Georgia football: Dawgs double-down on TE with Tennessee transfer

Georgia football signed three-star tight end Brett Seither on Wednesday. On Thursday, Tennessee transfer tight end Eli Wolf announced his decision to transfer to Georgia.

After the Sugar Bowl, Georgia football was left slim at tight end with Isaac Nauta joining the NFL Draft, and Luke Ford transferring back home to play for Illinois. Just over a month later, the Dawgs now have a surplus of tight ends with Brett Seither signing just after 1:00 p.m. on National Signing Day, and Tennessee transfer Eli Wolf enrolling at Georgia for the 2019 season.

Of course you can’t forget about Ryland Goede who signed in the Early Signing Period and is already enrolled on campus. The three newcomers join senior Charlie Woerner and redshirt freshman John FitzPatrick. The Bulldogs now have four tight ends who were at least three-star recruits coming out of high school. Wolf was just a two-star.

Woerner is the only one with lengthy experience as a receiver, but his catches should improve greatly in 2019 with Nauta in the pros. He has 25 catches in his career for 298 yards. But he always to pick up chunks of yards after the catch, making him seem like a player who’s been very underutilized.

Goede will get his chance to shine early. 247Sports Composite ranked him the no. 236 player and no. 7 tight end nationally. He tore his ACL in October so his status for the spring is still up in the air. When healthy, he’s a powerful blocker but could find ways to flesh out his skills as a receiver. Right now though, he’s a solid short yardage and red zone target.

FitzPatrick was a four-star tight end last year but was overlooked because Georgia signed Luke Ford. 247Sports Composite had him ranked no. 316 nationally and no. 17 out of tight ends. He’ll still be overlooked because of Goede’s signing, at least for now. But he can impress the right people in the spring. Regardless, he’ll still get his chances in the fall with the gap of talent and skill in Georgia’s last three tight ends being so small.

Seither was an unknown until recently. He had spent all of his recruitment out of the 247 Composite top-1,000. Then Georgia and other big time schools started recruiting him heavily and he climbed up to no. 738. He’s also ranked as the no. 34 tight end. He’s kind of Goede’s opposite as Seither has work to do as a blocker, but he’s already a solid receiver and might make an impact on the team early if he can improve his blocking skills quickly.

Despite Wolf’s two-star rating, he found ways to get on the field at Tennessee because he’s a good blocker with a lot of size. The Volunteers used him in a variety of ways, from traditional tight end, to H-back, even as a fullback occasionally. That’s why the Bulldogs want him. Kirby Smart admittedly is not a fullback guy, he doesn’t keep them on the depth chart.

But that doesn’t mean he’s opposed to having good blockers line up as fullbacks. We saw that this past year with Ford playing fullback on occasion. Wolf will do the same, giving Georgia three big, agile blockers in power formations, something they desperately missed at times in 2018.