SOUTH BEND — Drayk Bowen’s days as a power-hitting corner infielder/outfielder for Notre Dame baseball ended soon after the football team’s national championship loss to Ohio State.
Aside from a few pangs of nostalgia, the junior linebacker hasn’t looked back.
“I haven’t really missed it,” Bowen said after a recent practice. “Sometimes, even when I’m watching a game, I miss the memories of it: Traveling around the country, getting to play against the best competition. But it’s not something where I’ve really sat down and been upset about it.”
Bowen gave a preseason talk to his former Irish baseball teammates before they went on to miss the NCAA Tournament for the third straight year.
His old high school program, the Andrean 59ers, fared better, capturing their record-tying ninth 3A state baseball title in June. Number eight for legendary coach Dave Pishkur came in 2022 with Bowen as a star junior infielder.
After rarely seeing the field in his first two rounds of college baseball, including as an early enrollee in 2023, Bowen went all-in on his main sport. Starting all 16 games last season, his 78 total tackles trailed only NFL draftees Jack Kiser and Xavier Watts. This left Bowen exhausted and in need of some recovery time.
“It’s something that I needed to do,” he said. “It was time to make the decision. In my football game, I’ve really been able to focus in the weight room, focus on my body.
“When you’re with the baseball, you’re gone all the time, Thursday through Sunday. You’re getting back Sunday night at 2 a.m., and then you have workouts. It was something that needed to happen and something where I’ve been able to focus on my game, focus on what I wanted to do.”
Drayk Bowen sheds some of his scheduling conflicts
Now listed at 6-foot-2 and 235 pounds, Bowen noticed the difference during spring practice.
Unlike two-sport teammates Jordan Faison, Tyler Buchner and Matt Jeffrey, who would hustle across campus with their lacrosse gear while juggling football responsibilities, Bowen could lock in on the sport that made him IndyStar Mr. Football in 2022.
Position coach Max Bullough on Notre Dame linebacker Drayk Bowen
Notre Dame football linebackers coach Max Bullough on the benefits of dropping baseball for junior returning starter Drayk Bowen (Andrean High School)
“I was able to come back each and every day and get treatment in the training room or do recovery in the weight room and then be fresh the next day,” he said. “That was something where I really felt the difference. My legs were under me. I wasn’t tired. I wasn’t groggy throughout the day. It was something that was really helpful during the spring.”
Once the spring semester ended, Bowen traveled to Plano, Texas, for a stint at the high-end Exos sports performance training center.
There, he worked on sport-specific conditioning and drills that included a round of edge-rushing techniques. With an increasingly interchangeable linebacker group, Bowen should get plenty of chances to add to the single sack he recorded a year ago.
That came way back in Game 4 against Miami (Ohio), although Pro Football Focus credited him with 15 total pressures on the year, including seven hurries and another unofficial sack in the Orange Bowl win over Penn State.
“I was able to really understand where my game is at and be able to improve upon it,” Bowen said of the trip to North Texas. “It’s something that I’m happy I did.”
No such thing as overcommunicating
Former NFL linebacker Max Bullough, Bowen’s position coach at Notre Dame, is pleased with those developments as well.
“He was finally able to concentrate on just football,” Bullough said. “His whole life he’s been dragged this way for baseball, that way for school, this way for football. And baseball’s a crazy schedule, so they’re always traveling, and he never got to recover in the offseason.”
No more.
“We’re finally starting to see what Drayk Bowen can actually be when he focuses on one thing,” Bullough said. “Eats for one thing, sleeps for one thing, does all the things that you’re supposed to be doing. And rest is where it has helped him.”
After logging 752 snaps last season, including 137 on special teams, Bowen is set to take over primary responsibilities as the “green dot” helmet guy for new defensive coordinator Chris Ash.
Bowen was the backup “green dot” helmet-communication choice behind Kiser last year under DC Al Golden, now with the NFL’s Cincinnati Bengals.
“It’s something that Max and I talked about,” Bowen said. “I met with him before (Golden) left. That was something he stressed to me: ‘You’re the middle ‘backer. You have to be the one that controls it, communicates, calms everyone down.’“
The eye of the hurricane, as it were. That’s how JD Bertrand carried himself in Bowen’s freshman year of 2023, and that’s the way Kiser rolled last season.
“It could be the smallest detail and everyone should know it, (but) JD would still say it,” Bowen said. “Same thing with Jack. That’s something that I’ve really tried to embody because if you’re all wrong but you’re all on the same page, you’re all right.”
Meaning?
“Maybe we all messed up,” Bowen said. “We’re all on the wrong plays, but (if) we’re all doing the same thing, we’re all going to be right and we’re going to get the ball on the ground and move on.”
Mike Berardino covers Notre Dame football for the South Bend Tribune and NDInsider.com. Follow him on social media @MikeBerardino.