ATHENS — Lawson Luckie is exactly the type of impact player the Georgia offense needs to continue scoring at a championship clip.
The freshman tight end has the potential to affect the Bulldogs in a Brock Bowers-type-of-way, though he admits he’s still a step behind Bowers -- the most game-changing offensive player Kirby Smart has recruited as UGA’s head coach.
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“With a frame like mine, a smaller, more agile type of tight end, I’m somebody you move around in a lot of different ways to get the ball in their hands,” Luckie, listed at 6-foot-3 and 240 pounds, said during his Player’s Lounge interview with Aaron Murray.
“Like how (Todd) Monken did with Bowers; jet screens, sweeps and then throwing the ball up to him and throwing across the middle.”
The most dynamic element of Monken’s offense was not so much any single player — Bowers held great value because of his incredible versatility.
Rather, Georgia was hard to stop because of its shape-shifting, chameleon-like ability, with the quarterback able to change plays and call for shifts at the line of scrimmage.
Whatever the defense or situation, there was always an answer.
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Luckie flashed in the spring G-Day Game with three catches for 48 yards, but his name was the buzz of other scrimmages and practice works.
Georgia is well-stocked at the position, as Oscar Delp is also in the tight end arsenal and rising.
But Luckie arrived early from Norcross with surprising toughness and an unmistakable edge that has impressed even Kirby Smart.
“Nobody benefitted more from bowl practice than Lawson Luckie,” Smart said this spring. “Blocked people on scout team, scout special teams. He jumped on seniors and fought them. He’s grown up a lot. He’s getting mature quickly.”
Luckie said he was indeed humbled upon arriving, but through that process, he has grown more confident and capable.
“It’s not an arrogant thing, but after playing against them I feel like I can play with anybody,” Luckie said when asked about working against Georgia’s elite defense. “It’s a confidence thing and a boost going against these All-Americans and first-round draft picks and competing with them. I feel I can compete with anybody.”
Of course, that’s not how it started.
“I came in a little bit earlier for bowl practice, and whatever Robert Beal wanted to do to me, I couldn’t stop that dude,” Luckie said. “Whenever he wanted to go hard, he just yoked me up.
“I just got stronger, I got more confident, more aggressive with my feet.”
Smart took note, to the extent he granted Luckie the No. 7 he had requested when he arrived as part of the 2023 signing class.
The head coach is still keeping a close eye on Luckie’s development, as Georgia will need players like him and incoming Missouri transfer Dominic Lovett to make an impact with key playmakers moving on.
“I think he’ll be the first to tell you he likes to consider himself a tough guy, and he’s got a ways to go in order to be tough enough to be a physical blocker,” Smart said this spring.
“He does have some savvy route running. He’s got really good hands. He continues to improve, but he can’t think he’s all the way there.”
Luckie leaves the impression of a confident player who knows there’s plenty of work to do, as he’s reminded every day while practicing alongside future College Football Hall of Famer Bowers and working under celebrated offensive assistant Todd Hartley.
“He brings the juice every day, Hartley is always on 10 ‚he’s never like a 6 or a 7, he’s always going full throttle,” Luckie said. “He holds us to the highest standard of anybody — he holds everyone to Brock’s standard — if you’re not at Brock’s standard, you’re going to get left behind.”
The Georgia offense, however, remains right on pace with Mike Bobo assuming the coordinator duties, per Luckie.
“It was kind of expected, I feel like Bobo was up there, kind of his right hand man, so it’s not much different,” Luckie said. “They both have similar philosophies and similar play calls;\ what we were doing in the spring wasn’t much different than what we were doing in the winter.”
The terminology is the same, and while personnel has changed with weapons like Kenny McIntosh, Darnell Washington and A.D. Mitchell moving on, there are promising times on the horizon with players like Luckie seemingly on the verge of a breakout season.
