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Alan Bowman could be most productive Texas Tech sophomore QB ever

By Matthew Conner

HOUSTON, TX - SEPTEMBER 01: Alan Bowman #10 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders throws a pass in the third quarter against the Mississippi Rebels at NRG Stadium on September 1, 2018 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images)
HOUSTON, TX - SEPTEMBER 01: Alan Bowman #10 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders throws a pass in the third quarter against the Mississippi Rebels at NRG Stadium on September 1, 2018 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images) /
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(Photo by John Weast/Getty Images)
(Photo by John Weast/Getty Images) /

Patrick Mahomes 2015

After passing for 221 yards per game in seven outings as a freshman and 357 yards per game in his four starts in 2014, Patrick Mahomes entrenched himself as the Red Raiders’ starting QB heading into his sophomore year, especially after setting a Big 12 single-game freshman passing record of 598 yards in the season finale against Baylor.

And in 2015, he emerged as a star on the national scene with a phenomenal second season.  In 13 games, he threw for 4,653 yards, 36 touchdowns and 15 interceptions.  He averaged 8.1 yards per attempt (the same Bowman averaged in 2018) while putting up a passer rating of 147.2.

That year, he was tops in the nation with 393 yards of total offense per game while also ranking second overall in completions per game (28), third in points responsible for (278.0), fourth in both passing yards and passing yards per game (357.9) and sixth in passing touchdowns.  Those numbers helped him earn honorable mention All-Big 12 honors as well as honorable mention All-American honors by Sports Illustrated.

What’s interesting is that the stats he put up in his second season were not appreciably better than those Bowman put up last fall as a true freshman.  In his first season, Bowman had a better passer rating, and threw for only 28.2 fewer yards per game (and had Bowman not been unable to complete two of his games in 2018, he would have averaged significantly more yards per game than Mahomes did in 2015).

Bowman also threw for 2.12 touchdowns per game last year, which was only slightly below the 2.76 Mahomes piled up in his sophomore season.  And Bowman took better care of the football averaging one interception per every 46.7 passes, compared to Mahomes’ rate of one per every 38.2 in 2015.

What we all really want to see Bowman duplicate or exceed this year is Mahomes’ win total of six games, which landed his team in the Texas Bowl against LSU.  If Bowman can get his team to at least six wins this year, it would be considered a success in the first year of the Matt Wells era.

While no one expects Bowman to become the next Patrick Mahomes, the fact that his freshman numbers rival what Mahomes did as a sophomore should tell you how good he was in 2018.  Hopefully, his career can have the same type of upward trajectory that Mahomes’ did while at Texas Tech.  If it does, Bowman could be the next Red Raider QB to start in the NFL.

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