Todd Bowles Jr. played football at LIU last season, now he's on his dad's staff with the NFL's Buccaneers

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. – A safety who played the last two seasons at LIU will make his NFL preseason debut at MetLife Stadium on Friday night.

Todd Bowles Jr., the son of former Jets and current Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles, is now a defensive assistant for the Bucs. He was with the team during the joint practices in Florham Park this week, now working with Tampa Bay’s safeties on the same fields where he once ran around picking up stray footballs as a middle schooler, and on Friday he’ll be part of the team’s preseason opener against the Jets.

It’s the first step in what he hopes will be a long career in the profession.

“I’ve seen what it’s done for my dad, just the things it has given him and how much he loves the game,” Bowles Jr. told Newsday after Wednesday’s workout. “I think I can love it the same way. I’m excited for my first season.”

Being at the Jets facility this week brought back a lot of memories for him. Now 23, he was an adolescent the last time he was here when his father coached the team from 2015-18.

“The place, it looks a little different, but mostly the same,” he said gazing around at the landscape and construction that is adding space onto the main building. “I remember a lot about it. It was a good part of my childhood.”

He was happy to come across a few Jets staffers from those days who remembered him, too.

“They were surprised to see how much I’ve grown,” he said.

One of those was the Jets’ starting quarterback. Geno Smith played for his father for two seasons with the Jets and re-signed here this offseason.

“Seeing him growing up, it reminded me that I’m getting older in this league,” Smith said. “Coach Bowles has always been a great coach. He was good to me when I was here and I have a tremendous amount of respect for him. It was also good to see his son out there coaching with him. I know that’s gotta be a special feeling for him. That’s pretty cool to see.”

Last year at this time Bowles was getting ready for his second season at LIU. He began his college career at Rutgers but suffered shoulder injuries and was looking for a fresh start in the transfer portal. That’s when he first heard of Long Island University.

“Coach Ronald Cooper reached out to me, he’s a real cool guy, and he kept it 100 with me so I appreciated that,” Bowles said. “I loved it. Coach Cooper is a great guy. LIU is a great school, and I had a great time. It was a close-knit group and I really liked that about it.”

He was even there for his FCS school’s first win over an FBS opponent, a victory at Eastern Michigan last September. It was the highlight of his career and so far the highlight of the program’s history.

“It was awesome,” he said. “Everybody came out prepared to win. Nobody expected to go out and lose like how you would think we might. So it was a great experience for sure.”

Bowles was a leader on the team even if the shoulder injuries prevented him from being a productive on-field participant a lot of the time.

“Coming in and being able to be mature about the situation and get guys to band together was the most important thing,” he said of his main role on the team. “The key was having confidence. Confidence in myself and trying to instill confidence in the team. Tell them ‘Guys, just because it’s FCS doesn’t mean anything. We’re all trying to get to the same place. FCS, FBS, it’s all the same, we all have the same goal.’ Just making sure they knew that.”

He still had one season of eligibility left thanks to a medical redshirt season but after another shoulder surgery following the 2025 campaign doctors recommended he stop playing.

So it was goodbye to LIU, hello to the NFL, a rare jump that is obviously aided by the rare circumstances of having a father as a head coach in the league.

Bowles Jr. acknowledges that dynamic. He didn’t ignore it as a player when having the same name as his father put a target on him and he doesn’t now as a 23-year-old coach.

“It’s an honor to have the name,” he said. “I’m happy. My pops has been able to go far in this profession so I take pride in it and I don’t shy away from it.”

He says the Bucs players don’t treat him too differently because he is the head coach’s kid.

“That’s gonna happen no matter what,” he said. “You just be yourself and they’ll come around. But the guys have been super chill about it. No one has treated me different that I know of. It’s been good from that standpoint.”

Eventually he may even make a name for himself in this league. He’ll certainly carry the lessons from his father and his alma mater wherever he goes.

“I’m blessed to have the position I am in,” he said, “and I am doing my absolute best to make it work.”

By Tom Rock

tom.rock@newsday.com@TomRock_Newsday

Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.