Huskers shoot to top of list for Donald Bowens

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As the Huskers continue to hit the pavement running in Florida, they've now joined four other schools in tendering an offer to a wide receiver whose prospects are on the upswing. Donald Bowens from St. Petersburg (Fla.) High School is one of the latest wide receivers to get an offer from Nebraska, and at the moment, he has them perched squarely at the pinnacle of his list.

"Nebraska's on the top out of the offers I've gotten," the 6-foot-2 1/2, 191-pound Bowens said. "Ole Miss, Iowa State and Rutgers are the others I have in writing, and Iowa's made me a verbal offer, but I haven't gotten it in the mail yet."

While being perched at the top of his current offers is great, you have to wonder what would happen if one of the in-state schools were to tender an offer in writing.

"They'd move up, but that wouldn't mean they'd automatically become my top school or where I'd end up committing to," he said. "Florida wanted to evaluate me at one of their camps before they offered, but I decided not to go. I am going to a camp at Florida State on July 10 though. My parents want me to stay in-state and I like those two schools along with Miami and Central Florida, too, but I'm just waiting to see what they all decide to do before I get too excited about all this."

Bowens, who at the Tallahassee NIKE (Football Training) Camp ran a 4.68-second 40-yard dash and a very quick 4.03 shuttle, as a junior used his rare combination of quickness and athleticism to put some impressive numbers in the books.

"I had close to 30 catches for about 500 yards and four touchdowns, and I made the all-conference team," he said about his offensive prowess. "I played safety on defense last year and had a pretty solid year there, but this year they're moving me to linebacker because they think I'm the best tackler on the team."

Bowens said that college coaches, however, see him only on the offensive side of the ball.

"Wide receiver is where they're telling me I'll play when I get there. Nebraska likes me at that position, and I like that because they told me they're going to open it up this year and run a more wide-open style of offense. Plus, I might be able to get early playing time there, which I would like."

The reason college coaches see him on that side of the ball is because he's caught their eyes with several things he apparently does very well.

"I'm pretty sure they see that I'm a go-to guy with good hands and feet. I like to think that when you need to make a play, I'll get it done. Plus, I think it caught their attention when I came out No. 2 in the shuttle and No. 3 in the bench press at the NIKE Camp."

The Nebraska coaches obviously paid close attention to his performance and made their offer, and since then he's had a couple of good initial conversations with several members of the coaching staff.

"I called coach (Phil) Elmassian, who's my recruiting coach, and he's a pretty cool guy. We talked for a while and he transferred me to coach (Ted) Gilmore, the wide receivers coach, and we had a good conversation, too. They both wanted me to call coach (Bill) Callahan, so I did, but he was out of the office or something when I tried. I'm going to call him back in the next couple of days and talk to him, too."

At the moment, Bowens doesn't have any official visits set up for the fall, but said he might take a trip this summer to get an early look at one school in particular.

"Most likely I'll take an unofficial visit to Nebraska sometime this summer to check it out," he said of his plans. "At least right now I'm thinking that's what I'll probably do."

Should he make it to Lincoln, look for Huskeronline.com to get you the information as quickly and as accurately as possible.

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