Quarterback to Back: Emory Jones is Back in Stillwater in Consecutive Years

Alan Bowman will get his first taste of homecoming as a Cowboy, squaring off with another journeyman QB that’s got even more experience than him.

Like Bowman, Cincinnati quarterback Emory Jones is also on his third collegiate stop since 2018. But he’s played in 52 games compared to Bowman’s 33.

After four years at the University of Florida, Jones spent last year at Arizona State (this will be his second trip to Stillwater in as many years), before landing at Cincinnati this offseason. Before we get into Jones’ 2023 results and his history against OSU, here are the two passers’ numbers, side by side.

QB2B	Bowman	Jones
Att.	212	217
Comp.	124	133
Pct.	58.5%	61.3%
Yds	1294	1484
Yds/Att	6.1	6.8
TD	6	13
INT	4	8
Rating	115.33	131.14
QBR	55.3 (82nd)	61.0 (63rd)
Rushing TDs	1	3

The former five-star prospect is much more of a run threat than Bowman, rushing for a career-high 758 yards in 2021 at Florida (58.3 per game). He’s on pace to match that this year, averaging 57.9 so far in 2023. But he’s also topping Bowman in most passing categories like completion percentage, yards per game and attempt, passer rating, QBR and TD:INT ratio.

But Bowman is leading in the most important QB stat: Ws.

Not all of that blame falls on Jones. The Bearcats have been in a state of transition with the departure of Luke Fickell to Wisconsin, who was replaced by first-year head coach Scott Satterfield. And the Bearcats returned only one starter from last year’s offense, center Gavin Gerhardt.

Of course, Jones is one of those new faces, but he’s no stranger to Stillwater. He played inside BPS last season as Arizona State’s starter. The Cowboys won that game 34-17. Jones went 12-of-25 for 223 years and a touchdown. OSU sacked him three times.

While Bowman has played the role of facilitator to star talent like Ollie Gordon and Brennan Presley, Jones has done his best to captain an offense trying to keep its head above water. But containing Jones will still be a chore. He was this close to pulling off the comeback win against Baylor last week.

The two veteran QBs will square off inside Boone Pickens Stadium at 7 p.m. Saturday night.