Gophers have holes at cornerback that transfer Jaylen Bowden could help fill

During live scrimmage action in Gophers spring practice, wideouts and cornerbacks exchanged several highlight moments in heated matchups.

But a newcomer to the Gophers defense, junior cornerback Jaylen Bowden, consistently found himself involved in the action.

Bowden, who transferred to the program from North Carolina Central in December, has navigated a steep learning curve throughout spring ball going from the FCS to the Big Ten.

“Bowden took a huge leap this week, more than any other week,” Gophers coach P.J. Fleck said. “When you’re at an FCS or Group of Five team and you come up to this level, get here in January, it’s like drinking out of a fire hose.”

This spring, the Gophers are embracing the challenge of developing a new-look cornerback room. The team’s top two corners from 2024 — Justin Walley and Ethan Robinson — both exhausted their college eligibility at last season’s conclusion.

“We’ve just got to get [the reinforcements] a lot of reps and see what they’re capable of,” Fleck said. “They’re pretty equal across the board in terms of our corner reps.”

Bowden, a winter transfer portal arrival, is looking to provide a solution to the Gophers’ uncertainty in the secondary. Last season, the Charlotte, N.C., native posted 23 tackles, one interception and eight pass breakups.

“I really like what he provides [in terms of] length,” Fleck said. “It’s just playing up to this level, as we’ve talked about in the past. … It’s a different level, and that’s why I’m so glad they’re here and they’re going through spring ball.”

The Gophers aren’t unfamiliar with transitioning cornerbacks from the FCS to Power Four-caliber competition. In 2024, Robinson — a former Bucknell standout — became a key cornerback cog during his only season in Dinkytown.

“You go back to where Ethan was at this time [last year], they’re pretty close,” Fleck said of Bowden.

Before Robinson’s three-interception, eight-pass breakup season, Elon transfer Tre’Von Jones racked up 53 tackles and two picks in 2023.

Bowden’s potential as a lockdown cornerback was evident from early on in his North Carolina high school career, according to Mallard Creek football coach Kennedy Tinsley. But Tinsley said Bowden struggled with finding consistency during his first few seasons with Mallard Creek.

As he entered his senior year of high school, Bowden was an unranked recruit on every composite database — and he had fielded no Division I offers.

Tinsley said the talent was always there, but Bowden took significant accountability as he geared up for his final season at the high school level.

“When Jaylen became a senior, that’s when he realized, ‘Man, I gotta figure out what’s next,’” Tinsley said. “Him being overlooked from a standpoint of recruiting was really on him. At that point, he was willing to do the work that it took to improve the situation.”

After he turned in an all-conference season as a senior, Bowden received an opportunity to suit up for an HBCU just two hours away from his hometown. He bided his time in Durham, seeing sporadic in-game reps as a freshman before earning a starting role this past season.

But rather than staying complacent in a familiar spot, Bowden has embraced a new challenge with the Gophers. The repetitions are fast, and the team’s wideouts pack sufficient physicality and finesse to push the transfer to the limit on every play.

“It’s always hard in terms of transition,” Collins said. “But now, he’s getting to learn how we do things here, being more comfortable with the scheme [and] how we do it as a program.”