SIDNEY — After Isaiah Bowser fumbled during a Week 10 game against Greenville last year, Sidney coach Adam Doenges offered his usual advice to players after a turnover. He realized soon after the conversation the advice wasn’t really needed.
“He came out, and I told him to make sure he had both hands on it,” Doenges said. “I don’t really know why I did that since he hadn’t fumbled all year.”
Bowser, a 6-foot-1, 205-pound senior, has emerged in the last three seasons as one of the state’s top running backs. He’s amassed 4,421 rushing yards on 646 carries (6.8 yards per carry) and has scored 58 rushing touchdowns.
Bowser has impressed plenty of people, including the coaching staff at Northwestern. Though he was recruited as a safety early in his career, the Wildcats offered him a scholarship as a running back earlier this year. He gave a verbal commitment to Northwestern last summer.
Bowser’s start this year has been his best, as he’s gained 1,634 rushing yards with 19 touchdowns in the first six games.
Bowser has had three fumbles during his 646 carries the last three years, including his Week 10 fumble against the Green Wave in 2016.
“Since I was little, my grandpa got on me about holding onto the ball,” Bowser said. “When I was little I fumbled a couple of times, and I can still remember him telling me about it. Coming into this season, one of my biggest goals was not dropping the ball.”
And though Bowser has had 192 carries this season, he has yet to fumble. The closest he has come was last week against Piqua when a handoff hit his arm and fell to the ground, but he wasn’t charged with a fumble by the team’s statisticians.
“That’s really an amazing thing about him having that few fumbles,” Troy coach Matt Burgbacher said. “The game is so much faster and more physical. That’s a very credible stat, especially when you look at his number of carries he’s had. That’s pretty much amazing to only give the ball up three times.”
Doenges said the lack of fumbles is a sign of Bowser’s ability to withstand hits from defenders.
“It’s a real source of pride for him in making sure that the ball doesn’t come out,” Doenges said. “Offensively, we’ve always stressed as a program to take care of the ball. Sometimes I think kids think they have to fight for every inch, but we try to say that fighting sometimes gets that ball popped out. We want to keep the ball in the end. He’s done a nice job with that, especially with the amount of attention he gets.”
Bowser has received plenty of attention from opposing defenses since he emerged as a consistent running threat early in his sophomore season, but he was the focus point of most team’s defensive gameplans last year.
After Sidney lost starting quarterback Andre Gordon following the first game of the season and backup Jack Feazel following Week 4, the Yellow Jackets were hurting offensively. With a few other injuries, particularly to lineman, the team was forced to rely on Bowser for the vast majority of the offense.
Bowser averaged 34.6 carries per game the last five weeks and gained 111 yards or more against every team but Troy, which is the only team in the last two seasons that has held Bowser below 100 yards. In the Trojans’ 31-6 win in Week 8, Bowser had 51 yards on 26 carries.
“They were down to running a wide receiver (Dillon King) at quarterback at that point,” Burgbacher said. “That was a situation where we could keep seven in the box and maybe even get eight in the box. We weren’t going to let Isaiah Bowser beat us, we were going to force them to beat us some way else. Fortunately for us they kept going with Isaiah, and if he was at Troy, I would too.”
It’s harder for opponents to stop Bowser when Gordon’s in the backfield, though — which Burgbacher knows. Gordon, who is ranked as one of the best quarterback prospects in the state by Scout.com, has thrown for 785 yards and rushed for 271 in four complete games this year.
Gordon threw for 1,373 yards and rushed for 868 as a freshman in 2015. In Sidney’s 52-28 win over Troy that season, Gordon threw for 105 yards and one touchdown and rushed for 101 yards and three scores while Bowser ran for 153 yards and two touchdowns.
“They have a lot of good athletes on the outside, too, and with both those guys back there, they’re extremely difficult (to stop),” Burgbacher said. “… When you’ve got a quarterback that’s a threat to run, that’s an extra running back back there, another threat to defend. And when he’s got the ball in his hands, it’s almost like two guys in one with a threat to run and a threat to throw.
“It’s going to be just like two years ago when we play them. You can’t just worry about (Bowser), you’ve got five guys you’ve got to worry about. That makes it more difficult.”
Burgbacher said even when a defender is in position to tackle Bowser, it’s far from a guarantee that’s the end of the play.
“The biggest thing Isaiah has working for him is his vision,” Burgbacher said. “He sees holes where you think, ‘Well, there’s no way,’ and then, boom — he’s popped through there. I think that is his greatest asset. Any running back, even if you run a 5.5 40-yard dash, can get good yards if they have good vision. With Isaiah as big and as fast as he is, with vision to see those holes, he’s got the full package.”
No running back can run at full potential without the support of a good offensive line, and Doenges said Bowser has benefited from an improved line this year. Sidney’s offensive line consists of Anthony Brussell, Cooper Collingsworth, Dylan Smith, Dylan Vanderpool and Demont Rucker. Devan Rogers, a defensive lineman who is verbally committed to Toledo, also sees time on the offensive line.
“They’re starting to gel really well,” Doenges said. “Sometimes before with our line, it’s been a Chinese fire drill in trying to find what parts work. We wanted to go into this season with five guys that we know are our five, who are proud to be our offensive lineman.
“… Those guys are really doing a nice job. We design things just to get (Bowser) just by that point of attack, two to three yards by the line of scrimmage. Those lineman know they’ve got to hold that double team and move that double team. They know they don’t get a lot of the glory, but they love watching him get the interviews and the press and that kind of stuff.”
Bowser has set numerous records at Sidney, including the single-game rushing record against Xenia in Week 4 this season with 413 yards. But he said he’s most proud that Sidney has been able to get off to a 6-0 start.
“This is the season we’ve been dreaming of,” Bowser said. “Just as long as we keep rolling, I’m happy.”
The Yellow Jackets, who are ranked sixth in the state in Division II in the Associated Press state poll, host Tippecanoe in a GWOC American North Division game at 7 p.m. on Thursday.
