Alan Bowman Is Transferring To Michigan
Michigan's scholarship quarterback count is back up to 4:
Lets get to work!! #GoBlue ?? pic.twitter.com/8k4c58obxK
— Alan Bowman (@alanbowman_) February 28, 2021
Bowman started on and off for Texas Tech for three years, racking up a whopping 731 attempts in that time. He started off with a strong freshman season, completing 69% of his passes for 8.1 yards per attempt, 17 TDs, and 7 INTs. He got injured in 2019; last year he started eight games, completed 65% of his passes for 6.9 YPA, and fell back to 10 TDs and 7 INTs. He is not mobile: he's got a total of –9 rushing yards.
Bowman will compete with JJ McCarthy, Dan Villari, and Cade McNamara for the starting job. There is no content after the jump.
February 28th, 2021 at 2:59 PM ^
O’Korn 2.0 Didn’t JOK come From TTech?
February 28th, 2021 at 3:00 PM ^
Houston but close
February 28th, 2021 at 3:48 PM ^
No, but his name is "Alan." Alan Branch was a high draft pick and had a good NFL career. Coincidence? Doubt it.
February 28th, 2021 at 4:38 PM ^
Didn’t Grant Bowman play the same position as Branch? Maybe they’re bringing him in to play DT.
February 28th, 2021 at 2:59 PM ^
Now that is some impressively fast work Brian. On a Sunday afternoon no less!
February 28th, 2021 at 3:01 PM ^
O'Korn vibes here, at least it's another somewhat viable body with experience for the QB room. Certainly better than nothing, hope this works out
February 28th, 2021 at 3:26 PM ^
Okorn’s two best season saw him hit 58% completion twice. This dude has a career completion percentage of 67%. O’korn was a career 55% passer before Michigan and a career 55% passer after Michigan. O’korn passer rating was 119. Bowman currently sits at 139.5. O’korn threw for 5200 yards total when his career was done. Bowman already has 5200 yards.
Bowman has done this in a tougher conference and a 12% higher completion rate. Usually Texas Tech style QBs are efficient. So other than Bowman being better in every aspect against better competition when he transfers in, yeah they’re similar. So basically the similarities are this; plays QB and comes from the state of Texas(which is a huge state). Quite similar...............
February 28th, 2021 at 4:29 PM ^
Yeah, I don't think he'd come in as the presumptive starter but I see a lot of "he's John O'Korn 2.0" seemingly based on the fact he played in Texas. They are different players, and like you pointed out Bowman was more efficient throwing the ball. As a guy who's going to compete for a spot and gives you some experience, it's a good pickup and I'm excited to see him join the team.
February 28th, 2021 at 4:35 PM ^
Agreed. This is a good get simply because it takes some pressure off of JJ. Most realistic predictions don’t have us doing much next season so there’s really no reason to force JJ into a starting role just because he might be the most talented guy on the roster. Give this staff a season to gel, the team some time to shake off 2020, and let JJ marinate for a year. This pickup allows them to do that.
February 28th, 2021 at 10:59 PM ^
I was going to type the same thing without doing the effort of the research.
2 QB's from the QB, football player rich state of Texas so they must be identical. I'm surprised he didn't get a Gentry vibe. Wasn't he like O'Korn too- only good with a good attitude and in the NFL albeit as a TE?
So I guess Texas has a John O'Korn clone factory just outside Lubbock?
Bowman is a senior guy. He has 14 starts over 3 years, our current roster has 2.
JJ might be the heir apparent but it probably won't be next year.
Bowman is a legitimate threat to start and even if he doesn't he should be able to step in right away should McNamara stumble or get hurt.
Bowman fills a void. He is just what we needed and could realistically hope to get.
February 28th, 2021 at 11:56 PM ^
Great post, but let’s be honest, this transfer does reek of Jon O’Korn. I’m obviously hoping it works out better than that, but until then I will assume the worst (BPONE!).
February 28th, 2021 at 4:52 PM ^
Definitely a good depth QB for UM. I would be blown away if he actually started but since we have seen enough QB injuries over the years it’s good to have some depth with a guy who has experience
February 28th, 2021 at 3:06 PM ^
Had to bring in an experienced guy to at least compete.
Now go get some CBs too.
February 28th, 2021 at 3:08 PM ^
Most important position on the field and we need transfer help in year 7 for depth. And we are dicking around with a MAC level QB at best when we really need DT and CB transfers. Not irony, but something at least as painful.
February 28th, 2021 at 3:20 PM ^
Christ . . .
February 28th, 2021 at 3:24 PM ^
Dude in the background's wearing a Woodson jersey!
February 28th, 2021 at 3:32 PM ^
Only 8 guys in Michigan football history have thrown for over 5000 yards in their career. None of them have a completion percentage higher than 65. This dude is already at 5200 including a shortened season for injury and covid and his career completion percentage is over 67%. This is against a power 5 conference on a team with less talent than the blue bloods in the conference. He is not a MAC level QB. He may not be an elite big ten QB but he’s definitely better than a Mac level guy.
February 28th, 2021 at 3:33 PM ^
Logged in to downvote.
February 28th, 2021 at 4:31 PM ^
Michigan is taking a grad transfer to, I assume, compete with a returning starter and a much-hyped 5* freshman QB. This isn't all that unusual, but I can see why shitting on a guy in his commit post for being part of a QB room just had to be done.
February 28th, 2021 at 6:51 PM ^
Well his post was dumb, and yes this kid has passed for 5,000, ill bet you he never comes close to that here. Btw there have been some damn good MAC qbs, some I would rather have had at Michigan.
February 28th, 2021 at 9:33 PM ^
I agree I doubt he throws for 5,000 yards in a season at UM. But I think part of the reason he's leaving Texas Tech is because they brought in Tyler Shough, who was the starter at Oregon last year but apparently lost the confidence of their staff and made the move. But the bigger concern with Bowman is that he was injured the past couple of years and (I assume) there are questions about whether or not he's still the QB he was a couple of years ago. But as a depth guy he seems perfectly reasonable, just like I'm sure there are QBs from every conference who would be nice pickups.
February 28th, 2021 at 3:09 PM ^
A statue...
February 28th, 2021 at 3:45 PM ^
A masterpiece.
February 28th, 2021 at 3:13 PM ^
This is great news - cheer up, people. We needed QB depth, and got a guy with legitimate P5 experience.
Suddenly our QB situation looks much more secure. Maybe this isn't the high ceiling guy people dreamed about, but he's absolutely raised our floor.
This is the reality these days - guys move around, hoping for a fresh start and a better situation. If we're gonna lose guys to transfer, we need to be active in filling holes.
I say well done, and welcome young Mr. Bowman!
February 28th, 2021 at 3:34 PM ^
Thank you. This is a hell of a player for depth purposes. Great job by the staff to grab a guy like him in a time where players transfer around like crazy. It’s good to have a solid floor.
February 28th, 2021 at 8:10 PM ^
If we got a high ceiling guy people would say it’s Shae 2.0 and complain that Harbaugh can’t develop the guys he recruits.
This was a good move. A wise move. Nothing bad about it especially after Milton declared for the portal.
February 28th, 2021 at 9:24 PM ^
This IS great news. We needed a serviceable backup, one capable of at least competing for real playing time. We found exactly that. The team is more solid today than it was yesterday.
February 28th, 2021 at 3:16 PM ^
Don’t know much about the guy. Doubt he’ll start. But you need three playable QBs, as we were reminded last year when QB1 and QB2 got hurt, so he’s a very welcome addition and I hope he enjoys his time in Ann Arbor
February 28th, 2021 at 9:10 PM ^
He's immediately the most experienced QB on our roster by a wide margin.
Given the fact he haven't gone an entire season with only one starter in like a decade, my bet is that he will end up starting at least one if not more games this season.
February 28th, 2021 at 3:42 PM ^
Looks like Bowman has some connection to the region and conference. His dad is from PA and played for PSU back in the day, though before they were part of the Big Ten.
https://www.collegian.psu.edu/archives/article_2dbbdd66-2de5-579f-9b72-0502f7aa9390.html
February 28th, 2021 at 3:48 PM ^
It's not the quarterback, it's how the quarterbacks are coached. That's what we need to change, without that it wouldn't matter if it was Justin Fields or Russell Wilson transferring in.
Now, if Bowman or someone else balls out next year then please downvote me to hell and make a forum topic to rub this in my face because I'll be super happy to be wrong, but I'm not completely off-base in what I say.
February 28th, 2021 at 3:54 PM ^
Love this pickup. A guy who has starting experience in the Big 12 and will at least provide depth and competition is always good.
February 28th, 2021 at 4:10 PM ^
No, what needed to change was the fact that we had only 3 scholarship QBs on the roster. Only two of which are playable and one of those is a true freshman.
This isn’t about the search for a QB to take us to the next level, this is about filling the number of scholarship QBs we have to replace Milton and McCaffrey. We needed bodies. Plain and simple
February 28th, 2021 at 4:14 PM ^
100% this. He's a clear upgrade over Milton. He's better than Villani. He's a viable insurance policy if JJ isn't the guy.
Fair point, another guy in the arsenal at QB can't hurt
February 28th, 2021 at 4:32 PM ^
Well, they fired the QB coach from the past 2 seasons when the teams' QB play looked demonstrably worse than we all expected. So it does feel like part of that is being handled.
February 28th, 2021 at 5:02 PM ^
You are right. Our offensive coaching is broken. These new defensive coaches arent going to fix rhat. 1 half vs Rutgers and a game vs Minnesota is all they could muster last yer. This offensive coaching has been and will be Harbaughs undoing. I hope to god im wrong.
February 28th, 2021 at 3:56 PM ^
I just don't understand where the criticism from some is coming from here. They needed depth and got experienced depth. What did people think they were going to be able to get when the guy coming in knows either Cade or J.J. is likely going to start? This is about the best they could have done.
February 28th, 2021 at 4:27 PM ^
They needed depth desperately because they ran off their 2017 and 2018 QBs.
February 28th, 2021 at 4:37 PM ^
So when a player transfers to Michigan it's because he wants an opportunity to compete and it's a good place while if a guy leaves it's because UM ran them off?
Honestly, Milton leaving surprises me a bit because I assume he could have at least competed for the spot with McNamara and Bowman/McCarthy. But both McCaffrey boys have left their respective teams after losing their starting jobs, and at some point we should probably stop acting like them leaving these programs with, at best, unproven depth at QB as a coaching/team problem and more of a "we're disappointed we didn't win/were given the starting spot." I don't blame guys for leaving if they do, but this place loves to trade in conspiracy theories that Harbaugh is secretly trying to destroy this team through sheer incompetence even though all of college football has guys, especially QBs, leaving for better opportunities when it's clear where they sit on the depth chart.
February 28th, 2021 at 4:47 PM ^
"Honestly, Milton leaving surprises me a bit because I assume he could have at least competed for the spot with McNamara and Bowman/McCarthy."
What did you see last season from Milton that makes you think that?
I don't disagree about the McCaffrey comments, but the fact Milton held onto the job as far as Rutgers and then couldn't get into the next game despite McNamara's arm falling off points to a QB situation that, at best, was mishandled and at worst, validates some of those conspiracy theories above.
February 28th, 2021 at 5:27 PM ^
What I saw from Milton was a boatload of talent that probably got rushed onto the field too early and then couldn't save the team when the defense couldn't hold up. Not entirely unlike what I saw from McNamara, who also displayed some brilliance but was too inconsistent (although in a very different way from Milton) to save the team.
February 28th, 2021 at 5:48 PM ^
Rushed onto the field? He was in the system for 2.5 years. Was he going to take a magical jump in 2021?
sport specific skill and physical athleticism are different.
What I see from Milton is an athlete who is top of the charts athletic in 1-2 areas of physical performance but is not a quarterback and really not a football player.
he has a really strong arm, nowhere near enough touch or accuracy.
he’s a big strong kid, who runs tentatively and gets denied the first down because he hesitates.
in baseball I used to see kids like Milton all the time. Scouts and coaches would drool over the biggest, fastest, football/basketball players and beg them to play baseball (this even happened in college). Every coach believed they could turn every running back into a pro center fielder and every scout was convinced their organization would make them major leaguers. Never worked out.
February 28th, 2021 at 9:41 PM ^
I was more negative about Milton last year than most even coming into the year, as I didn't think he could possibly have made the leap from the guy we saw two years prior to an above-average Big 10 QB (which was my assumption of McCaffrey's play coming into the year) in an offseason. He looked better than I expected early in the year but he still had issues that he got away with against Minnesota and MSU (limited touch, locking onto his receiver, seemingly not reading defensive coverage well and throwing balls into tight windows unncessarily) that didn't keep up as teams got more tape on him and the offensive line lost players.
But he was also apparently hurt midway through the year, and he absolutely didn't look physically like the same guy against PSU and Rutgers as he did against Minnesota and even IU. So my assumption was that if he continued to make progress as a player, he could absolutely compete for a spot against McNamara et al. Obviously it's much harder to go from bad to average than it is to go from average to good, but Milton is a hard-working guy with potential, and it sucks he won't be able to keep growing at UM. But he wasn't necessarily as good as his highs last year made some believe nor was he as bad as his lows looked in my opinion.
February 28th, 2021 at 5:02 PM ^
Or, they desperately needed another mediocre quarterback because Harbaugh can't develop a high quality starter.
February 28th, 2021 at 4:38 PM ^
Can't this be labelled as Transfer-QB BPONE?
February 28th, 2021 at 4:29 PM ^
This is about as good as you can hope for from the portal. Given the critical need in this area, this result is exceptional.
February 28th, 2021 at 5:00 PM ^
So we're going to have yet another quarterback "competition", and cross our fingers that what emerges will be better than decent for once in Harbaugh's tenure? I shall try to contain my excitement.
February 28th, 2021 at 5:09 PM ^
An upgrade over Milton for sure.
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