Texas Tech football: Five boom or bust players in 2020

Alan Bowman

In the game of football, no position is more critical than QB.  So it is frightening that Tech enters this season with a wildcard at that spot.

Redshirt sophomore Alan Bowman is a fascinating study.  And this year, he’s going to be one of the biggest boom or bust players in the nation.

At times, he’s looked like an All-Big 12 caliber of player.  That was especially true in the first four games of his career.

Including his three-plus quarters of action in his collegiate debut against Ole Miss out of the SEC, he averaged 389 yards passing per game.  And after beginning his career with no picks in his first three games (a total of 133 passes), he had a 5:1 touchdown to INT ration in his first four outings.

It was during those four contests that some were comparing the Grapevine native to a young Graham Harrell.  He certainly had the moxie and the accuracy that Texas Tech’s all-time leading passer possessed during his time in Lubbock.

But since then, Bowman has been either injured or has failed to look anywhere close to being the type of player that he was in the first third of the 2018 season.  Even when he was on the field for three straight games to start last year, his second-longest run of games thus far, he looked out of sorts and many thought he was playing QB cautiously, which might be understandable given his injury history.

This year, Bowman is either going to finally cement his status as Tech’s long-term answer at QB or he’s going to be passed up by redshirt freshman Maverick McIvor, who has drawn quite a few positive reviews from his coaches during his time in Lubbock.  In fact, before McIvor was lost with a foot injury in fall camp of last year, he had already climbed past Jett Duffey to the No. 2 spot on the QB depth chart.

McIvor brings more versatility to the field than Bowman given that the San Angelo native is a true dual-threat QB, even though he blew out his knee in 2018.  That’s something Bowman won’t add to the mix so can he do enough with his arm and what limited experience he has to hold off the young redshirt freshman?  He will have his shot but if he can’t stay healthy or fails to play up to Matt Wells’ standards, he could see is status within the program plummet less than two years after being anointed by his current head coach as the future of the program.