The Countdown 2011: 80 Days to Go

Tight End U

During the 1980's and early 1990's, many fans liked to call Georgia Tailback U. From Herschel Walker to Garrison Hearst and Terrell Davis, the Dawgs always seemed to have a great player at the running back position. While Georgia has had good players consistently at a number of positions in recent years, the tight end position has been extremely strong.

When Coach Richt arrived in Athens, he already had a great tight end in Randy McMichael. When McMichael moved onto the NFL, Benjamin Watson (who began his career at Duke) took over and after two successful seasons moved on to the New England Patriots. The next great Georgia tight end was Leonard Pope, who became a hero to Georgia fans after catching two touchdown passes in 2004 victory over Florida. After the Dawgs won the SEC in 2005, Pope moved on and Matrez Milner became starting tight end. Milner performed well enough to get drafted by the Atlanta Falcons. Ironically, one of Georgia's best teams of the decade (2007) failed to feature an NFL tight end. Tripp Chandler had some drop issues, but would still have been a starter at most SEC schools.

And that leads up to the group of tight ends currently at Georgia, which may be the strongest tight end group in the country. The group is so strong that Bruce Figgins was able to move to fulback this year. Orson Charles is poised for an All-American season and senior Aron White would start at almost any school in the country. Artie Lynch is coming off a redshirt season and we haven't even seen Jay Rome in a bulldog uniform yet. Georgia truly has become tight end U in college football.