By John Frierson
Staff Writer

Chauncey Bowens played in four games as a true freshman last fall, running the ball 16 times for 58 yards. The Georgia football team’s rushing attack was anchored by two other backs, fellow freshman Nate Frazier and junior transfer Trevor Etienne, who each had more than 120 carries and topped more than 600 yards.

Etienne is now in the NFL with the Carolina Panthers — he had a couple of key runs late in their win over Miami last Sunday — and Bowens has stepped in alongside Frazier as the Bulldogs’ lead backs. Bowens, from Port St. Lucie, Fla., said he’s a much different player from the guy who took the field a year ago.

“No doubt, I’ve made leaps and bounds,” he said. “Just being able to practice against the guys that I go against, ain’t nothing like it.”

Bowens said his “mental game” is the area that has improved the most: “Being able to process information, and take it to the field. I’m also, obviously, physically getting older and just developing as a player; getting stronger and more conditioned, faster, all types of stuff.”

Heading into the No. 10-ranked Bulldogs’ game at Auburn on Saturday night, the 5-foot-11 and 225-pound Bowens leads Georgia with 56 carries and 310 yards on the ground. Frazier, who is 20 pounds lighter at 5-10 and 205, is right behind Bowens with 50 carries for 253 yards. Bowens has three rushing touchdowns, and Frazier has two. Quarterback Gunner Stockton actually leads the team with five rushing TDs.

A year ago, when Bowens was getting his first touches, he looked like he was going to be a bruiser; the kind of back that is more capable of running through tackles than sprinting past defenders. If that was ever the case, it certainly isn’t now. Multiple times this season, particularly in the past two weeks, Bowens has shown everyone that he’s got more than enough quickness and speed to blow past would-be tacklers.

“He’s a do-it-all-type,” Georgia cornerback Daylen Everette said. “He has the power to run you over, but then he also has the shiftiness to make you miss. That’s something I really respect about his game. Going against him in practice, you see how he’s getting better, and then he shows you in the game. He’s been doing a great job.”

In Georgia’s first two games, wins over Marshall and Austin Peay, Bowens had a combined 17 carries for 89 yards. He scored the first two touchdowns of his career against the Govs, on runs of 2 and 14 yards. In the Bulldogs’ overtime win at Tennessee, Bowens had a 13-yard rush but the rest was tough going, and he finished with 32 yards on 12 carries.

Two weeks later, against Alabama, Bowens had his breakout game, rushing 12 times for a career-high 119 yards and a 2-yard touchdown. He had runs of 29 and 43 yards in the game, showing off as much speed as he ever has in a Bulldog uniform. He also caught a career-high four passes for 22 yards. Last week against Kentucky, Bowens made his first career start and led the team with 70 yards on 15 carries in three quarters of action (the starters were on the bench in the fourth).

Bowens said he grew up wanting to be like a guy about his size, Philadelphia Eagles star back Saquon Barkley, who is listed at 6-0 and 233 pounds. Barkley helped lead the Eagles to the Super Bowl title last season and rushed for 2,005 yards, earning NFL Offensive Player of the Year honors. Bowens also likes another guy built a bit like him: the Atlanta Falcons’ explosive Bijan Robinson, who is 5-11 and 215 pounds. 

“I try to watch a lot of what they do and take a lot from their games,” he said.

Bowens first got into football because his older brothers played. He said he didn’t play any other sports until high school, when he ran track, played lacrosse, soccer and one season of basketball.

“Lacrosse kind of taught me how to play defense,” Bowens, an offensive weapon in football throughout high school with 33 career touchdowns, said with a smile, “even though I never had to. I had to learn how to guard people. I would say lacrosse is the closest thing to football outside of playing actual football.”

Georgia tight end Oscar Delp was a standout lacrosse player at West Forsyth High School in Cumming, Ga., and one of the greatest football players ever, Jim Brown, was a star lacrosse player at Syracuse. Bowens has left his lacrosse days behind, and his football future looks brighter than ever.

Bowens said he first began to think about where football might take him after his first varsity game in high school, when he ran for well over 100 yards and scored a touchdown.

“I wasn’t nervous going into it, but I was definitely anxious,” he said. “I remember thinking, I’ve done this before, but this is a new level, so I’ve got to change. But once I played and had a really good game, I was like, all right, I can do this.”

He’s proven the same thing at Georgia.

Assistant Sports Communications Director John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men’s Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files.