Eli Bowen

A look at some of the top recruiting targets who will be in town this weekend.

Amee Bowen, the mother of 2023 Notre Dame safety commit Peyton Bowen and 2024 cornerback Eli Bowen, spoke in-depth with ISD about the recruiting process.

Just spoke with multiple sources close to 2023 Notre Dame commit Peyton Bowen and 2024 cornerback Eli Bowen as they are set to play on ESPN2 on Thursday night at 7pm ET. On Friday, the Bowens will take an unofficial visit to Oregon as the Ducks host UCLA in a top 15 matchup. A couple things here. 1. Oregon is the dream school for Eli. He has grown up dreaming of playing for the Ducks as we've made clear in the past. In fact, the Bowen family did tell Notre Dame before Peyton committed that if Oregon offered, they would take a visit to Eugene and yes, the five-star prospect did advise the Irish staff of the trip this weekend.One source was simply excited for Eli to have this opportunity as much of his recruitment as involved Peyton, including this visit, but this is a visit he's waited to take for a long time. 2. In talking to sources on every side of Peyton's recruitment, it doesn't seem like Oregon is a school he's giving much thought to entering the visit. Now, that can obviously change as Oregon is a school that's going to impress just about everyone as the facilities are second to none, Nike is very present, the game day atmosphere is great and of course the NIL opportunities. As we've continued to say in Peyton's recruitment, NIL doesn't seem to be a driving factor here. Yes, the Bowen's are doing research on the opportunities available by the networks/etc. of all the programs recruiting him as most recruits do, but this one isn't going to come down money. 3. As it relates to Peyton, one source not in South Bend posed the question, "Peyton has had every opportunity to take official visits and he hasn't. He's honored the Notre Dame staff's guidelines when he could have easily taken officials to schools. There is something drawing him to Notre Dame." Obviously, you can argue it to death, but Bowen and Notre Dame have kept consistent communication throughout the last few months and it's never dipped. The same source also stated it would have been easier on him if he decommitted, but he hasn't. Another source outside The Gug stated they feel more and more confident in Bowen signing with Irish in December. 4. My take is Bowen does seem like he's happy with his commitment to Notre Dame. He's remained active in the commit group chat and then he's set to return to Notre Dame in November for the Clemson game. I do think recruits tend to see a bigger picture than fans at times as they don't follow the day-to-day of the program. Sure, the losing certainly isn't good and is another recruiting tactic for other programs, but the Notre Dame staff has done a great job of staying on top of Bowen and the other commits in the class and that matters. We'll see what happens over the next two months, but Bowen remains committed to Notre Dame and as of 4:00pm on October 20th, it doesn't seem like Oregon will be much of a player here for him. Notre Dame Fighting Irish Luge 3.0 Quarter-Zip Hoodie