Notre Dame’s 2023 recruiting class added its 6th member and second 5-star of the cycle on Wednesday night as linebacker Drayk Bowen out of Andrean High School (2015 recruit Josh Barajas’ school) in Merrillville, Indiana gave his verbal pledge to the Fighting Irish. He was offered by Notre Dame on February 12th of this year as his 2nd Power 5 scholarship (7 months after Marcus Freeman made him his first scholarship offer while at Cincinnati) and has made several visits to campus.
Bowen originally had a top 5 of Auburn, LSU, Clemson, Indiana, and Notre Dame before dropping LSU and Indiana for a top 3.
He is a nationally-rated baseball player and could potentially pursue an athletic career with Link Jarrett and the team over at Eck Stadium, as well.
Recruiting Service Rankings
247Sports Composite — 5 star (.9868 rating), #28 overall, #2 LB, #1 in IN
247Sports — 4 star (93 rating), #48 overall, #4 LB, #1 in IN
Rivals — 4 star (6.0 rating), #22 overall, #2 LB, #1 in IN
ESPN — 4 star (86 rating), #44 overall, #6 LB, #1 in IN
On3 — 92 rating, #153 overall, #9 LB, #2 in IN
Irish Sports Daily — 4 star (93 rating)
Cohort
This has been perceived as a Clemson vs. Notre Dame battle since the summer with Auburn pushing extremely hard in recent weeks with the allure of SEC baseball. In addition to the schools mentioned above, Bowen was carrying offers from the likes of Michigan, Ole Miss, Oregon, Penn State, Stanford, Texas, Texas A&M, and Wisconsin.
Highlights
Standing at 6’2″ and 215 pounds, Bowen has a really good muscular and lean upper-body with strong powerful legs. He should be able to add a decent amount of muscle above the waist which means he’s ideally suited for either the Mike or Will linebacker positions at Notre Dame playing somewhere in the 235 lbs. range.
Clearly, Bowen is a very physical and rugged tackler who will fit in seamlessly in the middle of the Irish defense. His highlights show plenty of running back snaps which show off his agility but even here it’s his power and physicality that jump out.
A lot of recruiting experts are debating if Bowen’s athleticism is truly elite and 5-star worthy or if he’s not quite in that stratosphere. I suspect the answer to that question may determine if he’s going to develop into either a Mike or Will linebacker.
Impact
Notre Dame is bringing in one of its best linebacker hauls in modern history for 2022 so Bowen coming in behind that class probably isn’t the fastest way to playing time for the Andrean product. Don’t forget that each of JD Bertrand, Marist Liufau, and Jack Kiser all have the possibility of returning in 2023 which would all but guarantee Bowen is a lock to redshirt.
It’s a testament to the recruiting that Bowen isn’t going to waltz right into playing time, and isn’t needed right away most likely. Let’s also remember Prince Kollie will be entering his upperclassman years as Bowen arrives, too.
We’ll see if Bowen can hold on to his Composite 5-star status. As we know these small ebbs and flows of whether someone finishes as a 5-star can contribute to their hype and expectations, especially at an early age. Either way, with a lot of talent ahead of him this should be a nice patient development timetable with Bowen ready to make an impact in 2024 with a very promising career to follow.
Welcome to the Irish family, Drayk!
2023 we’ll have junior Tyler Buchner and three five stars (so far) on defense. 18 Stripes tailgate for tOSU?
Seems like it’s been trending this way, but always good to get the 5-star!
The 2023 recruiting is looking very, very promising. I was just scanning the 247 composite top 50, Notre Dame is up to 2 commits (DL Brenan Vernon, #27 and Bowen, #28) and at least in the conversation with several more. I counted at least seven more in the top-40 who have been on campus recently..
One of the elite QB’s will and should be the focus, but it def. seems like in the Kelly era this is got to be up there for the best targeting of this type of elite quantity of quality recruits. I know it always feels like the recruiting boost is right around the corner, but it actually is starting with commits like this.
It legitimately feels like “next year is going to be the year” is actually the case this time.
That said – in-the-box linebacker is maybe the least-important defensive position. Stacking up talent at any position is good, but the 2023 class truly being great probably depends on getting an elite QB (assuming Walker Howard doesn’t commit to us for 2022).
Plus elite receivers and running back.
I’d like a few top of the line defensive backs, too (if we’re placing an order).
If Freeman can close on some guys, 2023 could be the best DB haul we’ve had since I can remember
Hooray. I feel like this is by far where we struggle the most in recruiting.
DB more important than RB, IMO. CB in particular, along with WR. I think those matchups on the outside are so important in the game today and winning there one-on-one consistently can dictate with the rest of your offense/defense does. Not having corners who can be trusted in single coverage (Jamie at ISD laid out how they’re playing that way less than UC’s corners did for Freeman last year) has a cascade effect on the other defensive units. I think that explains some of what we’ve been seeing lately.
RB just strikes me as a spot where we’ve done really well with backs who weren’t top-100 recruits. Williams and Diggs on the current team, but also kids like Adams, Procise, Riddick, etc. JD Price appears to be another good one on the horizon who will quite possibly have a better college career than others rated higher than him.
All of this to say that getting a back like Justice Haynes would be fantastic, but I think the impact of landing, say, AJ Harris in the ’23 class stands to be more significant.
I kinda feel like it’s akin to saying “what’s the least important part of an airplane engine?”…Well, when you’re getting on the airplane, it’s all pretty important! Try telling all the consternation of the LB situation now that it’s ok Bertrand and White aren’t that high-end bc LB is the least important.
Also, it’s kinda crazy to say out loud but I feel like CB is somewhat over-stated. I mean, I would take a pair of Sauce Gardner’s and love it, but Notre Dame has made playoff appearances without high-end CB’s and generally can operate OK without great talent there. I feel like that’s a position that can be papered over or worked around, despite it’s importance on the field.
That said, I’d rather have high-end 4* CB than developmental 3’s, but I think for 95% of games you can get by with guys like Lewis and a converted WR in Hart and Bracy at CB just fine when your other positions have an AA safety and a lot of talent on the DL to rush the passer.
https://twitter.com/kevinsinclair_/status/1456069420082597894?s=21
I agree linebacker recruiting isn’t the main sign of a championship program but given the starters and complete lack of depth left from some bereft recruiting years from lea, it’s pretty dang good.
ISD interview with Bowen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQErVciS21E
Love me some 5*; get dope players and let them be dope! Great news!!
ISD has a cool interview with him where he talks about his recruitment. Kind of crazy that he had an uncle who played at Bama, always wanted to go there, camped down there over the summer and they didn’t even offer him.
PS: It’s the one E posted right above this.
Didn’t get offers from tOSU or Georgia either.
By the way, I have always been a big fan of Eric Hansen and Tyler James at the SB Tribune. Their Pod of Gold podcast this week was especially entertaining. They had on Rick Minter, who talked Navy, defensive schemes, coaching with Lou and Charlie. He’s now an analyst with Vanderbilt. Smart guy and great answers to their questions.