Latest news with #OscarDelp
USA Today
01-08-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Georgia football 2025 tight ends depth chart, preview
The Georgia Bulldogs' tight end room should be one of the Georgia's top strengths this fall. Georgia returns over 75% of their 2024 tight receiving production. Yes, Georgia lost Benjamin Yurosek, who was UGA's third-best tight end in 2024, to the 2025 NFL draft, but the Dawgs return their top two tight ends in Lawson Luckie and Oscar Delp and the position is expected to be a major strength of Georgia's offense. Georgia's 2024 tight end room was faced with the impossible task of replacing star tight end Brock Bowers. Last season, Georgia tight ends (62 receptions for 799 yards and seven touchdowns) managed to out produce Bowers' 2023 season totals (56 receptions for 714 receiving yards and six touchdowns). However, Georgia did not match Bowers' 2023 production on a per game basis when accounting to the games Bowers missed due to injury. Georgia's projected tight end depth chart Georgia returns leading tight end receiver Lawson Luckie after a breakout season in 2024. Luckie posted 24 receptions for 348 yards and three touchdowns. Luckie combined with Oscar Delp (second-team All-SEC) gives Georgia two starting caliber Power Four tight ends that could both be 2026 NFL draft picks. Delp recorded 21 receptions for 248 yards and four touchdowns in a solid, but not spectacular junior campaign. Delp and Luckie are interchangeable as Georgia's top tight end. Delp turned down the 2025 NFL draft to return to Georgia for his senior season. Kirby Smart on Oscar Delp "Oscar's (Delp) a great player," coach Kirby Smart said ahead of fall camp. "He's gotten better and better. He has been a better leader. He got one of our most improved boards in terms of work ethic in the weight room and the jumps he made. "So he knows this is an important year for him, but for him, for us, it's like having a Y that can physically hold up and block, which no tight end likes to hear that, but the NFL loves that, They like to have somebody that's physical at the point of attack and he is strong, he's physical, he's good in play action, he's tough." More on Georgia's tight end depth Georgia's projected No. 3 tight end is redshirt freshman Jaden Reddell. Reddell showed flashes in Georgia's 2023 spring game and has a lot of potential as a receiver, but he underwent tightrope surgery on his ankle after spring practice, so we'll see if he's back to 100%. After Reddell is redshirt freshman Colton Heinrich. Heinrich could see action in 2025 as a blocking tight end, but was limited this spring after undergoing surgery. Georgia signed the nation's No. 4 tight end prospect in 6-foot-7, 235-pound target Elyiss Williams. Williams caught one pass on G-Day will be fun to watch this fall. Georgia signed four-star tight end Ethan Barbour, who has a lot of potential as a pass catcher. Barbour actually led Georgia tight ends in receiving (three catches for 34 yards) on G-Day. Georgia's 2025 tight end room is loaded with talent and depth. Georgia appears set up for the present and the future at the position.
Yahoo
31-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Kirby Smart opens preseason camp for 10th season at Georgia with young team after 2024 SEC title
ATHENS, Ga. (AP) — Kirby Smart opened his 10th season as Georgia coach with Thursday's first preseason practice knowing he didn't have to worry about his message growing old with his players. More than half of Georgia's players are starting their first or second years. Smart knows his lessons won't quickly sound stale for the defending Southeastern Conference champion Bulldogs. With only seven returning starters, Georgia opened practice with a long list of young players eager to seize their first starting jobs. 'We are young ... but we are hungry,' Smart said Thursday. 'We've got a team that's fun to coach. ... A lot of them haven't had an opportunity to play, and now this is their opportunity. Sometimes when you're coaching, it's a lot more exciting for guys when they're having their first time. Now that being said, the lack of experience sometimes can show, but we're going to try to get through that in camp.' A more experienced Georgia team finished 11-3 last season and No. 6 in The AP Top 25 final poll. It was the team's eighth consecutive top 10 finish under Smart, including back-to-back national championships in 2021 and 2022. Last season's SEC championship was Georgia's third with Smart. Georgia returns only four starters on offense. That total includes two tight ends — Oscar Delp and Lawson Luckie, who made seven starts. Right tackle Earnest Greene III is the only returning starter on the offensive line. Wide receiver Dillon Bell is the fourth returning starter on offense. Quarterback Gunner Stockton took over for injured Carson Beck in the second half of Georgia's 22-19 overtime win over Texas in the Southeastern Conference championship game in Atlanta. Stockton started in the Bulldogs' 23-10 Sugar Bowl loss to Notre Dame in the CFP semifinals. Smart says Stockton is still competing with Ryan Puglisi, but it would be a major surprise if the junior doesn't start in Georgia's season opener against Marshall on Aug. 30. Following Beck's transfer to Miami, Stockton strengthened his hold on the job with a strong spring practice and directed the first-team offense in the G-Day spring game. The defense includes only three starters: lineman Christen Miller, inside linebacker C.J. Allen and cornerback Daylen Everette. Fire, passion, energy Smart, 49, was asked if he still lives up to the team's 2025 motto: 'fire, passion, energy.' 'I feel it every day, because if you don't have it, it's hard to be successful,' Smart said. 'You can't keep up. Our staff has it. Our staff has great juice. We've had a chance to reenergize.' A championship standard Delp was a freshman on Georgia's 2022 national championship team. He said he's motivated to help the Bulldogs win another title and has tried to share lessons from that team with new players. 'I came back for a reason,' Delp said when asked why he didn't enter the NFL draft. "I want to have a great season. 'I know how it was when when we won games and we won national championships. I was here for that and so I just kind of share with them the standard and what those older guys were holding me to when I was younger. I just try to keep it the same, you know, the standard is the standard. You've got to do it certain ways to win championships.' 'Big Mike' finally has his chance Offensive guard Micah Morris (6-4, 330) entered camp as a projected starter. The fifth-year senior was a fill-in starter last season. This is his long-awaited opportunity to be a full-time starter. Morris, who has a nickname of 'Big Mike' and a reputation as the strongest player on the team, said he never considered finding an opportunity to start at another school through a transfer. 'This is my home, this is where I committed,' Morris said. 'This is where I wanted to be when I was a 17-year-old kid. ... I knew I could develop here even if I wasn't starting.' Jackson facing internal discipline Smart said backup offensive lineman Jahzare Jackson, a sophomore, 'is disappointed, obviously, in the decision-making process' following his arrest in Athens on July 16 on possession of more than an ounce of marijuana, a felony. 'He's being disciplined internally, but he's with the team,' Smart said. ___ AP college football: and
Associated Press
31-07-2025
- Sport
- Associated Press
Kirby Smart opens preseason camp for 10th season at Georgia with young team after 2024 SEC title
ATHENS, Ga. (AP) — Kirby Smart opened his 10th season as Georgia coach with Thursday's first preseason practice knowing he didn't have to worry about his message growing old with his players. More than half of Georgia's players are starting their first or second years. Smart knows his lessons won't quickly sound stale for the defending Southeastern Conference champion Bulldogs. With only seven returning starters, Georgia opened practice with a long list of young players eager to seize their first starting jobs. 'We are young ... but we are hungry,' Smart said Thursday. 'We've got a team that's fun to coach. ... A lot of them haven't had an opportunity to play, and now this is their opportunity. Sometimes when you're coaching, it's a lot more exciting for guys when they're having their first time. Now that being said, the lack of experience sometimes can show, but we're going to try to get through that in camp.' A more experienced Georgia team finished 11-3 last season and No. 6 in The AP Top 25 final poll. It was the team's eighth consecutive top 10 finish under Smart, including back-to-back national championships in 2021 and 2022. Last season's SEC championship was Georgia's third with Smart. Georgia returns only four starters on offense. That total includes two tight ends — Oscar Delp and Lawson Luckie, who made seven starts. Right tackle Earnest Greene III is the only returning starter on the offensive line. Wide receiver Dillon Bell is the fourth returning starter on offense. Quarterback Gunner Stockton took over for injured Carson Beck in the second half of Georgia's 22-19 overtime win over Texas in the Southeastern Conference championship game in Atlanta. Stockton started in the Bulldogs' 23-10 Sugar Bowl loss to Notre Dame in the CFP semifinals. Smart says Stockton is still competing with Ryan Puglisi, but it would be a major surprise if the junior doesn't start in Georgia's season opener against Marshall on Aug. 30. Following Beck's transfer to Miami, Stockton strengthened his hold on the job with a strong spring practice and directed the first-team offense in the G-Day spring game. The defense includes only three starters: lineman Christen Miller, inside linebacker C.J. Allen and cornerback Daylen Everette. Fire, passion, energy Smart, 49, was asked if he still lives up to the team's 2025 motto: 'fire, passion, energy.' 'I feel it every day, because if you don't have it, it's hard to be successful,' Smart said. 'You can't keep up. Our staff has it. Our staff has great juice. We've had a chance to reenergize.' A championship standard Delp was a freshman on Georgia's 2022 national championship team. He said he's motivated to help the Bulldogs win another title and has tried to share lessons from that team with new players. 'I came back for a reason,' Delp said when asked why he didn't enter the NFL draft. 'I want to have a great season. 'I know how it was when when we won games and we won national championships. I was here for that and so I just kind of share with them the standard and what those older guys were holding me to when I was younger. I just try to keep it the same, you know, the standard is the standard. You've got to do it certain ways to win championships.' 'Big Mike' finally has his chance Offensive guard Micah Morris (6-4, 330) entered camp as a projected starter. The fifth-year senior was a fill-in starter last season. This is his long-awaited opportunity to be a full-time starter. Morris, who has a nickname of 'Big Mike' and a reputation as the strongest player on the team, said he never considered finding an opportunity to start at another school through a transfer. 'This is my home, this is where I committed,' Morris said. 'This is where I wanted to be when I was a 17-year-old kid. ... I knew I could develop here even if I wasn't starting.' Jackson facing internal discipline Smart said backup offensive lineman Jahzare Jackson, a sophomore, 'is disappointed, obviously, in the decision-making process' following his arrest in Athens on July 16 on possession of more than an ounce of marijuana, a felony. 'He's being disciplined internally, but he's with the team,' Smart said. ___ AP college football: and
