, the latter of which was once of the one-handed selection. That led to a Peyton Woodring box objective that gave Georgia its first lead of the sport at 20-17.

“I don’t know … it just kind of happened that way,” Bowers mentioned of the one-handed catch. “I don’t really mean to. I just kinda stuck my hand out.”

Or, to put it higher, “effortless.”

That was once precisely how it seemed as Bowers hauled in a Carson Beck go and casually strolled in spite of everything zone for the game-winner. Just, you already know, your on a regular basis catch-and-run to win a large contention recreation and lengthen Georgia’s profitable streak to 22 video games (tied for the fifth-longest in SEC historical past).

What occurs if you’re taking Bowers off this staff? Simple. It would not be a countrywide identify contender. 

Two offseasons in the past, Smart prided himself as one in every of a choose few coaches that did not settle for transfers. The finish end result was once a staff that had just one receiver — Ladd McConkey — a number of the best 4 go catchers on the roster. Sure, Georgia gained the nationwide identify due largely to Bowers, however that’s not sustainable. Smart swallowed his switch satisfaction and lured Dominic Lovett from Missouri and RaRa Thomas from Mississippi State to try to give Bowers a bit of assist. Did that paintings? Not truly. Lovett had 25 receiving yards and Thomas 24 on Saturday. So it was once McConkey, taking part in in his first recreation again from a again damage, there to give Beck another choice. 

Auburn will have put 20 guys on Bowers and he nonetheless do not need been stopped. Defenders bounced off him like bumper vehicles on his game-winning catch-and-run. Beck focused Bowers on 14 of his 33 go makes an attempt as a result of he is the most efficient — and most likely most effective — constant receiving choice.

That’s no longer the best way it is intended to be for a program that has been a recruiting gadget and these days ranks No. 2 within the 247Sports staff ability ratings.

There have been begins abound on Georgia’s 2021 nationwide identify staff — the primary of the Smart generation. Jordan Davis clogged up the center of the defensive entrance, Stetson Bennett IV slung it far and wide the sphere and the backfield mixture of Zamir White and James Cook ran wild on opposing defenders. Jalen Carter stepped in for Davis in 2022, Bennett solidified himself as a Georgia legend and the working again corps rolled necessarily 4 deep en direction to back-to-back nationwide championships. 

This staff is sort of the complete opposite. The Dawgs have struggled to get push alongside the defensive entrance, Beck has necessarily been a recreation supervisor in his first yr as a starter and the working again room has been decimated via accidents all season. Essentially the whole thing that made the former two title-winning groups nice is noticeably absent on this squad. 

It’s all Bowers, at all times. The Heisman Trophy is largely a quarterback award until a participant at any other place places up other-worldly numbers and gives sufficient price to a staff that reveals itself within the thick of the College Football Playoff race. See: DeVonta Smith at Alabama in 2020. Bowers tests all of the ones packing containers. 

Without him, Georgia is solely a truly just right staff that can want an insane quantity of good fortune to make it 3 in a row. With him, Georgia is a dynasty.