Josh McCown nev­er pres­sured his old­est son, Owen, to become a quarterback.

It hap­pened anyway.

“I would come home from work. He and his lit­tle broth­er would have a ball wait­ing,” said Josh McCown, who played 18 sea­sons at quar­ter­back in the NFL.  “They want­ed to cov­er each oth­er with one as the receiv­er and one as the DB. We did that for hours on end.”

That back­yard fun set a foun­da­tion for the inevitable.

“It’s all that my broth­er and I knew,” Owen McCown said. “Get­ting to watch my dad on TV and want­i­ng to be just like him.”

Flash for­ward to now present day. The next step on his foot­ball jour­ney hap­pens in Boul­der as the lone high school quar­ter­back signed to Colorado’s ear­ly 2022 recruit­ing class.

The 6‑foot‑2, 175-pound McCown starred for Rusk in East Texas, putting up huge num­bers as a senior: 262-of-388 pass­ing for 3,362 yards with 36 touch­downs and just four inter­cep­tions. He also had 11 rush­ing touchdowns.

“He a has a great per­spec­tive on the game and how to play the quar­ter­back posi­tion,” Rusk head coach Tomas Sit­ton said. “His work eth­ic is sec­ond to none. He’s out throw­ing a ball around all the time and work­ing on the lit­tle things that real­ly make him a great quar­ter­back. He loves study­ing video and his dad helps him with that.”

Josh McCown served as wide receivers coach at Rusk last sea­son and the family’s youngest son, Aiden, caught var­si­ty pass­es from his big broth­er. The elder McCown said it was “like we made up for lost time” after a busy NFL life cre­at­ed absences from many of their games grow­ing up. It also gave Josh the oppor­tu­ni­ty to help mold his old­est son into a cov­et­ed col­lege quarterback. 

“Prob­a­bly after Owen’s fresh­man year is when we real­ly pushed the gas on work­ing toward play­ing quar­ter­back,” Josh McCown said. “I know in this day of spe­cial­iza­tion, that’s prob­a­bly way too late. But our sit­u­a­tion is unique. I didn’t want him to feel like he had to play quar­ter­back. … To his cred­it, he’s always asked and want­ed to put the work in. He’s always want­ed more. In that regard, I’m very proud of him.”

Owen McCown is list­ed as a three-star prospect. He had schol­ar­ship offers from Van­der­bilt and Vir­ginia Tech, among oth­ers. He stuck with CU despite a last-minute change at offen­sive coor­di­na­tor. McCown signed with the Buffs two days before Mike San­ford was brought in to replace Dar­rin Chi­averi­ni.

McCown’s rela­tion­ship with CU head coach Karl Dor­rell eased con­cerns about join­ing a pro­gram in tran­si­tion. The Buffs are in dire need of sta­ble quar­ter­back play. Fresh­man Bren­don Lewis strug­gled over a 4–8 sea­son this past fall while Ten­nessee trans­fer J.T. Shrout was rehab­bing from sea­son-end­ing knee surgery.

What gives McCown the chance to star at CU? 

His father — with NFL career pass­ing totals of 17,731 yards and 98 touch­downs — explained what makes his son special. 

“His abil­i­ty to process and play fast,” Josh McCown said. “He’s extreme­ly accu­rate and has a lev­el of req­ui­site arm skill that’s need­ed for col­lege. What sets him apart is how fast he can play and how well he over­comes mis­takes. … I think he is more phys­i­cal­ly gift­ed from a pass­ing stand­point from either myself or my broth­ers were at his age. There are sim­i­lar­i­ties but there are differences.

“He’s not quite my size. But he spins it bet­ter than I did.”

Owen McCown takes that praise with a grain of salt. “I don’t know a tougher foot­ball play­er than my dad,” he said.

But McCown is embrac­ing his NFL lineage.

“He likes to say that I was bet­ter than him at this point. I don’t know,” Owen McCown said. “It’s some­thing I think about and keep qui­et con­fi­dence with me. You can do it and live up to the name.”