From receiver to quarterback to NFL prospect: Kentucky’s Lynn Bowden Jr. makes plays wherever he lines up

Kentucky’s Lynn Bowden Jr. began the year as a receiver but finished it as a record-setting quarterback. Next, he’ll try to make it as an NFL receiver.

As we look back on 2019, Kentucky’s do-it-all superstar Lynn Bowden Jr. turned heads with his eye-opening plays.

It’s funny how you can become so beholden to someone you have never met, let alone looked in the eyes. Giving thanks to Bowden is not an act of spiritual intervention, and he is not a disguised saint. But, to say he has impacted the lives and hearts of many would be a contemptible understatement.

No, Bowden is not a significant other or a family friend. Nor is he a relative, pastor, mentor, or professor.

If we don’t even know his name, then why is he so important? And why should we even care about Kentucky Football?

As for the latter, well, that’s just a subjectivity that would be hard to defend to any college football fan. However, the grand injustice that we are set to explore lies in the former: who is this Bowden you speak of?

For starters, Bowden single-handedly saved an otherwise hideous Kentucky Football season.

The ballad of Bowden has many origins, but for our purpose, we’ll take a step back in time to Sept. 28. An exultant Williams Brice Stadium, home of the South Carolina Gamecocks, had its revenge. Six years running, the Wildcats stifled the Gamecocks. In year seven – less than nine months after Kentucky’s 10-3 season and Citrus Bowl victory over then No. 12 Penn State – the streak looked like it was coming to an end. Terry Wilson, Kentucky’s star quarterback, out for the season with a torn patellar tendon. Sawyer Smith, Kentucky’s inexperienced backup, was favoring a severe wrist injury. There were no more options and the Wildcats were embarrassed, down 24-0 and mustering only 128 yards in nearly four full quarters.

Insert Bowden, the Cats’ leading receiver, at… quarterback?

“Lynn, I want to say it was the South Carolina game, he kept coming to me and saying, ‘Coach, put me at quarterback. Put me at quarterback,’ UK’s tight-end coach and recruiting maestro Vince Marrow said. “A little bit of it is you hear him, and you let it go in one ear and out the other. But as we were struggling, and the glimpse you did see of him in that South Carolina game when he did get in there, he went down the field just like that.”

The damage had been done, and the Wildcats would lose, but five plays and 84 yards later, the Wildcats had found their answer at quarterback.

Bowden’s insertion into the quarterback position seemed like no more than a gimmick, a cruel buffer, saving time for the real quarterback to nurse his injuries. But little did the then 2-3 Wildcats know, this former high school quarterback and positionless receiver, would emerge as not only the saving grace but a generational talent.

In his final seven games as a ‘pure quarterback’ – something the NCAA and SEC refuse to admit in their season statistics, marking him as a WR – Bowden has quickly cemented himself as one of the most talented players in all of college football.

The best part? You don’t have to believe me, because the numbers speak for themselves.

At 1,235 rushing yards, Bowden is the third leading rusher in the SEC. His 11 rushing touchdowns also place him at third in the SEC. Of these numbers, 1,138 yards – over 92 percent of his season total – and all 11 touchdowns occurred in his final seven games at quarterback.

These are stats that are so mind-boggling, even his own coach can’t wrap his brain around them. “I knew that was a thing to come because the kid is a really smart football player,” Marrow said. “What did he rush for? 1,000 yards in six games? That’s just crazy. I think everybody wants to find [the flaws] in what he does, he’s just a football player. He’s a real good football player. I brag about a lot of football players, but he even amazes me.”

As a quasi-quarterback in an offensive system that had to fundamentally alter its identity midway through the season, he also owns the leading mark in the SEC in yards-per-carry at 8.2 (yes, you read that correctly), with the next closest competitor coming in at 6.9 yards per carry. This mark is also second in the nation, only being outdone by Clemson’s Travis Etienne.

It doesn’t stop here. Bowden spearheaded Kentucky’s garnering of the No. 1 rank in the SEC in three offensive categories: 3,293 total rushing yards, a 6.36 rush attempt average, and 33 rushing touchdowns. And excluding the three service academies (Army, Navy, and Air Force), Kentucky was also No. 1 in the entire FBS in total rushing offense. The data-dump of a ‘quarterback’ was also the second-leading rusher in the nation at the quarterback position, trailing only Navy’s Malcolm Perry, and since the NCAA refused to convert Bowden, he also stands alone as the leading rusher at the wide receiver position.

Folks, I believe it needs repeating: Bowden posted almost all, if not all, of these stats in just SEVEN games.

Bowden is nightmare fuel for opponents. He haunts the minds of defenses, paralyzing them even when they know what is coming. But above all else, Bowden is a competitor and a champion.

“He is truly remarkable in so many ways, but you have to recognize his competitive nature, just how tough and competitive and what a leader he is,” head coach Mark Stoops said. “In our business, if you are going to be an Alpha dog, then you be an Alpha dog, and that’s him. When you do that time and time again and prove it and put the team on your back and say, ‘Let’s ride, let’s do this,’ it’s remarkable.”

Coach Stoops didn’t stop there. In a postgame interview of the Louisville match that saw Bowden rush the ball for 284 yards and four touchdowns, Stoops said: “Please don’t misquote me on this, because Lamar Jackson was maybe the greatest player that I ever competed against, but what I admire so much about him is how competitive he is … and Lynn, in that regard, is one of the most competitive people I’ve seen.”

Bowden was awarded the Paul Hornung Award, recognizing the nation’s most versatile player. This honor was sandwiched with AP First Team All-SEC honors and an AP First Team All-American honor. Despite being omitted from the lineup of Joe Burrow, Jalen Hurts, Justin Fields, and Chase Young, you can hopefully begin to see why he should be mentioned alongside these elite names.

The reason I give thanks to Bowden this year is not that he earned a 5-2 record at an on-the-go position, resurrected a seemingly throwaway season, and saved my psyche all along the way, but because of this competitive spirit and sacrifice. He refused to relent, putting the team before his own good. And finally, he may be rewarded – Bowden announced he is entering the 2020 NFL Draft.

Stoops is a big believer in Bowden having success at the NFL as a receiver. “What he’s done for this team this season is nothing short of amazing. He deserves a lot of credit because he’s sacrificed his reps at wide receiver, a position he will more than likely play in the NFL. It’s not easy doing what he’s doing. It just proves how tough-minded, how versatile a player he has become, and I think he will excel in the NFL for a long time.”

Ladies and gentlemen, college football lovers, and Kentucky fans alike: relish this young man. There are very few Lynn Bowden Jr.’s in life. He is a stalwart of the sport in every regard and he is just starting to get the recognition he deserves.

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