Alan Bowman
Unlike Scott, Alan Bowman is assured to play this year. In fact, the lack of a full spring practice period means that he is almost certain to begin the season as Wells’ starting QB.
Contrary to the other players on this list, we’ve seen Bowman in action before. He’s appeared in 11 games throwing for 3,658 yards, 23 TDs, and 10 interceptions.
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But we haven’t seen him since the third week of last season, a 28-14 loss at Arizona, and we haven’t seen him play a full season. That’s something we need to see this year if he is going to truly be the program’s answer at QB.
Though the injuries Bowman has sustained were flukish in nature, they have served to diminish his status within the fan base, around the Big 12, and even in the Texas Tech football lockerroom. It isn’t that his teammates or coaches think any less of him as a QB or a competitor, but the problem is that no one knows if he can be counted on to ever be a full-time starting QB.
In fairness, his injuries have come as the result of massive hits he’s sustained and none are of the chronic variety. He shouldn’t have to deal with another collapsed lung unless or separated shoulder again unless he simply has the worst luck of anyone on the South Plains.
But regardless, his prolonged absences have opened the door for serious competition for the starting QB job. Were the spring to have taken place as planned, he would have had to win his starting job in a battle with redshirt freshman Maverick McIvor. Also, he is going to have to fend off true freshman Donovan Smith in fall camp.
When Wells arrived, he proclaimed Bowman was the future of the program almost as soon as anyone stuck a microphone in his face. That has to be less of a certainty now after he missed 75% of last season meaning that he has yet to start more than seven games in a season.
So despite the fact that we’ve all seen Bowman play as a Red Raider, and play well for much of that time, we should be excited to see him back on the field again. We need to see what this offense looks like with him in the shotgun and we need to see what that means for an entire season. Only then will we know what the future of Texas Tech football looks like under Matt Wells.