SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Drayk Bowen understands the opportunity in front of him with Notre Dame football.
Entering his sophomore season, Bowen has a realistic chance to become Notre Dame’s starting middle linebacker. Even though Bowen wants to and continues to play baseball for the Irish, he needed to know if he was stretching himself too thin. That led to an honest conversation with linebackers coach Max Bullough about if he should put baseball to the side this spring.
“And I don't want to tell him that,” Bullough said Tuesday after Notre Dame’s ninth spring practice. “The kid loves baseball. We talked. This is your priority, Drayk. We have a competitive room. So, if you're tired, if you can't be at things, then you're gonna get passed up.
“So, if you can handle your schedule, and the big thing for him has been can you handle your rest? Because that's what gets taken from is his rest. And he's been able to do that so far.”
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Tuesdays are supposed to be Bowen’s rest days this spring when football and baseball activities are optional for him. But the football team moved its practice from Monday to Tuesday this week, so Bowen was back on the practice fields Tuesday morning. He’s been active in all nine spring practices and doesn’t plan on missing any leading into the Blue-Gold Game on April 20.
That same day, Bowen’s baseball teammates will be hosting Boston College for the second game of a three-game series. Though he’s been traveling with the baseball team this spring, Bowen hasn’t been asked to play much. The 6-foot-2, 234-pound Bowen made three game appearances to date. He scored the go-ahead run as a pinch runner on a Feb. 18 victory over Rice, scored again as a pinch runner in a March 3 victory over Tennessee Tech and struck out looking as a pinch hitter in his first career plate appearance in a March 12 victory over Radford.
Knowing his opportunities are currently limited on the diamond, Bowen admitted it can be a little challenging to stay engaged with baseball during spring football.
“I have tried to put my focus on football as much as possible,” Bowen said. “I am part of the baseball team, and I’m always going to be there and engage and get my work, because that’s always something that I wanted to do. But my priority goal right now is to be the starting linebacker at Notre Dame. That’s something that I’ve wanted, and I want to achieve that.”
Bowen’s on that path with the way he’s handled spring practices.
“We need to have someone that fills the void of the defense that left last year in terms of leadership,” Bullough said. “Really, when I say leadership, I mean, one, take control the defense. Two, when the ball is snapped, someone's got to say enough's enough, and they gotta go make the play, and they can't be stupid about it. But they gotta go take calculated risks, and that's where Drayk's at, and he's moving forward.”
Replacing JD Bertrand, who led the Irish in tackles each of the last three seasons, is a big ask for Bowen as a sophomore. But he made sure to try to soak up as much wisdom from Bertrand when the two were together last year.
“He was more of a mentor for me,” Bowen said. “Anything I needed to go to with him, I could do. I asked a lot of questions. I asked how he did things, how he handled himself in class, the weight room, football study and out on the field. That part I learned a lot from him.
“For me on the field, it’s just going and being myself. I’m not JD, but I want to be like him. He was a great a leader, great football player. He’s what you want to be as a Notre Dame linebacker. I’m trying to be like him but play as myself.”
Since Bowen arrived at Notre Dame as an early enrollee in 2023, he’s added close to 15 pounds and traded out fat for muscle in his body composition. He feels his strength gains in the weight room showing up on the field.
“Being able to go up against linemen that big and as good as our linemen are, you have to be strong,” Bowen said. “You have to be able to move them and not be moved. That’s definitely helped being in the middle a lot. You have to be in the line more than most. I feel like that’s helped me to really be in the box and play against the big linemen.”
Finding a path through that traffic also requires a knack for knowing what’s coming and reacting to reads without hesitation. It also helps to know what everyone else in the defense is doing in their runs fits to complement fellow defenders.
Bowen needed to be more occupied with his own assignments as a freshman last season. He played in 12 games, primarily on special teams, and recorded 14 tackles and one forced fumble.
With Bowen’s defensive knowledge established, he’s expanded his understanding of how everything pieces together. Working alongside weakside linebacker Jack Kiser, who played in 53 games the past five season and totaled 185 tackles, makes it a little bit easier.
“It’s been awesome,” Bowen said of working next to Kiser. “Any question that maybe I have on a call or anything like that, he’s right there. Me and him talk a lot, so when we’re out there it’s easy to communicate. Sometimes we don’t even have to talk.
"It’s been awesome, because he also has been here a while, so he knows a lot about football, college offenses. A lot of times, he maybe knows what’s coming next. It helps me to be alongside somebody that smart.”
Bullough is open to rotating his young linebackers more in the 2024 season than he did with veterans last year. And freshman Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa, a former five-star recruit, will continue to push Bowen from slipping into complacency.
Bowen will be prepared for the opportunity. Even if it means skipping a rest day.
“I’ve trained my whole life for this,” he said. “I’ve wanted to do this my whole life. This is something that I’ve dreamed of ever since I was a little kid. I feel like I’ve always prepared for this moment. I just gotta go take it.”
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