Right up the road from Clemson at Woodmont High School is an up-and-coming pass rusher who’s starting to gain traction on the recruiting trail.

Junior defensive end Davonne Bowen (6-2, 217) has offers from Appalachian State, Marshall and Elon. South Carolina, via Bobby Bentley, has reached out. Rutgers, Georgia Southern, Towson, William & Mary, James Madison and Miami of Ohio have also been in touch.

Clemson hosted Bowen for his first visit as a recruit earlier this month, when he made the short ride over for Junior Day.

“It was amazing. I didn’t expect it to be as good or as interesting as it was. It was different. It was actually eye-opening, to what Clemson was all about,” he told TheClemsonInsider, during a recent interview.

Bowen added, “One thing that actually came out to me was how the team and coaches relate to you, as more than just coaches — how it was a family kind of thing — just a vibe that they carry. In the locker room, they play music, to try to get everybody hype. The coaches get hype. It’s just good, a good experience.”

As a junior, he had 61.5 tackles, 14 sacks and eight tackles for loss.
Dan Brooks serves as the recruiter of record, so Bowen had a formal introduction with the Tigers’ defensive tackles coach. Defensive ends coach Marion Hobby also met with him.

“They were pretty much just talking to me about Clemson. Dan Brooks told me that he came to my school. I wasn’t there — I didn’t get to speak to him personally, but he came to my school,” Bowen said. “He said that he looked at me and had seen some things in me.

“The defensive ends coach told me that he would be interested in me and that he would be looking at me — something of that matter, I can’t remember the exact words.”

Clemson’s Junior Day invite came through a couple of weeks before the event. For Bowen, getting a look from the Tigers is a “dream come true.”

“I just remember being a kid, always thinking about having some of the best schools in the country be looking at me,” he said. “Especially to have Clemson, a team that went to the national championship — to even have interest in me, to even invite me to come see their school, yeah, that’s mind blowing. That’s crazy.”