How Alan Bowman's Grapevine roots prepared him for what's ahead at Oklahoma State
Scott WrightThe Oklahoman
GRAPEVINE, Texas — Richard Bishop showed up at Grapevine High School in the spring of 2014 as the football team’s new offensive coordinator under head coach Randy Jackson.
The new coaching staff arrived late in the spring, so they didn’t get much time to meet the eighth graders who would be freshmen the next fall, but Bishop saw a few workouts with a group of players from Cross Timbers Middle School — yet that was plenty of time to identify the leader of the group.
A skinny redheaded boy with a big smile on his pale white face drew his teammates to him like a magnet. Barely 14 years old, he carried himself like a young adult rather than the fledgling teenager that he was.
And that right arm? Bishop had never seen an eighth grader throw a football like this kid.
Alan Bowman made an immediate impression on his future coaches, and eventually helped them turn around a Grapevine High program that had won three games the previous two seasons.
Bowman’s college career has been more of a rollercoaster, from his early emergence at Texas Tech to his injury woes and his two years as a third-teamer at Michigan.
But now, the 23-year-old super-senior faces a fresh start at Oklahoma State, just like he had when Jackson and Bishop arrived at Grapevine nine years ago.
Bowman seems like the clear favorite for the starting job at OSU, though head coach Mike Gundy says he’ll give his quarterbacks a couple weeks of preseason camp — which begins Wednesday — to settle the debate.
But if those who have known him since his early teenage years have learned anything, it’s that you don’t doubt Bowman.
“He always bets on himself and that’s what I love about him,” said Bishop, who is entering his sixth season as the head coach at Westwood High School in Palestine, Texas.
And it all started with Bishop’s first encounter with Bowman at Cross Timbers Middle School.
“Obviously, the arm talent was there,” Bishop told The Oklahoman. “Right away, you could see that. But more his moxie.
“Even though he was a 14-year-old kid, immature physically, but he had such a mature approach to how he went about things and a calm presence. You could tell he was gonna be the field general.”
At the time, Bishop had four quarterbacks already at the high school level, so when preseason camp started, he put Bowman at the end of the line. Fifth-string on varsity, but the starter on the freshman team.
And in his first couple of games, Bowman torched the opposing ninth-grade defenses.
Exciting, sure. But Bishop’s varsity offense was in the hands of Sam Barry, a senior and a Division I talent. But in the third week of the season, Barry tore his ACL.
“We had a decision to make,” Bishop said of himself and Jackson. “We had five quarterbacks in the program, and Coach Jackson and myself were like, ‘This guy’s the future.’ He leaped over everybody and started every game the rest of his career.”
In one of Bowman’s first games as the starter, he missed a throw on what would have been a touchdown in a tight game. Jackson, always fiery on the sideline, began to yell about the missed opportunity.
“About that time, Alan jogs in between us and he sees me and Coach Jackson talking back and forth, and Coach Jackson’s fired up,” Bishop said. “Alan just slaps Coach Jackson on the butt as he runs by him and says, ‘Coach, I got it. Don’t worry about it.’ And he smiles.
“And we go on and win the game. He was 14 years old and we gave him the reins to the varsity football program. And he never flinched.”
Barry ultimately went to the Air Force Academy to continue his football career. The other three quarterbacks departed for other schools.
“The next spring, Alan quarterbacked both sides of the spring game, because we didn’t have another quarterback,” Bishop said with a laugh.
Jackson hired Mike Alexander as his defensive coordinator in the spring of Bowman’s freshman year. As Alexander watched game tape to learn about his new squad, he couldn’t help but notice the gifted quarterback.
“Do you have this quarterback back next year?” Alexander asked Jackson.
“Coach, he was just a freshman,” Jackson told him.
That ignited Alexander’s fascination with the young quarterback.
“We start spring drills and I was sending tape to all my friends, like, ‘He’s gonna be a sophomore!’” Alexander said. “He was always head and shoulders above what he should’ve been as a high school player. And not just his ability, but how he carried himself.”
Their relationship was a two-way street, and because of it, Alexander says he owes a piece of his career to the quarterback.
Jackson left Grapevine after Bowman’s junior season, in which the Mustangs had won 10 games. But his departure left the program in a haze of uncertainty.
“Coach Jackson called a staff meeting on a Monday morning in early February and told us he was gonna be leaving,” Alexander said. “You know what that means. Who knows how that’s gonna go down?
“Obviously, I wanted to be the head coach, but that’s always a tricky deal when you’re on staff, trying to navigate how all that’s gonna work.”
Yet within 24 hours of hearing the news, Bowman took action. He wrote a letter to the school superintendent, then had every player on the team — roughly 150 kids — sign it, endorsing the promotion of Alexander to head coach.
“I didn’t learn about that until months later,” Alexander said. “For him to do that, that was huge. Maybe I get the job if he doesn’t do it, maybe I don’t. I don’t know. But either way, the fact that he would do that always meant a ton to me.”
Under Jackson, then Alexander — with Bishop running the Air Raid offense — Bowman quarterbacked the Mustangs to 27 wins over his final three seasons, helping turn a struggling program into a perennial playoff team.
“He was the catalyst,” Bishop said of Bowman. “He was a servant leader. He was the hardest worker. The guys were gonna follow him. We knew once we had him bought into what we were trying to build, the team was gonna follow. It would not have happened without Alan Bowman being the triggerman.”
Bowman’s high school life was full of football, but not encapsulated by it.
“Teachers loved Alan, because he’s one of those guys that is a thermostat,” Alexander said. “He walks into a room, and his attitude elevates everybody. He’s got an infectious personality. When you meet Alan, adults are just blown away by his maturity and how he carries himself.
