Earlier this week, one of the top linebackers in the 2019 class included the Vols in his top five schools in his recruitment. Now, one of the top athletes in the class has also listed Tennessee as one of his top teams moving forward.
Quavaris Crouch is a five-star athlete out of Charlotte, North Carolina. He tweeted out his list of top seven schools late Thursday night, and the Vols made the cut along with Alabama, Clemson, USC, Florida State, Michigan, and South Carolina.
I thank God for it all let’s see where he takes me ??✝️ pic.twitter.com/SlOicrXcO0
— JuupJuup Crouch (@CrouchQuavaris) August 31, 2018
Tennessee and Crouch have developed a very strong relationship this year. Crouch visited UT three times in the first six months of this year, and he’s planning on attending Tennessee’s game against No. 17 West Virginia this Saturday as well.
According to the 247Sports Composite rankings, Crouch is a five-star and is the No. 21 overall player, No. 2 athlete, and No. 1 player in the state of North Carolina for the 2019 cycle. Along with the teams in his top seven, he also holds offers from Georgia, Ohio State, Florida, LSU, Stanford, Texas, and others.
Crouch plays both running back and linebacker in high school, and he’s been wildly successful at both. But with his size and style of play, he may project better at linebacker in college. He’s already almost 6-foot-3, 240 pounds, and he could add even more muscle and mass to his frame once he gets to college.
Looking at his film, it’s easy to see why analysts and coaches love Crouch. He tough as nails on both sides of the ball and has exceptional speed for a linebacker and is very fast for his size as a running back too. He’s explosive on defense and is extremely hard to bring down on offense. Even if he switches to defense as his primary position in college, he should still get some “beast package” carries on offense because of how effective he is as a runner too.
As a junior, Crouch nearly set a record for most rushing yards in a single season in the county he plays in. Las year he ran for 3,283 yards and 33 touchdowns, and that included a performance in which he totaled 334 yards on just 21 carries. That performance was good enough for the 14th-most yards in a single game in Mecklenburg County history. The record for the most rushing yards in a single season in county history came from Elijah Hood in 2013 when he ran for 3,609 yards. Hood went on to have a successful career with North Carolina in college and is now on the Oakland Raiders roster in the NFL.
But as stated above, Crouch doesn’t just play running back. He also plays linebacker for Harding, and even in his more limited time on defense he still totaled 48 tackles and 14 sacks.
Crouch used this summer to rehab from an injury he sustained last year, and he’s been cautious so far this season with his body as well. But assuming he heals effectively and can put together another great year of high school football, all the top teams in the country will continue to pursue him.
Tennessee is in a good spot with crouch right now, though schools like Clemson have made up some ground. But Crouch clearly likes Tennessee’s coaches, and if the Vols can have a good season this year, they’ll likely be right in the thick of things when it comes time for him to announce his decision.
