Two Top Offensive Targets Update Recruitment By Georgia Football
BROCK BOWERS
There is no mistaking how badly the Georgia Bulldogs want to land Napa, California native Brock Bowers. The 4-Star, 6'3" 225-pound tight end has been pursued heavily by the Dawgs for quite some time and things have only intensified lately. Kirby Smart himself is retweeting edits and posts with the versatile Bowers as the subject. Just yesterday, another Brock, 2021 UGA Commit and 5-Star QB Brock Vandagriff tweeted out an edit made by the Georgia recruiting department intimating that he would like to have a Brock to Brock connection through the air for years to come in Athens.
Brock promptly responded with, "Could be nasty".
Dawgs Daily on SI.com was able to get the latest on Bowers recruitment. Bowers expressed a little frustration with the current state of recruiting due to the Coronavirus. "I just can't really do much right now. I feel like I'm looking at everything from the outside" said Bowers. However, despite the distance and lack of visits allowed by coaches and players, when asked about who was pursing him the hardest Bowers replied, "It'd be safe to say that Georgia is pursing me the hardest right now."
Bowers is unsure as to whether or not he'll be narrowing things down future before ultimately deciding on his school to commit to. "I might narrow things down, I don't really know right now. I just have to wait and see how things will go in terms of visits when those start up again. We'll see" said Bowers. While waiting on those visits, some schools such as Oregon, UCLA, and Washington have set up virtual visits for the talented tight end to get a look at their campuses, however, those aren't always the smoothest in the world. "Sometimes it's pretty awkward because the screen freezes up on Zoom and you can't see what's going on and you have to kind of act like you can. It's hard," said Bowers jokingly.
In terms of what is going to be the most important going forward in his recruitment, Bowers shared, "It's just the relationship that I have with the coach that I'm going to spend the most time with. I feel that's really important." For UGA that would be Tight Ends Coach Todd Hartley. When asked about that relationship, Bowers told us that, "It's been good. We text almost every day and call once or twice a week. He's a really good guy." Bowers also wants to go somewhere that is in need of a tight end and to have the ability to showcase his skills early on. Bowers indicated that the opportunity to do is being pitched to him by Hartley and the Georgia staff.
MALCOLM JOHNSON JR.
Dawgs Daily last spoke with Malcolm Johnson Jr. a few days after he was offered by the University of Georgia on March 17th of this year. At that point and time, Johnson Jr. was just getting to know Receivers Coach Cortez Hankton. Since that point and time, Georgia made it into Johnson Jr.'s top 12 schools and the speedy receiver indicated to us that the relationship between he, Hankton, and the Dawgs has progressed well.
Hankton and Johnson Jr. are comfortable enough with one another that they can take playful jabs at one another. When we recently spoke to Malcolm, he had just gotten off the phone with Coach Hankton and said that on that phone call Coach Hankton was teasing him about a video that Johnson Jr. posted on social media.
The video was meant to be inspirational by Johnson Jr. as it showed him back in 2014 badly misjudging a pass thrown to him and now he's a 4-Star wide receiver recruit. However, apparently his main recruiter for UGA couldn't resist. "Yeah, he was giving me a hard time about the video I posted of me not knowing what I was doing back then in 2014. I didn't know how to catch over my shoulder. It just looked bad!" said Johnson Jr.
Undoubtedly Johnson Jr. has come a very long way. With a 10.3 in the 100 meters, the Alexandria, Virginia native is an electrifying playmaker and with his track pedigree is a natural comparison to former Georgia Bulldog and now Pro Bowler and Super Bowl Champion Mecole Hardman. Johnson Jr.'s speed is something that Coach Hankton and new Offensive Coordinator Todd Monken would love to have in their offense.
The fact that Georgia is pursing him intently and the fact that they have not received a receiver commitment in the 2021 class are both things that standout to Johnson Jr. "If I end up committing to Georgia, it would be important being a leader on the offensive side of the ball for my class, it really is important," said the 4-Star. Also, the staff is making sure that the speedster knows that his skill set would be utilized well. "I was on a Zoom call with Coach Monken recently and he was showing me how DeSean Jackson was used in his offense in Tampa. It looked really good. Just being able to get a fast receiver open in space. They didn't just go deep with him, they also involved him in crossing routes and quick slants underneath. It was impressive and really stood out" shared Johnson Jr.
Malcolm Johnson Jr. has two virtual visits left, one of those being with Georgia. After those, he feels like he'll be able to have, "a better grasp on things." It's possible that another narrowing down of possible destinations could be coming soon. Johnson confirmed that he still intends to run track regardless of where he goes to college. Stay tuned as the Dawgs seem to be in the thick of this recruitment of one of the fastest players in the
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