LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- There have been more talented and productive quarterbacks at the University of Kentucky than Lynn Bowden Jr. Tim Couch, Jared Lorenzen and Andre Woodson start the list.
There have been receivers more difficult to cover and running backs more difficult to take to the ground.
But as he prepares for his final game with the Wildcats, Bowden's Kentucky football legacy is uniquely secure:
In a Me-First World, nobody did a better job of putting team goals and team success ahead of individual glory than Bowden.
Nobody was more willing to put aside everything that he had trained for to embrace another way.
Bowden's future, the one that he confirmed that he will pursue after the Wildcats play Virginia Tech in the Belk Bowl on New Year's Eve, is at receiver and return specialist. He's not showing up as a first-round pick in the early NFL mock drafts, but Bowden should have a productive career in the league. He's got pro skills and pro intangibles.
He will be an NFL receiver and return guy.
He won't be an NFL quarterback.
He won't be an NFL running back.
Didn't matter.
In 2018, Bowden finished in the Top 10 in the Southeastern Conference in receiving.
In 2019, Bowden finished in the Top 10 in the SEC in rushing.
Who does that?
Who even considers it?
That's the paragraph that Bowden earned in the Kentucky record book. Some guys talk about putting team ahead of individual. Bowden actually did it.
Think about it. In today's game, it's not difficult to imagine a player as talented as Bowden balking at moving to a position that wasn't his future.
Sorry, coach. Keep me at receiver, please. That's why I came here.
Stick with Sawyer Smith or somebody else on the Wildcats' roster who could throw the football -- or at least provide an occasional threat of a passing game.
Bowden caught 27 passes in Kentucky's first four games. Keep working at it. They could figure it out.
But the Wildcats were not winning.
They were not figuring it out. There was no passing attack. In three consecutive games, the Wildcats suffered more interceptions than touchdown passes.
So Mark Stoops and offensive coordinator Eddie Gran made a move as radical as any September/October move that I can remember.
They stopped pretending there were interested passing the football.
They worked with Bowden to play quarterback. They reworked the Kentucky offense from some pass to no pass. And it came to pass that it worked. That's why Kentucky won seven games and earned its fourth consecutive bowl trip.
It worked because Bowden was open to making it work.
That wasn't a little thing.
Bowden helped save Kentucky's season. He led the Wildcats to five wins in their final seven games. He ran the ball for better than 8.1 yards per carry, the top average in the SEC.
That is a staggering number in any league but there is another factor that makes the number more dazzling:
Bowden ran the ball when everybody in the stadium realized that he was going to run the ball.
Bowden did not play quarterback the way Jalen Hurts played it at Oklahoma, Kelly Bryant played it at Missouri or Justin Fields played it at Ohio State.
Bowden read the defense, found the holes and made decisions. Kentucky's offense worked.
In Kentucky's final seven games, Bowden averaged eight passing attempts per game. Kentucky finished the season with the best rushing attack in the SEC, fourth best in the nation.
When the Wildcats dispatched Louisville in the Governor's Cup, Bowden threw two passes -- and Kentucky rolled to 517 yards rushing and a 32-point victory.
Now Lynn Bowden will have the chance to do it one more time. This time it will be against Virginia Tech, the fourth best rushing defense in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Chances are that Bowden will make it work.
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