SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Drayk Bowen started to consider giving up baseball last summer. After spending his sophomore season making his first three game appearances — twice a pinch runner and once as a pinch hitter — Bowen started to wonder if all the time spent juggling baseball and football at Notre Dame was worth having virtually no time off in the summer between the two seasons.
Bowen put those questions to the side while earning a starting role as a sophomore linebacker for the football team in the fall. He became a key member of one of the best defenses in the country, which fueled a College Football Playoff run that ended with a loss to Ohio State in the national championship game.
By the time ND’s football season ended on Jan. 20, the baseball program’s first game was less than a month away. He had conversations with coaches in both programs before making his decision to put his baseball career on the shelf.
“For me it was just like is my time really worth spending at baseball,” Bowen said. “Just the timing of when we ended the season to when baseball wanted me back, it just didn’t really make sense. I felt like my future is in football and not necessarily baseball. There were a bunch of other things that went into it, but those were the main things.”
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Early returns certainly suggest Bowen’s path to being a professional athlete is more attainable at football than baseball. He’s proven to be a better hitter on the gridiron than on the diamond. If that’s not true, he wasn’t given the opportunity to show it on the baseball field. Bowen struck out in his one plate appearance last season. He scored both times he was inserted as a pinch runner. But Bowen, who was listed as an infielder, never played defense in a game for the Irish baseball team.
The 6-foot-2, 238-pound Bowen finished third on the football team in tackles last season with 78. He accumulated four tackles for loss, including one sack, as one of only four 16-game starters on the Irish defense. Bowen also forced three fumbles, broke up a pair of passes and hurried the opposing quarterback twice.
Bowen, a junior-to-be from St. John, Ind., is learning how to take advantage newfound time through the first seven football practices this spring.
“It’s just been football, class and then I got all this extra free time now,” Bowen said. “I’m maybe watching more film or stretching or doing more recovery. It’s been less taxing on my body. It’s not been too bad this semester.”
For one thing, Bowen doesn’t feel tired as often as he did last spring. He’s also been working on stretching that can help him with football-specific movements.
“Being able to be more flexible and have better movements when getting into drops or in man-to-man coverage, because that’s something that I wanted to work on this spring,” Bowen said. “Just being able to fine tune some areas where I felt I was lacking and not having to worry about trying to find time to do it with another sport going on.”
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Pro Football Focus didn’t dislike what Bowen did in coverage last season. His coverage grade of 78.0 was best among Notre Dame linebackers. Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa was second-best at 63.6. And only Jack Kiser, who was assigned a coverage grade of 62.9, played more defensive snaps in coverage (256) than Bowen (237) among ND’s linebackers.
That’s a good starting point from which Bowen can continue to improve. Notre Dame’s linebacker unit as a whole should be a position of strength next season despite losing Kiser, the team’s leading tackler (90). In addition to Bowen, Notre Dame has three other returning linebackers who finished in the top 11 in tackles for the Irish last season: Jaiden Ausberry (58), Jaylen Sneed (51) and Viliamu-Asa (37).
“We all got great chemistry with each other,” Bowen said. “We all like to be around each other and hang out. It’s a great vibe in the linebacker room. We all are going to hold each other accountable. We all know what we want to achieve this year. It’s kinda been an unspoken thing. It’s a great feeling, and we’re all trying to get better.”
New Notre Dame defensive coordinator Chris Ash named Bowen last week as the “front-runner for leadership” on the defense as the central communicator. Linebackers coach Max Bullough wants Bowen and his fellow linebackers to embrace that responsibility.
“We know that we’ll be there to answer the bell,” Bullough said. “Drayk has thus far been the bell cow. Stepped out in front, been the guy that people listen to him. He’s done things right year after year here. He’s made plays, he’s communicated. Commanded the defense. He’s put himself in position where his teammates trust him, and I’m sure that’s ultimately his goal.
“That’s a great feeling. That’s what you come here to do. You come here to gain your teammates’ trust, to gain your coaches’ trust, and to be that guy. And you just do it over and over and over again. And that’s what Drayk is in the middle of right now.”
With baseball no longer taking up Bowen’s time, he can take on a leadership role without having to disappear from the facility. While sharpening his own game, he can also spend more time paying attention to others.
“I’m trying to be more of a vocal leader,” Bowen said. “I hold myself to a high standard. In the linebacker room we certainly hold ourselves to a high standard. So, making sure that nobody’s playing below that standard and being more vocal within the defense and the linebacker room. Making sure that we’re doing everything the right way.”
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