2018 Season
In his first season as the starter, Bowman started as the primary backup to Carter. After Carter got hurt in the first game of the year against Ole Miss, Bowman became the starter moving forward. He would finish his season with 2,638 passing yards and 17 touchdowns. However, injuries would cut his promising year short. As we all know, this was the beginning of an unfortunate trend for Bowman at Tech. Due to his play, before he went out with a collapsed lung, Bowman had every Tech football fan wondering, “What if?”
2019 Season
With the firing of Kingsbury, Bowman entered his true sophomore season as the unquestioned starter. With new Head Coach Matt Wells and offensive coordinator David Yost in the 806, Bowman had some adjusting to do. He was once again off to an impressive start and was the leading passer in the Big 12 by the end of Week 3. However, he would once again end up running into injury problems. Against Arizona in Week 3, Bowman suffered a shoulder injury and ended up missing the rest of the season. He eventually elected to redshirt this year in order not to lose a year of NCAA eligibility.
2020 Season
Coming into the second year under the Wells regime, Bowman would retain his starting position, but this time with most of the hype gone. After two straight season-ending injuries, Bowman only had one thing to prove: can he stay healthy? Unfortunately, this year it wasn’t his injuries that spelled trouble for Bowman. Inconsistent and questionable play-calling from Yost lead to Bowman’s eventual benching. Utah State transfer Henry Colombi would take over during the Week 4 matchup against Iowa State. After losing that game, Tech found themselves at 1-3 and with more questions than answers. As the year finished, Bowman would start a couple more games as Tech finished with a 4-6 record.
Injuries and Wasted Potential
Whether it was a collapsed lung or bad play-calling, it always seemed that something was holding him back from fully reaching his full potential. Bowman showed that he was no scrub with really good performances against OU in his freshman year or against UT in 2020. But, as the saying goes, availability is your best ability. And more often than not, Bowman was not available.
What’s Next?
It will be interesting to see where Bowman lands, but Raiderland wishes him the best to move forward. For Tech, all signs seem to point at 2021 QB recruit Behren Morton becoming the starter for next season. He’ll have to compete against Henry Colombi, Maverick Mcivor, and Donovan Smith for the job as Coach Wells won’t just hand it to him. Either way, Tech will open the 2021 season with a quarterback that isn’t Alan Bowman for the first time since 2018. Here’s to hoping next season is the start of something great for Tech football. The 2010s were rough to Tech Football fans.
Wreck ‘Em!
Want more sports-related articles? Read about the future of Texas Tech men’s basketball or updates on Alan Bowman.
By: Michael Lowery, Campus Live Media intern