Every player who signs with a Division I football program has grand expectations. Generally if you’re good enough to play major college football and select a school from among several, or even dozens of, scholarship offers, the thought is that you’ll eventually flourish.
Watts Dantzler falls into that category. The 6-foot-7, 315-pound offensive lineman chose Georgia — where his father, Danny Dantzler, played a generation ago — from among 30 offers he had before he graduated from Dalton High.
As one of the bigger players on the Bulldogs’ roster, he certainly looks the part of an SEC lineman. And he’s always been relatively quick and nimble for his size, standing out as a high school basketball player and tearing up the UGA intramural leagues.
Yet here sits Dantzler closing in on his senior season having not started a game in his career. He’s played a little. He appeared in all 13 games as a backup for the Bulldogs last season. But he has almost as many “did not play” games (19) as “did play” (22) in his career.
As one might imagine, he hopes to change that next season.
“That’s kind of the way it goes,” said Dantzler, who narrowed his choices of 16 SEC and ACC schools to Auburn and Georgia at the end. “Going into this last year, I’m kind of taking it a day at time, working my hardest, praying that something good happens and I can work my way up into the starting group. If not, be the sixth man and be ready to go at either guard or tackle and help this team the best way I can.”
Detectable within that statement is the personality that has endeared Dantzler to his teammates and coaches. There’s a tad bit of disappointment, but not an iota of bitterness. By all accounts, Dantzler continues to work extremely hard and keeps an impeccably good attitude. Despite never cracking the starting lineup, he has never hinted about quitting or transferring or even called for a meeting with the head coach.
As for his place within the team, he is known inside and outside the program as a gregarious character with a sense of humor as a big as the Cohutta Wilderness Area. Dantzler has built one of the larger Twitter followings among the current Bulldogs not because of his great play on Saturday, but because of his hilarious tweets the other days.
“He’s definitely not selfish, I can say that,” freshman guard Brandon Kublanow said. “He’s been here four years, and he hasn’t gotten the chance to start. But he’s worked really hard. To go those four years and not get to start, but still work unselfishly hard and help the young guys with whatever they need, I think that’s been huge.”
Dantzler is competing for the starting job at right tackle alongside Kublanow, who’s competing with Greg Pyke at right guard. And Dantzler came into spring practice in the best shape of his life, dropping to 305 pounds from a high of 340 last season before gaining some muscle back.
But once again it seems to be shaping up as an uphill struggle. Dantzler is behind senior Kolton Houston on the depth chart. For all his past struggles with the NCAA and eligibility, Houston always measured out as one of the better Bulldogs offensive linemen. The odds of unseating him already appeared long for Dantzler.
Then Thursday happened.
Dantzler had to be helped off the field toward the end of the first full-contact practice. The initial signs of a concussion were confirmed in the training room. Dantzler missed his third consecutive practice Tuesday, and it’s uncertain when he might return this spring, if at all.
“He’s a great kid, he’s worked hard and he was actually doing some good things this spring,” offensive line coach Will Friend said. “But like he’s been told: ‘Whenever you’re well, get back and see if we can carry on from where you left off this spring.’”
But the Bulldogs still believe Dantzler can play.
“In hindsight, it would have been nice if he had redshirted somewhere along the way,” coach Mark Richt said of Dantzler, who played in only three games his first season. “But it didn’t work out that way. He knows what to do. He’s competing hard. We think he can play.”
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