Clint Bowen has, at various points in his career, served the Kansas football team as a defensive back, graduate assistant, special teams coach, tight ends coach, running backs coach, safeties coach, co-defensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, linebackers coach, interim head coach and assistant head coach.
On Saturday, he will take on a new role: opponent.
A year removed from coaching at Lawrence High School, the longtime Chesty Lion and Jayhawk will find himself back in town as the interim defensive coordinator for Oklahoma State, a school he originally joined as a quality control coach in December before several waves of staff turnover. The Cowboys are coming to Lawrence to face Bowen’s old school at 3 p.m. on Saturday.
“My family’s still there,” Bowen said last Saturday, according to GoPokes. “A lot of friends and family. There’ll be a lot of ticket requests for this one. It’ll be a surreal feeling standing on the sideline — the opposite sideline — for a game. But it’s an opportunity for us to go play a Big 12 football game. This’ll be about our players, and I’ll be happy to be on the ride.”
After the separate firings of OSU’s legendary head coach Mike Gundy and its briefly employed defensive coordinator Todd Grantham, Bowen has found himself in a prominent role back in the Big 12 — working under interim head coach Doug Meacham, who also once spent a season and a half as KU’s offensive coordinator for David Beaty.
“I coached there for a smidge,” Meacham said on Monday. “Had a cup of coffee in Lawrence. Todd Bradford, one of our recruiting people, he was there (as linebackers coach and briefly safeties coach). Clint, he’ll have half of Lawrence, Kansas, there. His wife, family, everybody.”
Meacham and Bowen have inherited an unenviable situation. OSU reloaded with a fresh staff (including Meacham and Bowen) and new roster after going 3-9 (0-9 Big 12) in 2024, only to start 2025 by beating FCS UT Martin but lose 69-3 at Oregon and 19-12 at home to Tulsa before Gundy got fired.
Meacham, who was originally the offensive cooordinator, has lost his first five games at the helm, all conference contests, by 18, 28, 22, 32 and 42 points (the most recent result, against Texas Tech on Saturday). He has made additional coaching changes along the way, like replacing Grantham with Bowen and giving play calling duties to quarterbacks coach Kevin Johns.
It makes for a bit of an unusual film-breakdown process for KU coach Lance Leipold and his staff as they prepare for the Cowboys this week.
“The earlier games with the other people, especially on the defensive side, you probably don’t put as much weight into it when you do your breakdowns,” Leipold said. “Your percentages, sometimes you’ll divide the two and then you’ll have it combined to look for the similarities of what they’ve done with, but it’s a little bit of a balance.”
Leipold is well acquainted with Bowen, who started at LHS the same year Leipold began his time at KU. They spoke during the process that resulted in Leipold taking the KU job; then, when Leipold arrived, Leipold’s son Landon and Bowen’s son Banks (previously his quarterback at LHS, now a backup at OSU) played on the same summer baseball team.
“I admire him for taking a chance to go back and coach in high school and have a chance to be the father he wants to be through that,” Leipold said. “I know this: I know he’s going to put his heart and soul into this week, OK, and that’s not going to be surprising. There’ll be a lot there, I’m sure he’s probably working off of coffee and Red Bull or something right now. But a lot of respect for him.”
Meacham, too, said he knew Bowen would be “juiced to go back there and take a crack at his alma mater.”
“You don’t want to earmark a particular game or circle a game, the most important game’s the next one,” Meacham said, “but for him, the next one’s the most important, but also there’s some extra incentive because he’s going home.”
Bowen said it won’t quite be his first visit to the visitors’ locker room at the Booth. He spent time there one year as part of a spring game.
“Other than that, this’ll be the first time,” he said.
Lawrence High head coach Clint Bowen yells out instructions to his players against Lawrence Free State Friday, Oct. 25, 2024, in Lawrence.
Mike Gunnoe/Special to the Journal-World