Bowden, Cats Honor Lorenzen’s Legacy with Win
Lynn Bowden Jr. didn’t wear No. 22. It was the injured Terry Wilson who did that on the sideline.
Jared Lorenzen sure would have been proud of Bowden’s effort though.
“It’s very special,” Bowden said. “All the film they showed us throughout the week—I feel sorry for his family. He was a great guy. He was one of the legends here. I don’t want to talk too much about it. I might start tearing up up here.”
Emotions ran high for the entirety of Jared Lorenzen Day at Kroger Field. Lorenzen’s family and teammates were on the field for a pregame ceremony and Wilson led the crowd in 22 seconds of noise in lieu of a moment of silence. The evening ended just as Lorenzen would have wanted: with a dramatic 24-20 win over Arkansas in comeback fashion on the strength of a total team effort.
It was an effort led by Bowden.
Stepping in at quarterback for Sawyer Smith, Bowden delivered a stirring performance and a badly needed win for the Wildcats. Bowden moved from wide receiver to his high school position in practice the last two weeks, adeptly running an offense specifically crafted to fit his skillset.
“It’s like a little homecoming thing,” Bowden said. “My (high school) head coach is here too. I saw him during the Cat Walk and it’s just a blessing to be able to do that still. I was a receiver here. I’m at a loss for words, for real, and I just give all my glory to my teammates.”
Bowden rushed for an astounding 196 yards and two touchdowns, including 77 yards on UK’s game-clinching drive. The back-breaking one was a 51 yarder that ended, fittingly, at the 22-yard line. Bowden also completed 7-of-11 passes for 78 yards and another score, all while not committing a single turnover.
“Right before we went on the field,” Eddie Gran said, “I said, ‘Let’s not get in a hurry, and there’s going to be some drives where you don’t throw the ball.’ He was unbelievable.”
Bowden deserves plenty of credit, but it was far from a one-man show on Saturday night.
“Obviously, I am extremely proud of the team and appreciate their preparation and ability to adapt to a difficult situation with our quarterback being banged up,” Mark Stoops said. “I am so proud of Lynn, obviously, for what he has done and how he has prepared the last couple of weeks. But also just the team for playing really good around Lynn. Offensively, guys were very unselfish, did what they had to do. Blocking, doing tough things on the perimeter, just doing whatever we had to do to move the football.”
That meant relatively few pass-catching opportunities for UK’s receivers and tight ends, but enough to keep Arkansas honest. Justin Rigg had back-to-back key catches on the Wildcats’ first scoring drive, while Clevan Thomas hauled in his first career touchdown on third-and-long to give UK its first lead of the night late in the third quarter.
“It was special,” Thomas said. “It was real special because my freshman year it was me and Lynn. And Lynn always had my back. He always knew what I was capable of. For him to throw me my first touchdown, it brought me to a tear.”
The junior receiver’s patience was rewarded on his touchdown and so too was UK’s collective patience in rallying for the win. The Wildcat defense overcame a big play on Arkansas’ first drive and a couple short fields to keep the Razorbacks from turning the game into a blowout, but overcoming a 13-0 deficit still seemed a tall order with a quarterback who hadn’t played the position in three years.
“There were some discussions just in terms of, we said we had to be patient,” Gran said. “Thank goodness that we were. … We stuck to what we thought the game plan was to give our kids the best opportunity to win the game.”
With an offense that found a way and a defense that got the key stop to seal the game and held Arkansas to 305 total yards, the Wildcats capitalized on that opportunity. They paid tribute to a Kentucky legend in the process.
“Well, really proud that we got win for in Jared’s memory and for his family,” Stoops said. “And proud of our team by the way they played and hopefully they kept him in the back of their mind because that’s how Jared played. He really laid it on the line for his team each and every week and I was proud of our group tonight in his memory.”
