Alan Bowman could be most productive Texas Tech sophomore QB ever

Entering 2019, quarterback Alan Bowman is already the leader of the Texas Tech football team.  And if he continues to progress, he could be in for the best sophomore season in program history.

If there is one reason for optimism this season for Texas Tech football fans, it would have to be the return of sophomore QB Alan Bowman who missed four games and parts of two others last fall after suffering a collapsed lung on two separate occasions.  And though we did not get to see what a full season would look like with Bowman at the helm, we saw enough to feel confident that the Grapevine, Texas native is ready for a stellar second season in Lubbock.

Last year, the former 3-star recruit threw for 2,638 yards, 17 touchdowns and 7 interceptions.  He averaged 8.1 yards per attempt and 329.7 yards per game.  But in the five games he started and completed, he averaged a stellar 403 yards through the air.

And despite missing what amounted to five games (four complete games and the second half of both the West Virginia and Oklahoma games), he still ranked sixth in the Big 12 in completions (227), passing yards, passing touchdowns and total yards (2,612).

Unfortunately, he fell one game shy of being included in the NCAA official passing lists but his stats would have ranked him first among freshman in passing yards per game.  What’s more, he still ranked third in the nation in total passing yards for freshmen as well as passing efficiency at 150.1.

Thus it is no surprise that he has already impressed his new coaching staff.  In fact, his new offensive coordinator David Yost has said that Bowman is the most accurate passer he has ever been around, which is high praise considering that Yost has coached such QB’s as Blaine Gabbert, Chase Daniel and Brad Smith who all were drafted into the NFL out of Missouri as well as Oregon’s star QB Justin Herbert and Utah State’s Jordan Love.

However, Yost feels like Bowman needs to improve his footwork in order to take his game to the next level.  And if he does, he could surpass his stellar 69.4% completion rate from 2018.

Should Bowman take a step forward this year, he could become the best sophomore QB in Texas Tech football history.  But that will not be easy because there have already been some impressive sophomore campaigns from other Red Raider QB’s.  Let’s take a look at how other sophomores have performed as Red Raiders to see what Bowman will have to do in order to eclipse their productivity.