Georgia TE Coach Todd Hartley Talks Brock Bowers
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00:00 Connor, long time no see buddy.
00:02 All right, who's first?
00:05 Who had BA?
00:06 Yeah, coach, talk us through the decision that Brock Ivers is not on the team playing and what it means for the team.
00:10 I don't think it means anything other than he's just trying to rehab.
00:13 I think he's trying to get as healthy as possible and you know and
00:17 keeping him back is probably the best decision to get his ankle back as fast as possible and if he can
00:21 be healthy enough to play then he'll play and if he's not healthy enough to play then he won't play.
00:26 I think it's as simple as that.
00:28 And so I think we all want him out there.
00:31 Love to see him play in this game, but
00:34 it's up to Brock really, you know, and it's up to his health and his ankle.
00:39 And you know, he came back
00:42 at an unbelievably fast pace, you know.
00:45 Nothing that wasn't clear, that wasn't out of the ordinary.
00:49 Like he checked all the boxes, he wanted to play, he was 100% healthy and it's just been nagging him ever since and that's what happens.
00:53 You heard it and then you come back play and just the wear and the amount that he puts on,
00:57 how hard he plays, the violence he plays with, the force he plays with, it just hasn't been the same since.
01:03 So just, you know, for Brock's best interest is we got to get that thing 100% healthy, you know.
01:08 Because that's what we're doing, just trying to get him there.
01:11 What is your role with special teams coaching? Do you ever see certain aspects of that?
01:15 I think we're all involved.
01:17 I think we're all involved. If you work for Kirby Smart,
01:20 it doesn't matter who you are, you're gonna be involved in special teams.
01:24 You know, I have a
01:27 extensive special teams background throughout my career.
01:30 Can you speak to Peyton, is that your area?
01:33 Or not really?
01:34 Peyton Woodring? New shoes? We call him New Shoes.
01:37 No, I don't really coach the kickers, no sir.
01:41 But what a year he's at, huh?
01:43 Great job, man.
01:44 Coming as a freshman, those pressure situations, unbelievable.
01:47 You did recruit the Australian punter.
01:49 I did, I did.
01:50 Without going to Australia, right?
01:51 Probably my second favorite person on the team.
01:54 No, that would have been a heck of a recruiting trip, wouldn't it?
01:56 Unfortunately, COVID would have...
01:58 Home visit, where are you going? I'm going to Victoria, Australia.
02:02 First class Kirby, please?
02:04 No chance.
02:06 No, unfortunately, I wouldn't have been able to go out there.
02:09 That whole recruiting process is, you know, they do...
02:12 It came from Pro Kick Australia.
02:14 That whole, it's a wild process, the way you go through this.
02:17 It's kind of like Melodra Bride, like,
02:19 you find one you like, you don't really know,
02:22 you got a lot of trust in the person sending it to you,
02:25 and then when they show up, you're like, "Oh, please, Lord, please."
02:28 And he worked out pretty good.
02:30 Brett's been a great addition.
02:32 Did you know he had the personality and sense of humor you had?
02:35 You know what, he was very nice on the Zooms.
02:37 He loved talking to my kids, and now he's a complete butthole.
02:42 I'm kidding.
02:43 I love Brett.
02:44 He does have a great sense of humor, doesn't he?
02:46 His Twitter is off the chain.
02:49 He is a good follow, and that's how he is in person, too.
02:52 And he's very point-blank, too.
02:55 Why is Peyton new shoes?
02:58 I think when he came out there during fall camp,
03:00 he had those fancy new little kicker shoes on,
03:02 and Kirby loves to give the freshman heck, right?
03:04 So, he was out there kicking, he was like, "I see you got your new shoes on today."
03:07 And he had the, like, they're like pink and green and flamboyant, right?
03:10 They're typical kicker shoes.
03:12 And so he called him new shoes, and that just kind of stuck.
03:15 I like nicknames, so that stuck in my head.
03:18 You guys signed a partner in this 2024 recruiting class for Melodra.
03:21 What do you know about him?
03:22 Strong leg.
03:23 Unbelievably strong leg.
03:25 Can boom it.
03:27 I know he has kickoff ability, too.
03:29 You know, when you have a chance to sign a kid like that,
03:31 who you think is a difference maker in special teams, then you do it.
03:36 And you take advantage of it.
03:38 You still got Thorson, and you got him, but, you know, that guy's a weapon.
03:42 And it's hard to find weapons.
03:43 You know, the thing about Kirby, like, Kirby's not just going to scholarship anybody as a specialist.
03:47 And so that tells you what Kirby thinks of him as well.
03:50 He's going to be definitely somebody that's going to help us as far as changing field position.
03:55 I was at two freshmen this year on the roster, and you can hear some early losses.
03:59 What did you see from those two guys?
04:01 Two new ones.
04:02 Well, I think they really had to grow up maybe faster than they had thought, okay,
04:07 because of the injury with Brock.
04:09 That was my son, sorry.
04:12 But, you know, they have matured in the right way, right?
04:17 And so, you know, you look at two guys who are very athletic, who probably size-wise,
04:22 strength-wise weren't physically mature enough to contribute right away,
04:26 but, you know, mentally they have definitely attacked it and gotten better.
04:31 And I've seen definite progression from each of them.
04:34 They're different in what they bring to the table.
04:36 Lawson's a little bit more at the line of scrimmage, but you can flex him out.
04:40 Pierce is more of a wide out, and we knew that going in.
04:42 And Pierce is still learning how to play tight end, where Lawson actually played tight end in high school.
04:46 But I'm very pleased with both of them.
04:48 And then you asked about the two new freshmen.
04:51 I just got here, so don't know much other than what I knew going into recruiting.
04:55 I know this, I'm glad they're here.
04:57 I mean, you've seen some things in just the first couple days.
04:59 You're like, wow, that's--again, again, like you go through the recruiting process,
05:03 and it's not an exact science.
05:05 Like you watch the tape, and you try to get the best evaluation as possible.
05:08 You go and see them in person.
05:09 You try to get the best evaluation as possible.
05:11 And then you really don't know until you get them on campus, right?
05:16 You try to eliminate as much risk as possible, get them to camps,
05:20 and then seeing them as many times as you can.
05:22 And then you don't know until they get to your campus.
05:25 And then they've been here a couple days, and we've been very pleased with what they've shown so far.
05:30 You mentioned Pierce's background as a wide receiver, coming out of college,
05:32 having to play more of a traditional tight end role.
05:34 He had a very similar path with Darnell Washington.
05:37 Turned him into one of the best blockers in Tennessee.
05:40 What did you learn from that experience with Darnell that you can maybe apply to him?
05:43 Well, the first thing is you might not be a good blocker in high school,
05:46 and most high school tight ends aren't, right?
05:48 But you've got to be willing to do it.
05:50 So that's the one characteristic we look for is are you a willing blocker?
05:53 If you're willing, then I'll teach you how to do it, right?
05:56 And so Darnell was very willing, okay?
05:58 And Pierce is willing too.
05:59 But Pierce is going to get in the weight room, and he has.
06:01 He's attacked it, and he'll get there.
06:03 But the difference is Pierce is about 235.
06:05 Darnell is 265 on a good day, okay, on a good day.
06:10 He probably played at 280 that last year, right?
06:13 And so Darnell had a little bit more mass that helped him out.
06:16 Whereas Darnell could miss with his hands or not step with the right foot
06:20 or have his hat in the wrong place and just his run blocking technique
06:23 and fundamental might not have been exact, he got away with it
06:26 because he was like a human eclipse, right?
06:28 He just swallowed you up.
06:29 Where Pierce is a little bit more narrow, doesn't have as much ass, okay?
06:32 So Pierce has got to be a little bit more sound in his technique than Darnell was,
06:35 but he'll get there.
06:36 Pierce has a frame to gain a lot of mass and a lot of weight,
06:39 and he'll get there one day.
06:41 And what ways did you see Oscar grow as a leader this year,
06:44 being an older guy now compared to then?
06:47 Oscar, where Oscar had to show the most growth was just maturity of understanding
06:53 what it takes to be an elite level tight end, right?
06:57 Like Oscar was from West Forsyth, and he was a really good player in high school,
07:01 and he just had to understand the magnitude of the position that he was being put into.
07:06 And so you had to see just personal growth in his maturity,
07:11 like how he attacked his preparation.
07:13 Oscar's a 405-pound bench presser.
07:16 Mark Bowers isn't that.
07:17 Darnell Washington wasn't that.
07:18 He's unbelievably strong in the weight room.
07:21 He runs 21 miles an hour.
07:22 He has all the physical traits.
07:24 It was the mental capability of handling the situation of playing tight end
07:29 at an elite level that he had to show the most growth in,
07:31 and that's where I've seen that progression, especially recently,
07:35 knowing that Brock's here, Brock's not here, Brock's able to play,
07:39 Brock's not able to play.
07:40 He's had to take that role on a being.
07:42 Somebody mentioned tight end one earlier.
07:44 He's had to do that, and I've seen some really good things out of Oscar.
07:49 I'm very pleased with where he's at.
07:50 Boston's guy came in to a big war on fire last spring.
07:54 He had that injury.
07:55 How is overcoming that injury and the adversity that came with it going to
07:58 help him to be confident for that one?
08:00 Yeah, well, here's the thing.
08:02 Boston's extremely talented as well.
08:04 The biggest thing with Lawson was getting that confidence back, man.
08:09 He got hurt.
08:10 He played last spring with a large amount of confidence.
08:14 It's just what he brought with him, just the type of kid he was,
08:16 and then the injury kind of took that away.
08:19 I wouldn't say really the injury.
08:20 It was how long it took for him to come back,
08:22 and it's amazing with these high ankles how different each can be for each
08:27 individual person, right?
08:28 And so, Brock came back really fast,
08:30 and then Mims and everybody else were kind of in the middle,
08:32 and Lawson's probably took kind of on the longer end.
08:35 That really zapped some confidence from him,
08:38 and so that's really what I've tried to work on the last month or two is just,
08:42 "Hey, be that guy you were before."
08:45 I'm not talking about physically.
08:46 You've got that.
08:47 You're healthy.
08:48 I need you to go out there and be a good dude, man.
08:50 Have that confidence.
08:51 Have that presence about you that you can go out there and make these plays
08:54 because that's what you can do.
08:56 We believe in you.
08:57 That sounds like a weird question.
08:58 Do you have any traits, whether it be physical or intangible,
09:02 in Brock Bowers that you have found that you might apply to the rest of your
09:05 career processes as a player?
09:07 Do you love football?
09:08 That's it?
09:09 Do you love football, man?
09:11 It's hard to find kids nowadays that actually love playing the game of football.
09:17 There's so much going on, right?
09:19 Social media, NHL, they all have this presence.
09:22 They try to build up to the outside world.
09:25 But ultimately, the guys are going to succeed, especially at Georgia,
09:29 especially the SEC, and ultimately the next level is at the heart,
09:33 you've got to love football, man.
09:35 So somehow part of the evaluation process, how fast this 40 is, how high he jumps,
09:39 how well he can catch, you better evaluate if they love football.
09:43 Brock Bowers loves football.
09:45 How did you learn that when you were just being afraid during COVID?
09:48 It's tough.
09:49 You don't.
09:50 You didn't know for sure, right?
09:51 You didn't know for sure.
09:52 You saw all the videos he sent in of how hard he worked
09:54 and how hard he trained, and you've got to love it to be able to send those
09:57 videos in, and then it was confirmed once he got here.
10:00 And so somehow, I don't know how you write that up.
10:03 I don't know how you quantify that.
10:04 I don't know how you put that on a chart.
10:06 But somehow during the process, you've got to find out if that kid actually
10:09 loves playing football.
10:11 This is his last game at Georgia.
10:12 How will you remember Brock Bowers?
10:14 Again, I don't know if it is or not.
10:17 The dude is the ultimate competitor.
10:21 Everything he did, he competed to be the best at that, whatever it was.
10:27 Ten-yard sprint, 30-yard sprint, okay, inside run, 707, Alabama, UAB.
10:35 It didn't matter.
10:36 The dude wanted to be the best, and he is the best.
10:40 Good one to end on.
10:41 Yep, we're good.