Lynn Bowden Will be the Best 2019 Kentucky Football Player

Lynn Bowden is a dynamite athlete on the football field and broke out in his sophomore season. The junior wide receiver will be the Wildcats’ best player next season.

Two and a half years ago, Kentucky Football star Lynn Bowden entered my life in the middle of a lecture from my ancient sub-five-foot religion teacher. Her lesson that day: arguing that birth control was the single most impactful invention of the last two hundred years. A seriously challenging and thought-provoking topic in a high school class centered around discussion. She rarely sparked conversations of any substance and in general, could not have cared less about the course or what her students gained from her teaching. I guess I should note that Ms. Brooks retired that spring following our class. That was public knowledge in the classroom. She frequently day-dreamed about her upcoming trip to Italy. I would have daydreamt about ornate cheese platters and beautiful coastlines if I taught our class. It was chaos.

Easily the most meaningless class of my high school career. I went to St. Xavier in Louisville, KY. It’s the crown jewel of Kentucky high schools. I could write a five-thousand word Shakespeare soliloquy expressing how much I loved my four years there. Every impactful non-family adult in my life is a teacher I had while at St. X. Brooks missed the cut by quite a bit. Quite frankly, I’ve filed her class into the deep annals of my brain. It was anything but memorable. There was one experience electrifying enough to remember: flipping through Kentucky Football Recruiting updates on my iPad and reading about an Ohio Athlete named Lynn Bowden Jr.

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This was before the 10-win season and before Kentucky Football landed four-star recruits with regularity. Bowden was a bonafide four-star football player who played quarterback in high school and conjured up Lamar Jackson comparisons with his ability to ad-lib for jaw-dropping touchdown scrambles.

The article I was reading about Bowden included a link to his highlight tape. I clicked it and opened up YouTube. On that screen in that classroom, I thought I’d found Kentucky Football’s salvation in the form of a shifty half-dreaded quasi-quarterback who could run like Eliud Kipchoge and controlled his body like a Jujitsu sensei. At 12:30 on a weekday in late January, I had an inner conniption fit over Kentucky Football. I was ready to tape a picture of Lynn Bowden’s face over Jesus on our classroom bulletin board. I was like a Knicks’ fan reading Kevin Durant rumors last February. I think I may have passed out. My buddy Cameron, a lifetime Louisville fan, sat behind me and texted me asking why it sounded like I was chanting foreign spells underneath my breath.

It was euphoria. Bowden was just a recruit and Ohio State was his predicted destination at the time. I didn’t care. He had to go to Kentucky. Looking back, I think my realization that our football program could land a recruit as obviously talented as Bowden reshaped my entire philosophy. With players like him, we would become elite. We did just that last season. Now, Lynn Bowden remains just a junior. He’s already a legend. With Benny Snell Jr. and Josh Allen gone, is he the best player on the team? My answer is a quick yes. Here are a few reasons:

Reliability

Lynn Bowden the person and Lynn Bowden the football player share an abundance of similarities. On Twitter and on the field, Bowden is explosive, unpredictable, and a nightmare for the coaching staff from time to time. However, Bowden is Kentucky’s most dependable wideout. There isn’t an argument. Last season, Bowden more than quadrupled the reception total of Kentucky’s second receiver, David Bouvier. Quadrupled. For every one catch for Bouvier, Bowden recorded four. And Bouvier was second on the team in total catches, not fifth or sixth.

Bowden never drops the ball, either. Dropped passes are a perennial plague for Kentucky wideouts and while the issue is far from solved, Bowden, the Ace in the slot, bucks the trend. Terry Wilson met a fair share of struggles in his first season under center, but Bowden saved him time after time. He can beat any defensive back one-on-one or serve as a simple and stressfully lethal screen option.

In a season where Kentucky is replacing the greatest running back in the history of the program–someone who ate 20 possessions or more nearly every game, Bowden’s dependability will be vital.

Versatility

I’m assuming everyone reading this article who is under the age of 30 or has children in that range has seen The Polar Express. It’s a Christmas classic; an animated film about a steam locomotive that escorts a select group of children to the north pole on Christmas Eve to meet Santa Claus. Tom Hanks is the narrator, but he also voices the main boy’s father, the train conductor, a hobo, Santa Claus, and Ebenezer Scrooge. Lynn Bowden is Tom Hanks in The Polar Express. Bowden runs traditional routes and screens as a receiver, carries the ball in exotic reverse play calls, returns kick-offs and punts, and sometimes even lines up at quarterback.

He is the perfect best player on a football team because he lacks a defined role. A one-trick pony can’t win the Kentucky Derby and earn gold at the Olympic Equestrian competitions. Bowden is capable of both. He possesses a rosetta stone index of foot maneuvers in open space and beats hopeless safeties with his raw speed. It’s an extraordinary combination for a wide receiver. Plus, as mentioned, he is a crisp route runner who never drops passes. That measure of versatility is rare. Bowden is a rare and superstar talent.

Dynamic Athleticism

I’ve spoiled this section twenty times already. It demands another reminder: Lynn Bowden is a thoroughbred runner with the elegance of a Royal Wedding. Effortless. Bowden is an effortless 99th percentile athletic phenom. On the football field, Bowden whips through defenses with unacknowledgeable quickness (it’s hard to process in real time) and glides horizontally like Michael Jackson in Thriller.

In high school, I ran track. Our bitter cross-town rival Trinity High School had one runner who reminds me of Lynn Bowden, although he was five-foot-seven, significantly shorter than Bowden’s six-one. He graduated the same year as me and was the most powerful sprinter I witnessed in person (until I saw Sydney McLaughlin at UK). Possessing elite lower body speed and tremendous muscle tone, he rumbled through the 100-meter dash in seconds with a calm face and tsunami leg cycle. It was extraordinary. This kid looked like he wasn’t breaking a sweat yet he ran significantly faster than I ever would. His upper body didn’t flinch when he ran. I was always fascinated by him. By the way, he was also an All-State football player and played for Purdue as a true freshman this past season. His name is Rondale Moore.

Moore is an example of a supernova athlete. Bowden is of the same ilk. Their ability to comfortably out-do their peers (who also are elite athletes) is mesmerizing. Bowden channels 100% of that ability on the football field as an all-purpose offensive threat. He wasn’t a primary option at Kentucky last season and his production from 2017 to 2018 spiked remarkably. In 2019, Bowden will finally be unleashed. I can’t wait.