Kentucky’s star kick & punt returner/quarterback/wide receiver turned quarterback, Lynn Bowden Jr., wins the 2019 Paul Hornung Award recognizing college football’s most versatile player.
A day after his decision to enter the 2020 NFL Draft, Lynn Bowden Jr. was nominated by the SEC and Associated Press as a first-team ALL SEC recipient. To put the cherry on top of an overwhelmingly positive week, today, Bowden was honored with the Paul Hornung Award, recognizing the nation’s most talented all-around player. Past recipients include Saquon Barkley, Christian McCaffery, and Odell Beckham Jr. Many outsiders questioned Bowden’s worthiness of this award, but to say Lynn Bowden fits the bill for a Hornung Award winner would be the understatement of the century.
Five games into the 2019 season, Kentucky was sitting at a 2-3 record, with as many losses as their previous season combined. They lost both starting quarterback Terry Wilson and backup Sawyer Smith to injury and were looking more like an FCS team than a squad coming off a top-15 ranked,10-3 season.
Insert, Lynn Bowden.
Currently, he is 5-2 at the quarterback position (an inch gainst Tennessee from being 6-1), helping an injury-ridden Kentucky squad qualify for a bowl game and then some. In his seven games at quarterback, Lynn has rushed for 1,138 yards (better than 162 YPG), racking up 11 touchdowns on the way. He leads the SEC in all-purpose yards, 153.0/YPG, and is the only player in the nation leading his team in both rushing (1,235) and receiving (348). All of which was capped off with a 284-yard and four-touchdown performance against Louisville to keep the Governor’s Cup in the Wildcats hands for the second year in a row.
Just how versatile is Lynn Bowden? Well, let’s reference the record book.
In 2019, Bowden averaged 8.2 yards per rushing attempt, a mark that ranks first in the SEC and second nationally. Behind his Joe Moore Award-nominated offensive line, Bowden led the Cats to first in the NCAA in yards-per-carry (6.4), and second in runs of 10-plus (99). He is 13th all-time in receptions (114) and 18th all-time in receiving yards (1,303) at Kentucky and in 2018, Bowden notched a 745-yard receiving year that put him seventh on Kentucky’s season receiving list.
Why stop here?
This season’s performance ranks Bowden at sixth all-time in season rushing yards, only 43 yards behind ’87’s Mark Higgs. Keep in mind Bowden is doing this with only seven games at his quasi-quarterback position. He is also fifth on Kentucky’s career all-purpose yardage (4,407), behind Derek Abney, Rafael Little, Derrick Locke, and of course, Randall Cobb.
Lynn Bowden Jr. has quickly evolved into a generational talent for Kentucky Wildcats football. Although his rise comes on the heels of heroes of recent history (a la Josh Allen, Benny Snell, and company), Cats fans must relish their last moments with Lynn Bowden. Why? Because this season, Lynn Bowden has proven he is the most valuable asset to his team in all of college football. He is an all-time great and is just starting to get the recognition he deserves.
From his tantalizing recruitment, heralding him as one of the most exciting Kentucky football prospects in recent memory, to his gladiator performances with a handicapped, on-the-go offense, Bowden has cemented himself as one of the best to put on the pads at Kentucky.
Simply put, as long as Lynn Bowden Jr. adorns blue and white, we need to stop and stare.