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Inside The Huskies

Huskies Have Elite TEs, But Still Nothing Quite Like This

USC will show off its super young and extra talented Mark Bowman.
Dan Raley|
USC tight end Mark Bowman (19) leaps over Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns cornerback Avery Demery (10) and shows off his athleticism.
USC tight end Mark Bowman (19) leaps over Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns cornerback Avery Demery (10) and shows off his athleticism. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Saturday's University of Washington-USC football game won't have any shortage of play-making tight ends showing off their exclusive skills and trying to one-up each other at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

Huskies Baron Naone and Decker DeGraaf are off to a productive and sometimes electric start -- after all, when have you seen a tight end go 75 yards with an intermediate pass as Naone did against Eastern Washington?

Well, USC has a special surprise for everyone in showing off freshman tight end Mark Bowman, who is so far ahead of everyone else in what he does on a football field it's ridiculous.

Consider how UW defensive coordinator Ryan Walters described this first-year man child and budding phenom.

"He was rated the No. 1 tight end in the country for a reason," Walters said of the one-time 5-star recruit. "He's big. He looks like Arnold Schwarzenegger did back in the day. He's a cut-up dude."

Bowman measures 6-foot-5 and 245 pounds, with his size made even more noteworthy by the fact he gave up his senior year at Los Angeles powerhouse Mater Dei High School and reclassified this fall to immediately get to work for the Trojans.

So far, he has 21 catches for 204 yards and a pair of touchdowns. He came up with a season-high 6 catches against both Louisiana and Oregon.

"They find ways to creatively get him the ball," Walters said.

USC wide receiver Kayden Dixon-Wyatt celebrates with tight end Mark Bowman (19) after scoring a touchdown against Oregon.
USC wide receiver Kayden Dixon-Wyatt (17) celebrates with tight end Mark Bowman (19) after scoring a touchdown against Oregon. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The key to stopping him is just don't let him get his hands on it in the first place. That can be an adventure for any defense.

"You can't go low because he'll hurdle you so you have to hit him up high and get him down," Walters advised.

Originally from Castle Rock, Colorado, Bowman actually hurdled two Louisiana players at once.

He's the son of a former defensive lineman and volleyball player who both played for Colorado State, giving him well-rounded athletic genes.

"He's a really good player," Walters said. "He's really good with the ball in his hands. He is as advertised."

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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