As a true freshman, McCowen definitely showed some moxie and a skill level that seems very promising, but the big question to me is, do you burn his redshirt on an 0-12 season, or run with Shrout the rest of the '22 season while McCowen adds weight and strength. Is having McCowen with 4 years of eligibility more valuable to the program than him taking a beating while he's at 170 lbs just to "get his feet wet" against P5 defenses? Against the same defense and the weather conditions, I think Shrout would have put up better numbers and avoided some of the sacks. Would we have won, hell no, but I think McCowen's eligibility is worth discussing.
