Major offer comes for Bowman

Gerald Bowman is friends with Nebraska wide receiver Stanley Jean-Baptiste so the Woodland Hills (Calif.) Pierce C.C. safety has been pushing his buddy to get the Huskers' coaching staff involved with him.

It finally paid off Wednesday when Nebraska became the latest national program to offer Bowman, a 6-foot-1, 210-pounder who also has offers from Arizona, Arizona State, Cal, Cincinnati, Colorado, Ole Miss, Oregon State, South Florida, Tennessee, UCLA, Utah, Washington State and West Virginia.

"It's a big offer for me," Bowman said. "It's funny because one of my guys who's now over there is Stanley Jean-Baptiste so he and I have been in contact and I was telling him to hook me up with the coaches.

"I was waiting to hear from the coaches and they got coach (Corey) Raymond as the secondary coach and we've been in contact. He told me to give him a call so I did and I talked to him and he said they knew about me and they were going to send somebody out to see me. It just happened so fast I didn't even know they were going to offer."

At first, Bowman said Nebraska's coaching staff told him they planned to wait until they saw him in person but after watching his highlight film they were sold that he was worthy and they wanted to get him on their board. Bowman is happy the Huskers offered because he has lots of interest in the program.

"Eventually, I ended up talking to the d-coordinator (Carl Pelini) and he told me my style of play fits their defense and I'm the type of player they were looking for," Bowman said.

"They were going to wait until they came out to see me but he told me about it now that they wanted to offer. It's a big deal because Nebraska has such tradition especially for defensive backs to go there and be successful."

There is a possibility Bowman could visit Nebraska this summer but because it would be an unofficial visit he has to find the finances to make it work. Plans are coming together for Bowman to visit Arizona State for the second time, see Oregon and Oregon State and possibly make it to Tennessee if it's feasible.

The Ducks have been showing increased interest as well recently but according to Bowman secondary coach John Neal said the coaching staff plans to be patient with sending out offers.

"Last week coach Neal was by and they still haven't offered," Bowman said.

"They're highly interested but they want to make sure it's the right move for them being that I'm a JC guy and they have players there who are in the position who can possibly start. I guess that's the hesitation. He informed me they're interested in offering and to just be patient with them."