No. 1: vs. Houston 2018
Alan Bowman’s legacy with the Texas Tech football program will forever be defined by his injuries. But for now, he owns one significant page of the Red Raider record book thanks to a truly dominant performance against Houston in 2018.
Making just his second start ever as a collegiate, he threw for a whopping 605 yards to go along with five touchdown passes. And Tech needed all the points it could get in the 63-49 shootout win over the Cougars.
Setting a Big 12 record for passing yards by a freshman, Bowman broke a record held by Pat Mahomes and anytime you do that, it is significant. He also completed an impressive 72.9% of his passes that day.
In that game, 261 of Bowman’s yards went to wide receiver Antoine Wesley, who set a new Texas Tech football record for yards in a game. That duo also connected for TDs of 58, 6, and 33 yards.
At the time, this game against one of the more high-profile Group of 5 conference teams was a huge moment for Kliff Kingsbury, who was coaching for his job that season. And though he would not be able to keep his grasp on that job, beating Houston was a significant step towards trying to achieve that goal. And it was all thanks to the right arm of a true freshman.
Remember that the former 3-star signee had been thrown into the mix in the season’s first game against Ole Miss when starter McLane Carter went down with an ankle injury. After that baptism by fire, Bowman had just one start, a 77-0 bludgeoning of FCS weakling Lamar, before taking on Houston in one of the most important games of his head coach’s tenure. And in that game, Bowman was tremendous as he gave us a legendary performance to remember, one that will now forever be his defining game as a Red Raider.