3-star Michigan cornerback is big 2017 commitment for Iowa State
Iowa State picked up another significant 2017 football verbal commitment Wednesday evening as Orchard Lake (Mich.) St. Mary’s cornerback Richard Bowens made his pledge to become a Cyclone.
The 6-foot-1, 175-pound Bowens had Power 5 scholarship offers from Minnesota and Syracuse in addition to Iowa State. He had also been offered by Cincinnati from the AAC and by several MAC schools.
Once again, Bowens’ commitment is a case of Iowa State being the beneficiary of pre-existing groundwork that predated Matt Campbell’s hiring in Ames.
“They’ve been recruiting me for over a year now so I know the coaches well,” Bowens said. “They offered me at Toledo and I visited them there and then I went out to Iowa State a couple of weeks ago and visited them there. They offered me in January after getting to Iowa State so we’ve been working this for a while.” Bowens spent two days in Ames on an unofficial visit to ISU back on April 1st and 2nd.
Bowens said he and some family members gathered at a restaurant Wednesday night and then he phoned the Cyclone football offices to make his commitment.
“I called in and talked to Coach Campbell and Coach D.K. (McDonald) and talked to them and told them I was ready to commit,” Bowens explained. “We had a good talk and it was a great night.”
Bowens said he was influenced to commit to I-State by the success that Campbell and company had at Toledo along with their plans to do the same with the Cyclone program.
“It’s a program on the rise,” Bowens said. “And what better conference to be a defensive back in than the Big 12? I’ll be playing mostly corner, I think, but some safety, too. I’ll be all over the field making plays.”
Bowens said in a commitment post on twitter that he had felt the “most love” from Iowa State during the last three months of the recruiting process and thought that that Cyclones wanted him the most. That, and what he called the family atmosphere at ISU, were factors leading to his commitment decision.
Bowens told CycloneReport.com that he is a “pretty hard commit to Iowa State” when asked if he is going to shut down his recruiting completely in the wake of pledging to the Cyclones.
Rivals.com rates Bowens as a three-star prospect with a 5.5 Rivals Rating. He is listed as the No. 17 prospect overall in the state of Michigan by Rivals. He recently performed well at a Rivals camp in Columbus, Ohio - held just this past weekend.
Bowens is a standout track and field performer and one of the top hurdlers in Michigan.