101 Days of BC Football: Dave Bowen, #74

Boston College’s football roster is large, and its recruits come from all over the country. We’ve seen a lot of linemen from Illinois and some from the local area, but there are also several hailing from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Like yesterday’s feature, John Wetzel, redshirt freshman Dave Bowen comes from the Keystone State.

Bowen is a product of Radnor High School in Villanova, Pennsylvania, which is clearly right near the university bearing the same name. While down in the Philadelphia area, Bowen was an All-State first-team offensive lineman, and he also collected a few more accolades including being selected to play in the Big 33 Football Classic in 2011. For non-Pennsylvanians wondering what that’s supposed to mean, here’s what it is:

"Originating in 1957, the PNC Big 33 Football Classic is one of the nation’s finest scholastic All-Star Football Games highlighting showcasing Pennsylvania and Ohio ‘s outstanding high school athletes."

Following spring football, Bowen emerged as the backup at right tackle behind Wetzel. Here’s the issue I have: his BC biography lists him as 256 pounds, while the spring depth chart has him as 274. Either one is pretty light for right now, given the blocking scheme we’ve seen BC employ in recent years. We don’t have a clear picture yet on how, if at all, Jim Bollman will change it, but for right now I will say that Bowen probably needs to add more size. There is nothing prohibiting him from doing so, as BC has had undersized linemen come in before and bulk up nicely while contributing.

The scouting report on Bowen is thin, but he was a three-star recruit with plenty of accomplishments at the lower level of competition. He’ll get his chance to show what he can do in college.