ATHENS, Ga. — It has been like nothing seen before at Georgia. The way the tight ends have been used the past few years, Brock Bowers becoming the most potent weapon on offense, double-tight-end sets becoming essentially the base offense. And the main reason for all this is an assistant coach named Todd.

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But not the one now working in Baltimore.

Todd Monken’s brilliance in coordinating the entire offense has been well-established, with tight ends a key part of that. How much of that changes with Mike Bobo back as coordinator could be the main storyline of the upcoming season. But another question looms: How long will Georgia keep heavily involving tight ends? The answer: Probably as long as Todd Hartley keeps recruiting good ones.

“The challenge for a coach is to get your best players on the field at all times,” said Hartley, who has been Georgia’s tight ends coach since 2019. “So whether that’s two tight ends or that’s no tight ends, it’s my job to recruit and get the best tight ends here in the country.”

He has done that. Here’s the tight end ranking in the 247Sports Composite for each Hartley recruit since he got to Georgia:

2023: Pearce Spurlin (second), Lawson Luckie (eighth)

2022: Oscar Delp (second)

2021: Brock Bowers (third)

2020: Darnell Washington (second)

Oscar Delp was the second-ranked tight end in the 2022 class. (Mark J. Rebilas / USA Today)

That doesn’t include two transfers. Tre’ McKitty, a grad transfer from Florida State, had six catches in the 2020 season and was a third-round pick in the 2021 NFL Draft. Arik Gilbert, a former five-star, came in as a transfer after a good freshman season at LSU but struggled with off-field issues and never saw significant playing time. He’s now at Nebraska.

Georgia is also still in the running for five-star Duce Robinson, who has put off his college decision while examining his options for baseball. But even without him and with Washington off to the NFL, Georgia still returns Bowers, the first-team All-American, plus Delp, Spurlin and Luckie. Maybe the group isn’t as experienced, but it still has enough raw talent that Kirby Smart, speaking in December and knowing what the 2023 tight end position would look like, said he was “excited” about more triple-tight-end sets.

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“So much of college football now is 11 personnel (with one tight end), so when you play 12 (two tight ends), it’s always different from a defensive perspective because you know what sets they can make,” Smart said. “They can be a little more multiple, but you probably lose some speed when you do that. That’s probably what makes ours different is we don’t sacrifice a lot of speed from 11 to 12, like some teams might. To stretch the field vertically and horizontally, you need speed. So 12’s been a good personnel for us this year.”

Bowers has been the speed component for Georgia at tight end during the past couple of years. Delp is regarded as a bit more athletic than Washington, though not as big. (Who is?) Spurlin will become the tallest player in the group (6-foot-6) and has a large wingspan. Luckie (6-3, 225 pounds) may be more of a classic tight end build. It all makes for a versatile group, as it has been the past few years, something for Bobo to play around with, the same way Monken did.

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Bobo’s recent history shows a willingness to do that. Auburn used multiple tight end sets 42.7 percent of the time in 2021, and South Carolina used them on 31.6 percent of plays in 2020. The last offense Bobo had at Colorado State in 2019 used double tight ends only 11.8 percent of the time, but that one tight end tended to be Trey McBride, who was the team’s third-leading receiver (45 catches, 560 yards, four touchdowns). McBride was a second-round pick of the Arizona Cardinals in last year’s draft.

The production and usage totals for the past three offenses Bobo coordinated:

Percent of team targets to TEs

YearTeamStat

2021

Auburn

19.0 (31st nationally)

2020

South Carolina

17.4 (47th)

2019

Colorado State

15.8 (46th, heavy dose of Trey McBride)

Percent of snaps with two-plus TEs

YearTeamStat

2021

Auburn

42.7 (19th nationally)

2020

South Carolina

31.6 (37th)

2019

Colorado State

11.8 (96th)

Percent of team receiving yards to TEs

YearTeamStat

2021

Auburn

20.2 (26th nationally)

2020

South Carolina

30.1 (eighth)

2019

Colorado State

17.3 (37th)

Meanwhile, here are Georgia’s recent stats, including last season, when Bobo was on board as a senior analyst:

Percent of team targets to TEs

YearStat

2022

29.2 (fifth nationally)

2021

27.7 (seventh)

2020

14.3 (62nd)

2019

10.9 (77th)

Percent of snaps with two-plus TEs

YearStat

2022

63.1 (fourth nationally)

2021

51.7 (eighth)

2020

34.1 (31st)

2019

26.8 (50th)

Percent of team's receiving yards to TEs

YearStat

2022

33.2 (sixth nationally)

2021

30.7 (ninth)

2020

15.2 (59th)

2019

9.3 (82nd)

You can see the demarcation line when Bowers arrived, especially in production. That gets back to coaches making use of their best weapons. But the overall snaps for tight ends were already going up before his arrival. That’s because Georgia had players like McKitty and John FitzPatrick, a member of the 2018 class now with the Atlanta Falcons. They weren’t nearly as explosive as pass catchers as Bowers proved to be. But Monken found ways to use them and get on the field, even using three at the same time during the 2021 season. (Smart’s mention of 13 personnel, therefore, shouldn’t be that surprising.)

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Georgia uses so many multiple sets that it has different position names within the tight ends: Bowers was the “F” and Washington was the Y,” for instance, at least in most of the sets when both were on the field. (When only one tight end is on the field, an increasingly rare instance, it was usually categorized as the “Y.”) The “Y” and “F” are similar, according to Hartley, with the “F” usually more flexed out and moving more and the “Y” more attached to the line, but it also depends on the play.

“So what I tell the kids when they come in — Lawson Luckie just came in. I’m telling Lawson in these meetings: ‘Don’t just learn the Y. Increase your value by knowing both positions, and all three, because that allows you position versatility. And if you’re versatile and you can be counted on to go in and play in the game more often, it only helps you out,’” Hartley said in December.

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Hartley didn’t know Monken would be leaving when he said that, but he knew it was a possibility. He also probably suspected Bobo would be the next man up, and the two have a history of working together. Hartley worked under Bobo as a Georgia student assistant (2005-07) and graduate assistant (2009-10), and the two were on the staff together last year.

Of course, Georgia always could lean more on other positions, such as wide receiver with the transfer portal additions of Dominic Lovett and RaRa Thomas. It could go run-heavy if it decides the running backs are a strength. It could depend on the week or the series. But to reiterate the sentiment at the start of this story: If Hartley continues to recruit at the level he has, the tight ends are going to remain a feature of the offense.

“What they tell recruits is if you can play, we’ll get you in,” Bowers said. “I think that helps the mindsets because that’s what they told me. You’ve just got to prove yourself, and they’ll find a spot for you somewhere.”

(Top photo of Brock Bowers: Steve Limentani / ISI Photos / Getty Images)

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