part 2
On one of the dozens of sprint-out passes called in that Massillon game, Bowden tried to cut back and make the defense chase him, again. But he’d spun back right into the waiting arms and shoulder pads of a Massillon defender.
“It was one of the few times that game we really got a good hit on him,” Moore said. “He was down for at least a minute. Obviously, if he gets hurt, everything changes. But he got up and limped off and only sat out one play before he came back in. And they immediately scored a touchdown —
he scored a touchdown.
“That hit must have really pissed him off. He came out and did some Lynn Bowden joystick stuff and ran for a 30-yard touchdown. Then on the next drive, he did it again. He was just so far ahead of most high school football players. I liked our plan to keep the ball out of his hands. For a while, I was dumb enough to think it might work.”
Arnold said one thing he remembers that night is a small group of Massillon fans waiting near the Harding locker room after that game to applaud Bowden.
“They weren’t glad he beat their team, but they showed him respect,” Arnold said. “They said they knew they’d be watching him on TV.”
As that senior season went along, just about every major college football program in the country reached out to Bowden. The “name” programs wanted him to play wide receiver or cornerback. Some said he could play anywhere he wanted, as long as he played. Bowden had dreamed of going to Oregon, and his two favorite players at the time were
Marcus Mariota and DeAnthony Thomas. He had a thought for himself when it came to Thomas and Mariota.
“Why couldn’t I be a little bit of both of those guys?” Bowden asked.
Eventually, he chose the hometown connection of Kentucky coach Mark Stoops and ace recruiter Vince Marrow, both Youngstown natives. Bowden’s mother and his son moved with him to Lexington when he enrolled in summer 2017.
“It was closer to home than a lot (of other schools), and it felt like home to me,” Bowden said. “At the time, Kentucky football was off the map. The underdog, just like me. I liked that.”
During our conversation that afternoon, I told Bowden I’d seen him play once in high school, in a state playoff game against Chardon. I told him I remembered him running for 300 yards in that game.
“Sir,” Bowden said. “I ran for 368 and six touchdowns. And I threw another one.”
Indeed, he did.
“The most dominating performance I’ve ever seen. The most dominant player at that level I’ve ever seen,” Chardon coach Mitch Hewitt said. “We had what we felt was a team good enough to win the state championship that year. And one guy ended that. He got tough yards, he cut back, he made four guys miss … just incredible.
“We played against
Kareem Hunt, too, and I’d say (Hunt and Bowden) are just the most advanced, most gifted high school players I’ve seen up close. Without going into some deep scouting report, the difference is Kareem ran some of our guys over, but sometimes we got in some clean shots on him. With Bowden, he just spun and juked and ran all over the place. He had me wondering if we even had 11 guys out there because he made it look like we didn’t.”
Kentucky WR Lynn Bowden Jr.
@LynnBowden_1 showing off his explosiveness as he returns this punt for a TD vs Missouri in 2018.
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— Basheer Umar Pemberton
(@SalafeeScout)
January 18, 2020
The complication of the NFL evaluation comes when finding a role for Bowden; in creating a chance to get him the ball and let him showcase his talents. He obviously has shown he can both run over and run around high school and college competition. For what it’s worth, Bowden’s Pro Football Focus rushing grade for his final college season was 87.2.
Lamar Jackson in his final season had a rushing grade of 86.8.
“Lynn’s football IQ is off the charts,” Arnold said. “I can’t sit here and say I know what goes on in an NFL meeting with a game plan and all that stuff, but if you teach Lynn something or ask him to learn something, he’ll figure it out. He went to Kentucky and he learned all the receiver positions. He figured out what he needs to do on a punt return so that it might go 80 yards. I’m telling you, I’m excited for him because he has the talent to do it. Whatever he needs to learn, he’ll do it.
“Just get him the ball. I think that applies at any level.”
At the combine, I asked Kentucky guard and fellow draft prospect
Logan Stenberg about what changed last fall when Bowden went to play quarterback.
“We only had to give him one block, one little hole,” Stenberg said. “If we gave him one block, it was a 50-yard touchdown.”
I asked Bowden if he can do that in the NFL.
“I definitely feel like I can,” he said. “I’ve always been ready to go to the next level, keep adding to my game, keep doing what’s asked. If people think I can’t do it, I’ll prove them wrong again.”
Headed into the draft, at least one NFL team ranks Bowden at the top of its return specialist board. Dane Brugler,
The Athletic’s draft analyst, ranks Bowden as his No. 19 wide receiver and a third- or fourth-round pick.
I made some calls and sent some texts regarding Bowden to a half-dozen NFL scouts and talent evaluators. One of the names that got digitally tossed around as a comparison was
Joshua Cribbs, who was a highly productive running quarterback at the college level before going on to a long NFL career as a special-teams player and an occasional wide receiver.
“I think Cribbs was probably a little bit bigger and was a more natural overall athlete,” a longtime NFL evaluator said. “Lynn might be faster. Josh was more the kind of runner who invited contact while Lynn is trying to shake people. It’s an interesting comparison. I see a lot of similarities there.
“I remember Cribbs as the best returner in the league for many years, and I think once in a while they cooked something up for him on offense. With Lynn, I think you design plays for him right away and let him make people miss. I think if your offensive coordinator gets in on the evaluation and has a plan for him, you feel a lot better about drafting him.”
Said one scout: “One of the questions is his long speed. We know he can make people miss. I can’t say if not having (a 40-yard dash time) really hurts him or not because a lot of guys didn’t complete the process, but through the debates and the evaluation, it would have been a whole lot easier to really speak up for him had he gone through the whole process.
“I talked to Lynn on the phone (in late March), right around the time the pro day would have been. He told me, ‘You missed the show.’”
When some of those observations were passed along to Bowden, he mostly nodded along.
“My work will speak for itself, but I feel like I have a shot to be one of the best,” he said. “This is what, my third or fourth year playing wide receiver? I’m going to keep getting better. I had some teams (ask) what my best position is. ‘Wherever y’all want to play me.’ That is my answer.
“Just get the ball in my hands and you won’t regret it.”
(Photo: Jim Dedmon / USA Today)
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