Penn State tight ends technician Tyler Bowen will unite Urban MeyerJacksonville Jaguars officials, sources confirmed to Lions247. Bowen has spent the past three seasons with the Nittany Lions, after previous training stops in Maryland and Fordham. Before that, he was an undergraduate assistant in James Franklin at Penn State in Franklin’s first season in Happy Valley.
He is expected to be officially appointed to Meyer’s new team later this week.
Penn State’s tight end room has made great strides under Bowen in the past three seasons. A lot of that came with the development of the All-Big Ten performer Pat Freiermuth, who started as a real freshman in Bowen’s first season in 2018 and won the conference’s tight end-of-year award in an abbreviated junior season in 2020. Freiermuth, who took 92 passes for 1,185 yards and a school record of 16 touchdowns in 30 career games declared for the NFL Draft in December.
The Lions of Nittany were able to remodel their cramped room under Bowen. Penn State signed four stars Brenton Strange out of West Virginia in the class of 2019, then signed a pair of tight ends Theo Johnson and Tyler Warren in the next cycle. Johnson was the third tight end in the 2020 class and they both played like freshmen. Pittsburgh area highlight Khalil Dinkins, a four-star prospectus from 247Sports, signed with Nittany Lions in December and Penn State has a pair of tight-end four-star engagements in the class of 2022 in native Wisconsin Jerry Cross and highlight of Georgia Holden Staes.
Stange and Johnson stood out in 2020, after Freiermuth underwent end-of-season surgery in the middle of the year. Strange took 17 passes for 164 yards and two scores, while Johnson took four passes for 56 yards and went through the second year of the red shirt Zack Kuntz in the depth graph.
Bowen is the highest rated team member for Nittany Lions in the Class of 2021 Recruiting Rankings. He is credited with four commitments in the cycle and was instrumental in launching a four-star lineman Landon Tengwall. He was the No. 7 recruiter on the 2020 Class Ten Big Ten. Bowen’s recruiting area was concentrated in Maryland and the Washington DC metropolitan area.
A rising star in the coaching industry, Bowen was a member of 247Sports ’30 Under 30 in 2018. Before coming to Happy Valley, he trained for a season in Joe Moorhead at Fordham as the offensive line coach and took on the offensive coordinator responsibilities when Moorhead moved to Penn State. He trained the Maryland offensive line in 2017 before accepting the position at Penn State.
He served as Penn State’s interim offensive coordinator in the 53-39 Nittany Lions victory over Memphis in the 2019 Cotton Bowl. He added an offensive co-coordinator title after the 2019 season and was the program’s offensive recruiting coordinator.
Bowen spent three seasons under Franklin as an offensive striker in Maryland.