TAMPA – Our Southern Swing tour continues on into Tampa and we catch up with linebacker Troy Bowles, a familiar name around football circles. His father, Todd, was named the head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers earlier this year and has been a household name around the NFL for quite some time.
But Troy is making a name for himself as one of the top high school linebackers in the nation and the 6-foot-1, 205-pounder has more than 40 offers and his pick of schools that he could end up at.
Bowles camped at Ohio State last season and there was a minute where Bowles and the Buckeyes were mentioned in the same sentence frequently. That all seemed to stop when the Buckeyes made wholesale changes to the defensive coaching staff bringing in Jim Knowles and seeing Al Washington head off to Notre Dame.
While the talk seemed to die down, the interest never did, and Bowles has been keeping up with Ohio State and vice versa.
“I like coach Knowles a lot,” Bowles said. “I saw what he did at Oklahoma State, so when he came here to (my) school and started recruiting me, I feel the same about (Ohio State) that I did (when they had) coach Washington.”
Bowles would fit into Ohio State’s scheme as a WLB more than likely, but the Buckeyes have made sure the recruitment has been about more than just the football aspect of things and both sides are making sure that the other checks off all of the boxes.
“We talk weekly, they tell me how I am going to fit into their scheme,” Bowles said. “He came to my track meet too, so it is not just about football, he wants to learn everything about the person, so he is a good person.”
Relationships are good but it is awfully difficult to land a player without a visit and while Bowles has been to Ohio State before, the official visit would mean a lot and really show that the Buckeyes are firmly in the mix.
You can check that box off as well as the Buckeyes are one of three official visits that Bowles as set up.
“Georgia, Oklahoma and Ohio State,” Bowles said. “I might take an official to Florida.”
Bowles will be part of Ohio State’s big recruiting weekend on June 24th, one that already has fellow linebackers Tackett Curtis and Raul Aguirre tentatively scheduled to visit as well along with many other primary Ohio State targets.
Check out what else Bowles had to say about the schools recruiting him along with when a decision may come and what is important in this exclusive video interview from our Southern Swing tour.
