Notre Dame pushing the right buttons for Drayk Bowen
Merrillville (Ind.) Andrean’s Drayk Bowen, the nation’s No. 22 player and No. 2 outside linebacker in the 2023 class, should be a considered a regular on Notre Dame’s campus at this point.
He visited South Bend twice over the summer, he returned for the Irish’s home game Saturday versus Cincinnati, and he may be back on campus for the USC and North Carolina games Oct. 23 and Oct. 30, respectively.
His latest visit – despite the loss for Notre Dame – was another positive one.
“It was awesome getting to see the fans going nuts, seeing the coaches and the defense, and how they all worked together was awesome,” Bowen said.
There was a portion of the visit where a handful of recruits were able to chat with Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly in a group setting. Also, he spent a lot of time with defensive director of recruiting Chad Bowden and of course, defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman.
“They were really good,” Bowen said of conversations with the coaching staff. “They talked about me envisioning myself there.”
The four-star recruit discussed what he saw from the Irish on the field.
“I thought the game was pretty good,” Bowen said. “It wasn’t anything major for either side; it was little mistakes that cost you in big games. Those little mistakes made the difference, but you come back next week and learn from this.”
Maybe the biggest highlight of Bowen’s Notre Dame visit was spending time with the baseball staff in the morning. The Fighting Irish have had many players of the years, such as Cole Kmet, Jeff Samardzija, Golden Tate and Evan Sharpley, who played both football and baseball.
“It was really cool because this was the first school to really have me meet with baseball and talk with them for a while,” Bowen said. “I spent an hour and a half learning about how they run their program, and what things they plan on doing.”
Through seven games as a junior, Bowen has 52 rushes for 366 yards and six touchdowns and 11 receptions for 77 yards and a score. Defensively, he’s posted 47 tackles (five for loss), two sacks, one interception, one pass broken up and two blocked field goals.
Bowen is Rivals’ top player in the state of Indiana for the 2023 class.
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