It has become common over the last couple years, even if it is still a bit surprising to see.
As new recruiting doors open for Tom Allen’s surging Indiana program, top prospects are looking at Bloomington as a serious destination, and in the process evaluating the Hoosiers against college football’s traditional powers.
That is precisely the dynamic for the top-ranked in-state player in the class of 2023, and one of the top-25 players in the country.
Merrillville (Ind.) five-star linebacker Drayk Bowen announced this week he will focus on five schools. Joining Indiana on that list are Auburn, Clemson, LSU and Notre Dame.
The 6-foot-2 and 215 pound Bowen is also a coveted baseball recruit, and he is considering playing both sports in college. He spoke to 247Sports’ national recruiting analyst Steve Wiltfong about what he likes right now about Indiana.
“I’ve really liked Indiana for a while, just the feel of the campus,” Bowen told Wiltfong. “Coach (Tom) Allen, the baseball coach (Jeff Mercer), talked to me, the the two coaches agreed that baseball, football was an option which made them a real interest especially with the business school.”
If he chose IU Bowen would continue a trend and likely become the highest rated Indiana recruit in the rankings era. Several IU players have carried that distinction over the last few years. According to the 247Sports’ Composite he is the No. 23 overall player in the class, irrespective of position. He is the No. 2 linebacker in the nation according to that same service.
As a sophomore at Andrean Bowen had 80 tackles, 13 tackles-for-loss, five sacks, one interception, four forced fumbles, three fumble recoveries, a blocked field goal and scored six touchdowns on offense according to MaxPreps. He was the only sophomore to be named to the MaxPreps All-State team.
Tucked in the northwest corner of the state, Andrean recently delivered four-star linebacker Cam Williams to Bloomington in the class of 2019. Allen mentioned Williams this week as a player beginning to emerge in his program. IU walk-on quarterback Zack Merrill is another 2019 Andrean graduate.
Bowen told Wiltfong he will make a decision after taking visits this fall.
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