Oregon Lost Five-Star Safety Peyton Bowen Due to Paperwork Issue

The Ducks landed a commitment from Peyton Bowen during the early signing period but never received his national letter of intent.

Max Torres | Feb 17, 2023

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The Oregon Ducks were one of the biggest winners during December's early signing period. A day that consisted of commitments from St. John Bosco edge rusher Matayo Uiagalelei and Dripping Springs quarterback Austin Novosad looked like it was getting even better.

2023 Denton (Tex.) Guyer five-star safety Peyton Bowen flipped his commitment from the Notre Dame Fighting Irish to the Oregon Ducks, shocking the college football world. However, as time continued to pass and the early signing period was approaching its end, Oregon never received a signed national letter of intent from Bowen.

A day after committing to the Ducks, Bowen flipped his commitment from Oregon to the Oklahoma Sooners, instead opting to sign with Brent Venables in the 2023 class.

On Thursday, Bowen and the rest of the Oklahoma freshman class met with media in Norman and he revealed that a paperwork issue resulted in him ending up with the Sooners.

"I sent it in," Bowen said of his Oregon national letter of intent. "We just didn't put the "a.m." or "p.m." on accident. So I should be there (Oregon)."

"I wrote the time. But I didn't write 'a.m' next to it, and that was it."

Before long Bowen's signing was announced by Oklahoma Football across various social media platforms and Oregon missed out what would have been a cherry on top of their haul during the early signing period.

During the early signing period Oregon was able to land the aforementioned Uiagalelei, Novosad, running back Jayden Limar, who flipped from Notre Dame, cornerback Daylen Austin, who flipped from LSU, and Rhode Island transfer offensive lineman Ajani Cornelius.

The good news is the Ducks certainly aren't hurting for talent or depth at the safety spot heading into spring practice.

Not only did they sign 2023 high school safeties Kodi DeCambra and Tyler Turner, but they also added two talented safeties from the transfer portal in Tysheem Johnson (Ole Miss) and Evan Williams (Fresno State), the latter of which is already on campus and enrolled at the University of Oregon. Veterans Jamal Hill, Bryan Addison and Steve Stephens IV are all returning for one more season.

The Peyton Bowen recruiting saga was certainly one of the most dramatic recruitments we've seen in recent memory and it goes to show that no recruitment is over until a player signs on the dotted line--and in some cases not until they arrive on campus.

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Published Feb 17, 2023

MAX TORRES

Max Torres is the publisher and lead editor of Ducks Digest. He's covered the Oregon football and recruiting beats for four years. He's based out of Long Beach, CA and travels around Southern California and the country covering top high school football prospects.