Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1491978
44 MARCH 2023 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED 2023 FOOTBALL RECRUITING ISSUE BY PATRICK ENGEL Drayk Bowen, the Northern Indiana resident since age 4 with college football dreams, had eyes for something other than the blue-blood program about an hour's drive from home. Eyes for the South, to be clear, not South Bend. For the team that twice in the last 11 sea- sons rudely reminded Notre Dame that it still has work to do to reach the sport's summit. "The kid," said Bowen's father, Jer- emy, "grew up an Alabama fan." The college football soundtrack of Bowen's grade school and early high school years was Alabama national titles, including one clinched by beat- ing Notre Dame. Anyone who learns he might have a realistic path to a Division I scholarship can't help but be drawn to- ward playing for the best of the best, or in the same league as them. Even those who live near another college football titan, which to Bowen, was simply a fa- mous school he had never visited until it began recruiting him. "I was thinking SEC or bust," Bowen said. "That was what was always on TV and what I was paying attention to. Re- ally, I never thought about Notre Dame or wanted to go to Notre Dame. But it ended up being Notre Dame." Bowen, a four-star linebacker from Merrillville (Ind.) Andrean High School, didn't just choose Notre Dame. He en- rolled in January after 15 months of be- ing a walking salesman for the football team and the heartbeat of the 2023 signing class. He was an extension of the coaching staff's recruiting efforts. He gives off future captain vibes. From never Notre Dame to Notre Dame or nowhere. "He loves this place," head coach Marcus Freeman said, "and he's prob- ably our best recruiter." The story of Notre Dame's 2023 class isn't told without Bowen, who in an age of fervent flipping, committed in November of his junior year and never wavered even though other overtures continued. The Notre Dame mono- gram inside a clover is part of a tattoo on the inside of his left bicep. He will play football and baseball for the Irish, a juggling act that will begin right away as he balances the former's spring practice with the latter's season. Bowen's passion for the place he em- braced and the affinity for it he so pub- licly shares doesn't develop without Freeman, a pivotal figure in recruiting him since his days as the Irish's defen- sive coordinator. Before Bowen could love Notre Dame, though, he had to un- derstand why he would fit there. Freeman arrived in January 2021 and began thinking big on the recruiting trail. To him, there was no ceiling. He knew there were more recruits who fit Notre Dame than those who came from a Catholic school or had previous ties to it. Bowen, a top-30 prospect heading into his junior year, had neither a family connection nor a longtime affinity. But Freeman and staff sensed he was a fit. They just had to show him he was. "Coach Freeman brought to life ev- erything Notre Dame is," Jeremy said. The network. The off-field oppor- tunities. The degree. The brand. The visibility of the football program. Free- man and staff covered it all. Bowen was a buyer and remained one as football and baseball endured head coaching changes. The more time the football staff spent talking to Bowen, the more they realized he ran toward challenges. So, the Irish's staff issued him one. They wanted a face of the class. Bowen had the recruiting pedigree to be it and the affable personality that would mesh with other recruits. "The coaches were like, 'Let's go get him and build the best class. Let's bring this to life,'" Jeremy said. "He wore that on his sleeve — 'The coaches asked me to do that, and I'll run through a wall for the coaches.'" Drayk Bowen Relished His Role As The Face Of The Class Bowen committed in November of his junior year and spent the next 15 months serving as the face of the class and, in head coach Marcus Freeman's words, "our best recruiter." PHOTO BY MIKE SINGER