2023 Five-Star LB Drayk Bowen Goes In-Depth on Notre Dame Visit
2023 Andrean (Ind.) linebacker Drayk Bowen became familiar with Notre Dame over the summer as the Fighting Irish were the only school to host him twice.
The 6-foot-2, 215-pounder returned to South Bend on Saturday as he took in his first game inside Notre Dame Stadium, but Bowen also met Irish baseball coach Link Jarrett for the first time.
"I thought it went really well," Bowen told ISD. "I got to meet with baseball early this morning and then went to the football game. I got to talk with Coach Kelly, Coach Bowden and Coach Freeman today.
"Getting to meet the other recruits today was also really cool. I had never been to a Notre Dame game, so I didn't know what to expect from the fans. It was loud in there and it was fun to watch and see."
Jarrett and the Notre Dame baseball program rolled out the red carpet for Bowen and fellow 2023 infielder Cam Kozeal.
The two baseball prospects spent the morning with Jarrett and got an in-depth look at how the Irish program works, but also some of the new additions coming to the program.
"It was really awesome," explained Bowen. "We were with him for about an hour and a half. He took us through the whole facility. He showed us the renovations they did and told us about some stuff they have coming in. He explained what they did to make the field bigger, so the bullpen wasn't on the field as much.
"He also explained what they do with their hitting and infielding. He told me what they looked for in an infielder and why we're being recruited. It was pretty cool to get to see all of that because no school had really done that before."
Bowen then split off and headed over to the football side of campus and got to spend plenty of time with Director of Defensive Recruiting Chad Bowden.
"It was fun hanging with Coach Bowden," stated Bowen. "He's really fun to talk to and we talked about why the game was so important for him."
The composite five-star prospect also was able to meet with defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman following the game.
"After the game, he said they have to clean some stuff up," said Bowen. "Little mistakes, but at the end of the day, they move on and get past it."
The Irish lost, but it didn't stop Bowen from mingling with Notre Dame's top recruits and commits on campus.
"Getting to talk to the other recruits was awesome," Bowen stated. "Talking to Sonny again was really cool. I got to meet Luke Montgomery, who I had talked to on Twitter, but meeting him face-to-face was cool. Meeting Carnell Tate was awesome too.
"I thought we all jived pretty well."
The visit also allowed Bowen to reconnect with 2022 Notre Dame commit Nolan Ziegler after the two faced off earlier this fall.
"I talked to Nolan for a while too," said Bowen. "We sat next to each other during the game too. We got to talk the entire game, so that was really cool."
As for the game, Bowen was paying close attention to the Irish linebackers and was impressed with what he saw.
"I thought they played really well in the run game," explained Bowen. "The linebackers have to play in space and play the run, so seeing that versatile linebacker role I think I can do was great to see. I think I could fit into Coach Freeman's system pretty well."
Bowen also felt the loss didn't ruin the visit as he was there to learn about the baseball and football program.
"That's not really what I was there for," Bowen said of the loss. "It was more about seeing the defense up close, talk to the coaches and meeting Coach Jarrett. The game didn't really impact anything in my recruitment."
Bowen will now head to Auburn next weekend before potentially returning to Notre Dame for two more visits in October.
"I'm going to take my Auburn visit next week and from there, I'm going to talk to my parents and that's where things are kind of wide open," said Bowen.
Top 5: Auburn, Clemson, Indiana, LSU and Notre Dame
Ranking
ISD: 92 (four-star)
247: 93 (four-star)
Rivals: 6.0 (four-star)
ESPN: 86 (four-star)
Composite: 98.68 (five-star)
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