Vince Marrow: "Lynn Bowden is the best football player in the country"

After a historic 284-yard, four-touchdown rushing performance for Kentucky quarterback Lynn Bowden, UK associate head coach Vince Marrow couldn't have had higher praise for his superstar playmaker. Once the dust settled on the victory, Marrow took to social media to tell the world that he thought Bowden was the best player in all of college football. "I'm going on record to say [Lynn Bowden] is the best football player in the country," Marrow wrote on Twitter. "Go Big Blue." https://twitter.com/vincemarrow/status/1200896389548564483?s=20 During a media opportunity following the 45-13 blowout victory over the Louisville Cardinals, Marrow continued that high praise, saying Bowden is a "special player." "You don't see all the tough stuff he does, you just see all the nice runs," Marrow said. "With the physical runs, he's a very tough kid. It's probably, us being from Youngstown, [OH], being a blue collar kid, he's a special player." Marrow looked back to the first moment Bowden approached him about playing quarterback on the road against South Carolina and the historic run he has been on since that conversation. At first, it went "in one ear and out the other," but after seeing the final 5-play, 84-yard drive Bowden put forth leading the offense, Marrow knew it was something Kentucky needed to at least consider moving forward. "I'm kind of like Lynn's go-to [connection] with [Mark] Stoops and Eddie [Gran]," Marrow said. "So Lynn, I want to say it was the South Carolina game, he kept coming to me and saying, "Coach, put me at quarterback. Put me at quarterback." A little bit of it is you hear him, and you let it go in one ear and out the other. But as we were struggling, and the glimpse you did see of him in that South Carolina game when he did get in there, he went down the field just like that." After watching him as early as little league, Marrow knew he'd be a special football player. But to see him do the exact same thing now as he did as a little kid, it's "crazy." "I knew that was a thing to come because the kid is a really smart football player," he said. "What did he rush for? 1000 yards in six games? That's just crazy. I think everybody wants to find [the flaws] in what he does, he's just a football player. He's a real good football player. I brag about a lot of football players, but he even amazes me. And I've been seeing this since he was in middle school, even in little league. He was doing the same stuff in little league that he's doing now." But was this the last time we saw Bowden dominate at Kroger Field? Marrow says he has a pretty good idea of what the junior superstar will do, but will let him announce his decision when the time comes. Bowden did, however, admit to Marrow that he is interested in seeing how he'd do playing a full year at quarterback in Lexington. "I know what he's going to do, but I'll leave that to him for when he wants to [officially] decide," Marrow said. "But the way he's been playing quarterback, though, he's been telling me that he'd like to come back and do it a full year. I said, "You and Terry Wilson are good friends, man. You don't want that controversy." I would love for him to come back, but man, like we did with Josh [Allen] and all those guys, we left it up to them. I gave them my opinion when they asked for it, but I'm not going to tell a kid [he needs] to stay. https://twitter.com/LynnBowden_1/status/1200909264828747782?s=20 "Especially with Lynn having a son. He could surprise us and come back, he's not set on leaving. Some guys are set on the NFL going into their junior year, he's not like that. He's just focused on this year. That kid loves this team and this state, he really does. I think over these last six weeks, he has put the team on his back."