Mild-mannered Georgia tight end Brock Bowers takes Superman performances in stride

ATHENS — Brock Bowers comes off as one of the most grounded football stars you could ever run across.

Assuming, that is, you recognized who he was.

“Some people are like, ‘you’re not as big as I thought you’d be,” said Bowers, who doesn’t get out of the football building much outside of a meal at Hilltop Grille with his mother on her visits to Athens or occasional stops for meals at Zaxby’s, which he has a NIL deal with.

Bowers is a sturdy 6-foot-4 and 230 pounds, but he’s in no way as imposing as Goliath UGA tight end Darnell Washington (6-7, 275) or chiseled tight end Arik Gilbert (6-5, 255).

Once in his Georgia football uniform, however, it’s almost as if Bowers dons an ‘S’ on his chest and a cape under his shoulder pads and jersey.

Bowers’ catch radius turns bad passes into completions, and his powerful and swift runs after the catch heavily pad what would otherwise be pedestrian passing numbers.

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Bowers’ talents are such that Nick Saban went out of his way to praise him — something the Alabama coach does not often do for any players, much less opponents.

“This guy’s got great size, he’s a good blocker, physical, (and) he’s tough,” said Saban, who watched Bowers catch 10 passes against Alabama for 139 yards in the SEC title game and then helped put the CFP Championship Game on ice with a 15-yard TD catch with 3:33 remaining.

Bowers set a new Georgia record with 14 touchdowns while leading the team and smashing the program’s previous tight end records, finishing with 56 catches for 882 yards.

The FWAA and the Maxwell sanctioning bodies selected him the National Freshman of the Year, and he was also named a first-team All-American.

Bowers comes across as though he still doesn’t believe it himself, and he certainly isn’t going to assume anything about this season.

“I guess we’ll see,” Bowers said, asked what he will do for an encore after arguably the greatest freshman season by a tight end in college football history.

“Just taking it day by day … I try to focus on the next thing.”

That next thing for Bowers would be practice on Thursday.