SEC WEEKLY AWARDS• Offense: Ole Miss quarterback Bo Wallace, who threw for 251 yards and three touchdowns in the upset win over Alabama.• Defense: Mississippi State linebacker Richie Brown, who had three interceptions against Texas A&M for 54 return yards.• Special teams: Auburn kicker Daniel Carlson, who made field goals of 46 and 42 yards and had five touchbacks against LSU.• Co-freshman: Georgia tailback Nick Chubb, who had eight carries for 78 yards and a touchdown in the win over Vanderbilt.• Co-freshman: Florida defensive back Jalen Tabor, who had a key sack and strip of Tennessee quarterback Justin Worley.• Offensive lineman: Mississippi State guard Ben Beckwith, whose one-game shift to center aided an offense that had 559 yards.• Defensive lineman: Kentucky's Alvin "Bud" Dupree, who had six tackles and a 6-yard interception return for a touchdown.
Tight end Jeb Blazevich catches the ball during Georgia's game with Vanderbilt on Saturday, Oct. 4, 2014, in Athens, Ga.As a touted tight end prospect at Charlotte Christian High School, Jeb Blazevich didn't have any ties to the Georgia Bulldogs.
His father went to Northwestern. His mother went to Ole Miss. Yet the assembly line of All-Southeastern Conference tight ends the Bulldogs have produced in the Mark Richt era meant something when Blazevich started going through the recruiting process.
"That was one of the biggest things that stood out to me," Blazevich said Saturday after helping Georgia to a 44-17 vanquishing of Vanderbilt. "They have done things well in the past."
Randy McMichael, Ben Watson, Leonard Pope, Martrez Milner, Orson Charles and Arthur Lynch are former Bulldogs tight ends under Richt who earned first- or second-team All-SEC honors. Charles was the only one to earn Freshman All-SEC honors, but Blazevich took a big step in that direction with his three catches for 86 yards against the Commodores.
That was the most yardage by a Georgia tight end since Charles had 95 against Georgia Tech in 2011, and it was the most by a Bulldogs freshman tight end since such records started being kept in 1979.
"Jeb is blocking good. He knows his assignments, and he's catching the ball well," Richt said. "He runs good routes and is a very smart, conscientious football player for a freshman. He's doing excellent, and he's going to keep getting a lot of playing time."
The 6-foot-5, 235-pounder recorded the highest single-game receiving total for the No. 13 Bulldogs (4-1, 2-1 SEC) so far this season as well as the longest catch, snagging a 50-yard reception from tailback Todd Gurley with two minutes remaining in the half. He also had a 20-yard reception from quarterback Hutson Mason on Georgia's opening possession and a 16-yard catch from backup Brice Ramsey later in the first quarter.
Blazevich has seven catches for 139 yards this season, and his 19.9 yards per reception leads all Bulldogs who have more than one catch.
"Jeb has been a guy who has been a good target for us this year," Mason said. "You try and trust your guys, whether they're freshmen or upperclassmen, and just rip it."
Blazevich started Saturday and continues to capitalize while redshirt junior Jay Rome keeps encountering foot injuries. Rome had last season cut short and left the Vanderbilt game with a foot injury, and his availability for this week's trip to No. 23 Missouri (4-1, 1-0) is in question.
Though his catch from Ramsey was a short pass that he turned into a first down with a broken tackle, Blazevich enhanced Georgia's downfield attack with his other two receptions against the Commodores. In Georgia's only defeat this season, the 38-35 loss at South Carolina, Blazevich had an 18-yard reception.
"We were never worried about that," Blazevich said. "I think a lot of that came from the outside. We know what Hutson can do, what Brice can do and what our receivers can do. We know what we're capable of, and it's a matter of us going out there and showing it."
Blazevich was asked after the game if his family would be happier about his performance or the fact Ole Miss ended a 10-year losing streak to Alabama. He thought about it, smiled and said, "Hopefully, with my immediate family, it will be my big day, but I will have a lot of family in Mississippi that are preoccupied right now."
And there may be more big days on the horizon for Blazevich, who may just be Georgia's next standout tight end.
"I'm not really thinking about that," he said. "I know I messed up on a couple of plays that I will hear about. I'm just taking it a week at a time and will enjoy it while I can.
"It's awesome just to be able to play a bigger role to help the team win. It was a lot of fun, and I've just got keep getting better so I can play more."
Odds and ends
The Bulldogs worked out Monday for 90 minutes in shoulder pads and shorts. ... Richt said Monday night on his radio show that freshman tailback Sony Michel (shoudler) would be out four to six weeks. ... Georgia's Oct. 18 game at Arkansas will be televised by the SEC Network with a 4 p.m. kickoff.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.