Penn State Coach Tyler Bowen will join Urban Meyerstaff at the Jacksonville Jaguars, confirmed sources to Lions247. Bowen has spent the past three seasons with the Nittany Lions after stopping previous coaching stops at Maryland and Fordham. Prior to that, he was a graduate assistant under James Franklin in Penn State in Franklin’s first season in Happy Valley.
He is expected to be officially named in Meyer’s new staff later this week.
Penn State’s tighthead office has made great progress under Bowen over the past three seasons. Much of it comes from the development of the All-Big Ten artist Pat Freiermuth, who became a rookie as a true freshman in Bowen’s first season in 2018 and won the conference’s Tight End of the Year award in a shortened junior season in 2020. Freiermuth, who scored 92 passes for 1,185 yards and a school record of 16 touchdowns in 30 career games, was declared for the NFL draft in December.
The Nittany Lions were able to reform their tight end room under Bowen. Penn State signed fourth star Brenton Strange from West Virginia in the class of 2019, then colored in some stiff points Theo Johnson and Tyler Warren in the next cycle. Johnson was the No. 3 tighthead prop in the 2020 class and both played as true freshmen. Outstanding in Pittsburgh area Khalil Dinkins, a four-star prospect from 247Sports, who signed with the Nittany Lions in December, and Penn State has some four-star commitments in the 2022 class in Wisconsin Jerry Cross and Georgia’s standouts Holden Staes.
Stange and Johnson came into their own in 2020 after Freiermuth ended the season halfway through the season. Strange got 17 passes for 164 yards and two scores, while Johnson caught four passes for 56 yards and sophomores passed the redshirt Zack Kuntz on the depth map.
Bowen is the Nittany Lions’ top-ranked staff member in the 2021 recruiting class. He attributed four commitments in the cycle and was of great importance to land the four-star attacking lineout Landon Tengwall. He was the no. 7 recruiters in the Big Ten in the class of 2020. Bowen’s recruitment area centered in Maryland and in the Washington DC metro area.
Bowen was a rising star in the coaching sector and was a member of 247Sports ’30 Under 30 in 2018. Before coming to Happy Valley, he coached one season under Joe Moorhead at Fordham as the attacking line coach and the offensive coordinator took over responsibilities when Moorhead moved to Penn State. He coached Maryland’s offensive line in 2017 before accepting the position at Penn State.
He was Penn State’s interim offensive coordinator in the Nittany Lions’ 53-39 victory over Memphis in the Cotton Bowl of 2019. He added a co-offensive coordinator title after the 2019 season and was the program’s offensive recruiting coordinator. .
Bowen played three seasons under Franklin as an offensive linebacker in Maryland.