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!