Finding Falcons is a series that ventures beyond Atlanta's decision to draft a specific player and reveals the why behind doing so. Exclusive interviews with Falcons position coaches, area scouts and the decision-makers at the top detail the moments that solidified the decision to draft each of the men who make up their 2025 draft class. For five consecutive weeks, we'll tell those stories.
Previous installments: Jalon Walker | James Pearce Jr. | Xavier Watts
Stories by Tori McElhaney
FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — There's one game Dante Fargnoli circles on his calendar every year: Texas vs. Oklahoma.
As rivalries go, this one's history is storied. That goes without saying. And for an area scout on the road, the game creates an atmosphere of competition in the way few others can. It's these four quarters of the Red River Rivalry that enhances or dulls opinions, especially Fargnoli's. In this game, you either show up or get shown up. Fargnoli has been known to use it as a fertile hunting ground for players who could one day wind up on an NFL roster.
In fact, it's where a young Bijan Robinson first blipped on Fargnoli's radar a few years ago, long before he was draft eligibile. It was only a matter of time before someone else caught Fargnoli's eyes in this game. The player who did so this go around was Billy Bowman Jr., an Oklahoma defensive back who's aggressive nature was on full display play after play in one of college football's biggest games.
"With Billy, every single time you cut on that game, every time you went to that game, Billy was making big plays," Fargnoli said. "Whether it was a big PBU, or a TFL, or interception — Billy has always done something in the biggest game to show up. That's something we always take note of. When he's young, you're not really focusing on him, but you just can't help but notice him making plays."
There's a goal-line hit on a Texas receiver that knocks the ball in the air and gives possession back to Oklahoma. There's a goal-line tackle on 4th-and-2 that stops a Texas touchdown. Turn on the Texas-Oklahoma games of the last couple years, you'll see Bowman. You'll feel his presence. And he is able to do so with a bag of skills that has been developed over the years.
Physically, Bowman moves with the fluidity of a cornerback. Mentally, he has the brains of a safety, capable of diagnosing plays on the fly thanks to his background as a coach's kid who grew up with the game and its intricacies. At his core, though? He's an enforcer.
"He's not the tallest guy. He's not the longest guy. But in his heart, he's like 250 pounds," Fargnoli said. "He doesn't care who's in front of him. He's going to run right through that person."
Its a mentality that served — and continues to serve — Bowman well as he did a little bit of everything for the Sooners' secondary. Free safety, strong safety, nickel, you name it, there's tape of Bowman doing it. But those aggressive, enforcer traits? They show up the closer and closer Bowman gets to the line of scrimmage. It's what ultimately sold the Falcons on drafting him, inserting competition into a highly contested nickel spot on the 2025 roster.
"I think there is a level of toughness that is needed to play inside there because you are taking on linemen, you're taking on bubble screens, you're going in the backfield against running backs — there is so much that is asked of you and it's almost like a linebacker-ish role," Fargnoli said. "You have to be wired that way to do it, and he's got that wiring."
It manifests in multiple ways, Jerry Gray explained.
"The first thing that you see when you watch Billy is that aggressiveness," the Falcons' assistant head coach/defense said. "There's an aggressiveness when the ball is in the air. He's going after it. When he's running down the football field, he's going after it. That was the thing that was intriguing and then you can see as the game went on, Billy made more plays. He started communicating. He's very energetic.
"And ultimately, when you put the tape on, you see everybody feeding off of him, rather than him feeding off of someone else."
When the ball is snapped, Gray continued, Bowman is going somewhere. There's little hesitation in his game. He's decisive. And that decisiveness paired with his aggression helped him to the tune of nearly 200 tackles, 11 interceptions and 14 passes defended throughout his career with Oklahoma.
In Gray's mind, Bowman's play also shows shimmers of another player he's coached before: Blaine Bishop.
During his years with Gray when the two overlapped with the Tennessee Titans in the late 90s, Bishop was considered one of the league's top aggressive, hard-hitting safeties.
"Billy looks like that," Gray said. "He was in that mode at Oklahoma."
Now, the hope is that mode translates to the NFL in a year in which Bowman could be fighting for a starting spot with players like Dee Alford and Clark Phillips III at nickel.
Still, there's something about Bowman's wiring that makes the Falcons believe in his ceiling. And if that ceiling looks anything like Bishop's? Or even the game-changing moments of Bowman's own skill in those Texas-Oklahoma games? It'll be a ceiling of value for Atlanta.
