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Recruiting is the lifeblood of any major college athletics team, but following it closely as a fan can sometimes be difficult and can often be time consuming. We’ll try and condense all the recruiting news you can use into this bi-weekly (sometimes more) post. It’ll include updates on current commits, including stats from their high school games, as well as news on players the Badgers are still pursuing. Let’s get down to business!
New offer
- 2023 5-star OLB Drayk Bowen (Merrillville, Ind.) out of Andrean High School received an offer from the Wisconsin Badgers on Monday afternoon, according to his Twitter account. Bowen has nearly 20 offers from the likes of Arkansas, Cincinnati, Indiana, LSU, Michigan, Michigan State, Ole Miss, Oregon, Texas and others. However, all four of the Crystal Ball predictions on 247 have Bowen going to Notre Dame.
I’m Blessed to receive an offer from the University of Wisconsin! Thank you! @CoachAprilUW @BadgerFootball @SWiltfong247 @DemetricDWarren @adamgorney @RivalsFriedman @ChadSimmons_ @HamiltonESPN @AllenTrieu @JoshHelmholdt @TomLuginbill @gridironjrj @Rivalsfbcamps pic.twitter.com/VIpNIeD59Y
— Drayk Bowen (@DraykBowen) April 26, 2021
Standing at 6-foot-2 and weighing around 215 pounds, Bowen is rated as the No. 29 player and the No. 1 OLB in the country. He is also the top player out of the state of Indiana. According to his stats on his 247 profile, Bowen had 80 tackles last year along with 13 TFLs, five sacks, four forced fumbles, three fumble recoveries, and interception and, if you watch his Hudl tape below, one touchdown.
While watching his highlights you, quite frankly, just see a kid who is better than almost everyone else on the field. He is extremely quick, athletic and a sure tackler. As he has only played two years of high school football I’m certain there are some things for him to work on. For instance, his coverage ability looks like it could improve and I didn’t really see any pass rush moves (because he didn’t need any because, again, he was better than everyone else on the field) which he’ll need to develop when playing big time college football.
The Badgers will most likely go light on OLB prospects in 2022, probably only taking one, but they’ll be looking to load up again in the 2023 class and Bowen would be an excellent, albeit unlikely, start.