As the team takes a bus through campus to the pregame Tiger Walk, Tashawn Bower looks out the windows to take everything in. He walks down Victory Hill into Death Valley, and for the senior linebacker, Tiger Stadium on a Saturday before a big game is a spectacle unlike anything else.
“There are really no words,” Bower said. “It’s so hard to explain. We have such a great fan base.”
It’s a phenomenon that Bower has only experienced as player, having never attended a game as a fan. A native of Somerville, N.J., the only LSU games Bower has been in attendance for are the ones that he’s laced up the cleats and strapped on the shoulder pads.
As a senior, Bower has played in his fair share of games in Tiger Stadium, but last year during the 2015 campaign, he got the opportunity to play slightly closer to home.
September 26, 2015, was a big day for Bower, his family, and his friends as LSU played a road game against Syracuse. Unfortunately for his homecoming, Bower was injured early in the game, but he said it was a great experience being able to play in front of so many of the people that supported him while he was growing up.
Much like those people supported him growing up, he wants to be that support system for other young athletes, and down the road, Bower wants to go back home to New Jersey to become a coach.
“It would be nice to give back to the program and to teach some of the things that I’ve learned on my journey to those guys,” said Bower.
 |
 |
| LSU At the Game programs are available on campus three hours prior to game time and online while supplies last. |
In the meantime, Bower still has his LSU career to finish off. The fourth-year senior is focused on the rest of the season right now.
When Dave Aranda was brought in as LSU’s new defensive coordinator, the decision was made to switch Bower from defensive end to outside linebacker. Aranda says Bower has attacked the position change.
In his new position he is still rushing on some snaps, but Bower says one of the major changes is that he has been dropping back on passes.
Bower believes that the change is for the better, because it allows the defense to disguise some of its coverages more so than if he was just always lining up at defensive end.
Aranda emphasized, “Outside linebackers have to be flexible. If they can rush as well as drop, it gives us the ability to dictate to offenses that the more one-sided their game is, the more one-sided we are.”
With Bower’s experience has come the ability to show the ropes to younger players on the team. One of the players that he has been able to help guide has been sophomore outside linebacker, Arden Key.
“Tashawn took me under his wing when I came in as a freshman,” Key said. “He taught me some stuff, but I also taught him some stuff.”
The senior was able to give some pointers to the young Key, but Bower will be the first to tell you that he’s learned just as much from Key as the sophomore has learned from him.
It’s a common theme throughout this defense, and the New Jersey native refers to it as one big circle of giving.
Just as he helped Key during his freshman year, Bower is able to use his past experience to keep assisting the younger players on the defense.
On top of his in-game experience, Aranda explains that Bower has a great knack for football, understanding offensive formations and knowing what to look for out on the field. Some of that is instinctive while some of the 6-foot-6, 253-pounder’s skills are learned.
When he first started playing football, Bower says he was a running back. At that point in time, he drew inspiration from running back Fred Taylor of the Jacksonville Jaguars.
In high school Bower moved to defensive end, a place where he would stay until this past spring. In that time, he began to draw inspiration from players such as Ray Lewis and Julius Peppers.
All the players that he’s used as inspiration throughout his football career have one thing in common, and that’s that they all had a motor that was always running on the field.
Bower has emulated that, and Aranda concurs, saying, “He’s a grinder and a worker. He’s a technician. He has great ability, but he complements his ability with a great work ethic.”