Bowers is the Bulldogs' best friend

Confetti from a college football weekend.

Brock Bowers

Some people like to mention the Heisman Trophy race in September. They are related to the same people who make grocery stores display Christmas decorations in September. In a just society, both groups would be water-boarded.

They don’t give the award until December, and the identity of the winner will be obvious long before that. It has become the Best Winning Quarterback Award. Ten of the past 12 winners have been quarterbacks on nationally prominent teams. Only Alabama runner Derrick Henry (2015) and Alabama receiver Devonta Smith (2020) are exceptions. Failing to win is no predictor of NFL fortunes. Being excluded from the discussion really is no offense at all.

What was made clear on Saturday, or at least reinforced, is that tight end Brock Bowers of Georgia could easily be the best player in America. What was made clearer is that if Georgia wins its third consecutive national title, Bowers will have to be.

Georgia was not supposed to grunt and groan and put its fans on the precipice when it played at Auburn Saturday. Auburn has a new coach, a offense that can’t escape first gear, and a team that would consider it a great victory to get invited to the Boca Raton Bowl.

Yet there was Auburn, blithely running through the gaps that future first-round picks always sealed. And there was Auburn in the fourth quarter, locked in a 20-20 tie with the top-ranked Bulldogs with 6:21 left.

Carson Beck, starting his first SEC road game as Georgia’s quarterback, got to third-and-12 and decided to push the easy button. He found Bowers, who broke over the middle and went for 16 yards. Two plays later Beck threw it to Bowers again, and this time the tight end either dodged or sped away from every nearby tackler on the Plain. He scored with 2:52 left, and the Bulldogs won, 27-20.

Bowers grabbed eight passes and took them 157 yards. It was the sixth 100-game receiving game of his career. As a freshman he hit 100 against Alabama in the SEC championship game. Last year he burned TCU with seven for 152 in the national championship game. This wasn’t a championship game but it would have been an eliminator had the Bulldogs lost it. So, when in doubt, see if Bowers is running about.

And there is more doubt than usual. The Bulldogs scheduled the SEC East and several barber colleges. They trailed South Carolina 14-3 at halftime, then won 24-14. Most of this is natural selection. Georgia has had 25 players drafted in the past two years. No transfer portal can glue that together, not all at once. The Bulldogs are also 34-1 since the 2020 season. Their sense of invincibility is their 12th man.

Besides, Kirby Smart has made Georgia a national recruiting player, even though the Dogs could happily subsist on Peach State products. Bowers is from Napa, Ca., which figures to be as close to a football-free zone as America has. His high school teams was winless when he was a freshman, and he lost his senior year because of Covid-19. But he ran the ball, he returned kicks, he played some quarterback, and he caught passes. And when he went to a Nike combine and short-circuited all the stopwatches, America’s coaches got out the map and found wine country. Todd Hartley, the Georgia tight end coach, was on campus as often as the bus drivers.

Eventually Bowers turned down Notre Dame, and he didn’t get the adrenaline rush from the Pac-12 schools. Georgia was where the real football was. It was the best option route Bowers has ever run. Now he carries the franchise with him.

In other confetti from college football:

USC 48, Colorado 41

— Caleb Williams continued his unstoppability at Boulder on Saturday, throwing two touchdowns to Colorado transfer Brendon Rice and four others as well. The Trojans (5-0) are averaging 54 points a game, and Williams finally threw his first pick of the season while going 30 for 40.

– But those who were worried about USC’s defense are more worried today. After the Trojans went ahead 48-21, Shedeur Sanders stormed back, and the Buffaloes (3-2) had an onside kick at the end with a chance to go ahead. It failed, but  Sanders went 30 for 45 for 371 yards and four touchdowns, finding Jimmy Horn for two scores. Freshman Omarion Miller said hello by catching seven balls for 196 yards

– .More concerning for defensive coordinator Alex Grinch is the 193 ground yards USC gave up to Colorado. The Trojans have given up 59 points the past two weeks to ASU and the Buffs.

Notre Dame 21, Duke 14

– The resurgent Blue Devils literally came within one play of a win that would have made them nationally prominent. They led 14-13 when Notre Dame QB Sam Hartman, a transfer from Wake Forest, rolled out and darted for the first down. On the next play Audric Estime burst for a 30-yard touchdown, with :31 left.

– It got worse for Duke. Its fine quarterback, Riley Leonard, hurt his ankle at the end of the game and needed crutches to leave the stadium. Leonard had led Duke with 88 yards in 18 carries.

– Duke hasn’t ended a season in the Top 10 since 1962 and hasn’t won the ACC since 1989. It was 5-18 the past two seasons, but has won 15 of 20 since Mike Elko, Notre Dame’s former defensive coordinator, became head coach in 2022.

Kentucky 33, Florida 14

– Re’Mahn “Ray” Davis had the third-best running day in Kentucky football annals, churning 280 yards on 26 carries. He gained 33 on his first three tries, and he cought a touchdown and ran for another as Kentucky improved to 5–0.

– Davis already had run for seven touchdowns this season, his first at Kentucky after he’d played at Temple and Vanderbilt. He was in the California foster care system as a youth in San Francisco and was homeless for a while, but the family of a basketball teammate took his in, and eventually arranged for Davis to attend a prep school in New York State, where he discovered football.

– This was another step backward for a Florida program that is 3-2 with losses to Utah and Kentucky and hasn’t had a winning season since 2020. Meanwhile, Kentucky continues to gather respect. It plays Georgia next week, and Bulldogs coach Kirby Smart noted, “Our guys are the most sore after a game against Kentucky.”

Maryland 44, Indiana 17

– Another ambitious program that will learn about itself very soon is Maryland, which is now 5-0. The Terps won eight games last year and have not won nine since 2010. They are now 2-0 in the Big 10 for the first time.

– Taulia Tagovailoa, whose brother Tua is gainfully employed in Miami, threw for 352 yards against the Hoosiers. and the Terps have now yielded only 40 points in consecutive wins over Virginia, Michigan State and Indiana. Their next game will be more illustrative, at Ohio State.

– The Terps are coached by Mike Locksley, former offensive coordinator at Alabama, and have won bowl games in back-to-back years. However, they’re trying to get to the adults’ table in the conference, the one with seats only for Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State. “We’re just dumb enough to think we can go there and do something,” Locksley said.

Baylor 36, Central Florida 35

– The Bears were 1-3 and had beaten only Long Island. They were coming off a 38-6 loss to Texas, came to Orlando, and found themselves down 35-7 with 8:08 left in the third quarter. Somehow they won, thanks to two UCF turnovers, one of which came off a botched snap that Caden Jenkins turned into a 72-yard touchdown.

– Baylor twice got 2-point conversions during their comeback. Jenkins’ takeaway TD cut the lead to 35-33. UCF drew an illegal pass penalty that complicated its next drive, and Baylor got a 36-yard pass from Blake Shapen to Monaray Baldwin to set up the winning field goal.

– UCF is a new member of the Big 12 and is now 0-2, with a loss to Kansas State serving as an initiation. Its next two are against Kansas and Oklahoma.

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