Virginia Tech Football: Hokies Expected to Hire Tyler Bowen to Attack Coordinator

Virginia Tech fans have lost their minds as new head coach Brent Pry has not yet officially appointed an offensive coordinator. We’ve been saying for days that Pry’s offensive staff is probably in place, but they’re working somewhere else. Now it looks like the proverbial cat is out of the bag.

Bowen, 32, plays his first season as the tight head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars. Prior to joining the NFL, Bowen spent three seasons at Penn State from 2018-2020, where he served in multiple roles. Bowen started as a coach and recruitment coordinator before moving on to become an interim attack coordinator in 2019. In 2020, Bowen worked as an attack coordinator in addition to his other duties.

Bowen played the offensive line in Maryland. He immediately began his coaching career as a student assistant at Terps in 2010, led by head coach Ralph Friedgen and attack coordinator James Franklin.

He spent the next two years as a follow-up assistant to Terrapins under Randy Edsall. He got his first full-time coach role in 2013 at Towson as a strict coach. In 2014, we moved to Penn State as an offensive post-assistant and met him with his mentor Franklin. In 2015, he moved to Fordham as an offensive line coach, and a year later he was promoted to offensive coordinator.

He returned to Maryland in 2017 as an offensive line coach.

He rejoined Frankin at Penn State in 2018.

Not much is known about why Bowen left Penn State after 2020, except perhaps to gain experience at the NFL level under Urban Meyer. Although his attack plan and ability to play is questionable, Bowen is young and has serious recruitment skills. From a recruitment standpoint, this is a big employment relationship.

See what Rivals Adam Friedman had to say about Bowen to the Hokies:

This should ease the minds of some recruits looking forward to signing next week. The next big question is, who is the quarterback coach? That’s an important position, and Bowen isn’t likely to double as a QB coach, so hiring is critical.

I like this rental from a recruitment standpoint. Some people crush the salary because they expected Pry to have Sean McVay as his offensive coordinator (I think a joke). However, let things play.