Bowman is the Third Oldest Player in NCAA Division I This Season
STILLWATER – “Where are the folks from Legacy Village?” The was Oklahoma State associate athletic director for NIL Barry Hinson today at the Cowboys Sports Radio Network and Cowboy Sports Properties sponsor’s luncheon. Hinson had Oklahoma State athletes up front with him. There was Cowgirls softball third baseman Tallen Edwards, Oklahoma State baseball third baseman Aidan Meola, freshman football running back Rodney Fields Jr., and the athlete the question was asked for in quarterback Alan Bowman.
“I’m looking for the folks from Legacy Village because Alan and his fiance’ want to talk to them about moving out there,” Hinson laughed.
Bowman gets a lot of jokes, but he is a very popular and vitally important piece to the Oklahoma State football equation for this season. He told the audience made up of sponsrs of the Cowboy Network, people that have an investment in Oklahoma State doing well and getting more exposure for their companies.
“At the end of last season there were a bunch of guys, nine starters on offense that said they were coming back. Ollie Gordon was coming back,” Bowman said. “Then there were 10 starters coming back on defense. I thought that this could be special and I wanted to be part of it, so I applied for the waiver and yes, I’m glad to be here.”
Bowman said that rouhgly an hour after coming in from one of the hottest practice this fall camp and then enjoying the delight of an ice tub to help spring back his muscles and body for a scrimmage on Saturday.
Hinson was the one that told the audience that Bowman was number three on the elder statesman list for this season of Division I college football. We already knew that Bowman would square off on Sept. 21 with one of the other “old men” at quarterback. Utah’s Cam Rising, who missed all of last season started his college career at Texas in 2018, the same year Bowman was starting as a true freshman for the Red Raiders. Rising spent the season as a red-shirt for the Texas Longhorns. He even made the road trip to Stillwater to see Oklahoma State beat Texas 38-35 on the Pokes’ homecoming on Oct. 27.
Mike Gundy told the media on Thursday in his last interview before the first game press conference that Bowman is pretty important. He cited Bowman’s expperience as the primary reason.
Bowman is excited about this opportunity and will tell you it could be special. Honestly, when you hear him explain how he got this extra year you know it is already special.
“True freshman year collapsed lung twice , true sophomore year was the broken collarbone, and then COVID,” Bowman explained taking the media gathered at Big 12 Media Days in Las Vegas through his story. “Starting at Texas Tech. “After COVID, it was Michigan and technically my second year at Michigan was my junior year and last year at Oklahoma State was my senior year. We went back and applied the collarbone year (2019 at Texas Tech) into a medical and then applied the first year at Michigan (2021) as a red-shirt year. I only played in four games that year and we moved the collarbone as a medical year.”
Now, Bowman is determined to turn the jokes about his age into a season for all time.