The first time transfer wide receiver Coleman Owen stepped foot in Athens, he knew it was where he wanted to spend his final year playing college football. From the players and coaches to the campus and community, Owen fell in love with the idea of playing football for Ohio.
“The fans and the support here, all the players and everything, it wasn’t a lot like what I had at my last school,” Owen said. “Everyone here is super supportive, and they help me out a ton. Any help that I need I can go to the community or my coaches or whoever, and everyone accepts me.”
Owen, a Gilbert, Arizona, native, didn’t plan on transferring. Life was pretty good at FCS Northern Arizona, where Owen was the No. 1 receiver. In five years with the Lumberjacks, Owen tallied the 9th-best mark in Northern Arizona history for receiving yards — 2,286 total — and receiving touchdowns—17 total. Owen was on pace to break school records in 2024 with the Lumberjacks, but his career was flipped on its head when most of the coaching staff was fired.
“I wasn’t planning on going into the portal … Ohio ended up reaching out pretty late, early January; I came on a visit, and that weekend, I just fell in love with the coaching staff and the players,” Owen said.
Northern Arizona had a subpar couple of years before Owen transferred, with a combined record of 13-20 from 2021 to 2023, which led to the mass exodus of the coaching staff. A big reason why Owen came to Ohio was to win.
“Ultimately, my goal in the portal was to find a place that wins games,” Owen said. “I didn’t win a lot of games in my first five years of college.”
Owen is a long way from home in Athens. Despite this, it didn’t take him long to fit right in with the Ohio offense and quarterback Parker Navarro.
Navarro, from Tempe, Arizona, about 30 minutes down the road from where Owen grew up, is a name that he had heard before Ohio, but while attending a Bible study together in Owen’s first few weeks on campus, the two quickly sparked a friendship.
“I remember just a few days after I was here, I was at a Bible study with (Navarro), and he just invited me over the night after,” Owen said. “I ended up hanging out with him and a couple other guys, and we’ve become really good friends after that … He’s one of my best friends. I’ve known him for less than a year now, but we’ve grown our relationship with each other, and that translates onto the field.”
Owen and Navarro, who bonded over golf, faith and football, have a tight friendship, which is evident on the field. The quarterback and receiver duo are roommates off the field and constantly communicate about all things, football or not.
“It’s just a brotherhood deal, just doing all the hard work together, being in the weight room every day and on the field every day together, and just going through all the trials and things we go through,” Owen said.
Including first-time starter Navarro and transfer receiver Owen, the Ohio offense features seven players who are either first-time starters for Ohio or players with minimal experience playing for the team.
In an offense with such little experience, Owen became one of the most vocal leaders early in pre-season camp. Just a few weeks before the season started, Owen was named among three offensive captains for Ohio. Among the team’s six captains, Owen is the only one who hasn’t been with the team before this season.
“There were a lot of guys on that sheet of paper that we could vote on that deserved that spot,” Owen said. “Just seeing that they voted me as a captain was awesome.”
Owen has helped the team come together in the offseason after so many departures at the end of 2023. The newly dawned team captain said he and a group of guys like to get out on the golf course between practices and get together for Bible studies.
The occasional golf outing has become a well-endeared event for the team. The usual foursome on the golf course is Owen and Navarro, with defensemen Ben McNaboe and Blake Leake. Other players trickle in for the occasional round to get in on the action.
“We’re all super competitive, we’re all athletes, and that’s just what we love to do,” Owen said. “I think being out (on the golf course) competing against each other, but at the end of the day, knowing this is my teammate and I need to be able to compete with this guy, but also love this guy at the same time. It translates to football.”
On a team with so many newcomers, Ohio already seems to be bonded like a team that has been on the field together for years; Owen is just happy to be a part of it.
“I think we can break records,” Owen said. “We’re focusing one week at a time, trying to win games, but I think we have a lot of potential, and we can really do something special this year.”
