Texas Tech football: Five players that will be wildcards this season

QB Alan Bowman

There is no greater wildcard on this team that sophomore QB Alan Bowman.  And that’s not just because of injuries.

Certainly, the question of whether or not he can stay on the field this year is 2020’s greatest concern.  But that has been discussed ad nauseam.

What hasn’t been talked about nearly as often is the fact that Bowman has been rather hit or miss against Power 5 opponents.  And given that all but one of this year’s ten games will be of the Big 12 variety, that’s something he has to remedy.

In his first two games against Power 5 teams (vs. Ole Miss and Oklahoma State in 2018), he was strong with an average completion percentage of 67.6.  In those two games, he passed for 335 yards per game with three TDs and two picks.

But after that, he alternated strong and poor performances for the rest of Big 12 play until his season ended with three games remaining.  Against West Virginia, he completed just 9 of 20 first-half passes before he exited the game with his first collapsed lung.

When he returned, he torched Kansas for 408 yards and 3 TDs with only one pick while completing 78.3% of his passes.  But a week later, he was picked off three times while throwing just one TD in a loss at Iowa State.  That day, he was just a 57.1% passer.

But when Oklahoma came to Lubbock seven days later, he was on fire in the first half.  Completing 21 of 26 passes (80.6%) with two TDs and no picks, he had 227 yards and had his team leading the Sooners at the intermission before his second collapsed lung ended his year.

Then, in 2019, he continued his on-again-off-again trend against Power 5 teams by struggling against Arizona in his only game against a major conference foe.  That night, he was picked off twice and completed just 54% of his passes in a 28-14 loss.

So to borrow from Eminem, will the real Alan Bowman please stand up…please stand up?

We really don’t know what Bowman is as a QB because we haven’t seen enough of him to be able to make that determination.  But even when he’s been on the field, he’s been inconsistent against Power 5 teams.  This year, he will have to prove to be capable of beating Big 12 teams with regularity or 2020 is going to look painfully similar to the last four years of Texas Tech football.