Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM NOV. 9, 2024 17 Drayk's dad, told Blue & Gold Illustrated. "And I think that's what I've seen." SEE BALL, HIT BALL Bowen began bringing the boom back in his Pop Warner days, when he was 8 or 9 years old. His coach at the time, Antuan Barnes, made sure of it. "He was kind of an old-school coach," Bowen said. "You run everywhere. You're late, you got punishment." Throughout his youth and high school career, Bowen stuck with that mindset. It's not enough to just bring down the ball carrier. He had to break their will. "I think that started with him, be- cause if you weren't hitting, you weren't p l a y i n g ," B owe n said. "It kind of was just forced." Barnes told BGI that his philosophy stems from learning both sides of the ball. Most of the time, Barnes explained, offenses tend to be proactive. The team with the football dictates the flow of the game. Most defenses, then, tend to be reactive. They're focused on responding to what the offense is doing. It's the defense's job, then, to flip the script and become proactive. That's where the hitting comes in. "For example, a blitz is proactive," Barnes said. "What we're trying to do with pass rushers or our blitzing players is make the offense react or do something quicker than they're comfortable with." Barnes simplified the game for young Bowen. His job was essentially, "See ball, hit ball." Jeremy Bowen, who played high school football in Texas, reinforced the message. "Drayk was big on that," Barnes said. "Keeping him aggressive by moving with the ball, focusing on the ball. … Don't worry about all the little theat- rics, the misdirection, all that stuff. At the end of the day, nothing happens un- til someone moves that ball." As Bowen got older, he maintained that hard-hitting attitude. But he also worked to refine his game. He became particularly good at taking coaching and seeking outside advice, with some help from his family. "We had some good friends who helped coach high school football and kids who made it to the next level," Jeremy Bowen said. "We would just ask them to come over to the house and watch film, show- ing where he could get better. "I don't know the old saying very well, but it takes a community." One of those friends was Derek Thompson, who was the defensive coor- dinator at Lowell (Ind.) High when Bowen started at Merrillville (Ind.) Andrean. "Drayk was a sponge," Thompson told BGI. "No less than what we're seeing today. The kid soaks it up. He's highly driven, highly motivated." Thompson helped set Bowen's work- outs as well. Later in his high school ca- reer, conversations turned to the finer points of linebacker play. They sat in Bowen's house and watched film, talk- ing about tackling angles, blitzing angles, footwork and reading offensive linemen. "By the time we got to his senior year, it was more like, 'What do we want to talk about?'" Thompson said. "He was playing so fast. He was playing so well. … He even helped me advance and de- velop as a coach." FROM BOY TO MAN Bowen described the season's first two games as a "wake-up call," particu- larly Week 1 at Texas A&M. "I kind of got adjusted to the speed of the game after that," Bowen said. "That was really my first time actually playing." He spoke with Thompson after Notre Dame's Week 2 loss to NIU, in which he shared blame for some of the defense's early breakdowns against the Huskies. But after that call, Thompson knew he would be OK. "He was mentally strong," Thompson said. "He was mentally focused. He was not beaten down. He was not beaten down, placing blame. He took owner- ship of what Drayk needed to fix, what would make Drayk better. "That conversation was, at that point to me, I knew I was talking to a man in- stead of a high school-aged boy." Bowen has made massive strides on the mental side since he started high school, thanks in large part to his mental performance coach, Mike Small. An Ala- bama graduate, Small became close with the Bowen family when he and his family moved to Northwest Indiana in 2011. "Drayk's been like a nephew to me since," Small told BGI. About five years ago, Small began working with Bowen on mental perfor- mance while the young two-way star tried to find his way as a football player. "I think that was something that really helped me through high school and es- pecially getting here, and it's lessons that I still use," Bowen said. "I recommend it, and I still try to do it when I can." Small helped Bowen with time man- a ge m e n t s t ra te - gies, learning how to keep a calendar and stay disciplined to it. He focused on breathing and visu- alization exercises, which helped him tone down some of the frustration he used to show on the field. "He put a lot of expectation on him- self," Small said. "We worked through those routines and strategies, pregame, in-game and postgame. He really learned how to handle if the other team was go- ing after him and double-teaming him every snap, if the refs and things weren't going his way, how do you handle that?" It worked, as Bowen learned not to worry about things outside of his control. He can still feel the effects of his work with Small on the field at Notre Dame. "For me, it's like if I don't have neces- sarily a great play, I can just take a deep breath," Bowen said. "Kind of reload, as Coach Freeman says." Bowen is not one to rest on his laurels after winning Notre Dame's defensive player of the week award for his perfor- mance in Week 8. He's checked several boxes in his development, with the ul- timate goal of playing on Sundays. That's by no means the immediate next step, though. Bowen's support sys- tem has seen to that. "We always say, 'When you get on cam- pus, they're recruiting your replacement,'" Jeremy Bowen said. "So you gotta be hum- ble, you gotta be hungry and you gotta want to take all the coaching you can." Bowen has stayed hungry. The Irish have noticed. With his game against Georgia Tech, the rest of college football is beginning to notice, too. ✦ "I think the more reps you get, combined with your study, combined with the knowledge of the defense, the game starts to slow down for you. And I think that's what I've seen." JEREMY BOWEN, DRAYK'S DAD, ON HIS SON'S PLAY THIS SEASON