Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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38 JANUARY 2023 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED FOOTBALL RECRUITING BY MIKE SINGER T hirteen days into December, Notre Dame had 26 commitments in its 2023 recruiting class, and a high ma- jority of them had outstanding senior campaigns. It's not easy to select just a few who shined, but that's the task at hand. Here's our short list: • Merrillville (Ind.) Andrean's Drayk Bowen, the nation's No. 21 linebacker and No. 220 overall player according to On3, played at the highest level of the Irish verbals this fall, and it's not even debatable. Andrean is a 2A school that plays most of its games against op- ponents in higher classifications with double or triple the student population. Bowen was dominant as a senior, re- cording 144 total stops, 19 tackles for loss, 5 sacks, 2 interceptions, 5 passes broken up, 3 forced fumbles, 1 fumble recovery and 1 blocked punt. Offen- sively, he had 242 carries for 1,784 yards and 26 touchdowns, plus 10 receptions for 228 yards and 3 scores. Bowen's high school career was noth- ing short of sensational. In 55 career games, he recorded 379 stops, 54 tack- les for loss, 16 sacks, 6 interceptions, 6 passes broken up, 6 fumble recoveries, 10 forced fumbles, 4 blocked punts and 3 blocked field goals. He also added a fumble recovery score and 2 intercep- tions returned for touchdowns across his career. The 6-1½, 233-pounder was recently announced as the high school Butkus Award winner, which goes to the top linebacker in the country. Additionally, MaxPreps named Bowen its 2022 Indi- ana High School Football Player of the Year. Bowen led Andrean to the champi- onship game of the Indiana Class 2A state playoffs, but his squad fell 20-10 against Evansville (Ind.) Mater Dei. As a junior in 2021, Bowen's team knocked off Mater Dei in the 2A title game. • Denton (Texas) Guyer's Peyton Bowen (no relation) had a stunning sea- son that included highlight play after highlight play. It's not often that a safety prospect who didn't score on offense is able to rack up 7 scores. Unofficially, the five-star safety notched 87 tackles, 3 tackles for loss, 5 interceptions (2 returned for touch- downs), 3 passes broken up, 1 kickoff return touchdown and 4 punt returns for scores. Bowen, who is the No. 2 safety and No. 13 overall prospect in the country per On3, helped lead Guyer to the semi- finals of the Texas 6A Division II state playoffs but fell 47-28 at the hands of DeSoto (Texas) High. • St. Louis Christian Brothers has a stable of talented running backs and often blew out its competition this fall, meaning that Jeremiyah Love only re- corded 140 rushes in 2022. Love, On3's No. 6 running back and No. 107 overall prospect in the land, didn't need many carries to post impressive numbers. He ran for 1,291 yards and 22 touchdowns, plus caught 13 passes for 370 yards and 5 scores. He scored on every 5.7 touches — an outstanding statistic. Love accounted for 317 yards and 5 scores in a 35-28 overtime win versus Lee's Summit (Mo.) North in the cham- pionship game of the Missouri Class 6 state playoffs in November. He also helped lead his team to a state title as a junior in 2021. • Austin (Texas) Westlake's Jaden Greathouse, the No. 22 wide receiver and No. 162 overall prospect in America according to On3, will go down as one of the most productive and accomplished high school players from the state of Texas. Greathouse was a part of three state championship teams and almost made it four, but Westlake lost 49-34 to Houston North Shore in the semifinals of the Texas 6A Division I state playoffs Dec. 10. During his senior campaign, the 6-2, 219-pounder had 45 receptions for 886 yards and 10 touchdowns. He also had a pair of punt return scores, a passing Notre Dame Commits Who Shined As Seniors This Fall Merrillville (Ind.) Andrean's Drayk Bowen, the nation's No. 21 linebacker and No. 220 overall player according to On3, won the high school Butkus Award for his stellar efforts in 2022. PHOTO COURTESY ON3.COM