Michigan State football: What ever happened to Quavaris Crouch?

Quavaris Crouch is a name that a lot of Michigan State football fans recognize. While he only played one season in East Lansing, he was apart of the most memorable team in immediate memory. Of course, we’re talking about the 2021 Spartan team, which soared past their Vegas-given 4.5 win total.

Crouch came to MSU by way of Tennessee, where the four-star linebacker, from Charlotte, N.C., committed out of high school. He made his presence felt immediately in a Week 1 showing at Northwestern, in which he tallied seven tackles (five solo) and a sack. His best games as a Spartan occurred in October, against Indiana and Michigan. In each of these games Crouch made a remarkable 13 tackles, along with a pass breakup.

The 2021 victory over Michigan was incredible. The environment was as crazy as I’ve ever seen Spartan Stadium to witness Kenneth Walker III’s legendary five-touchdown performance.

Just like Walker, Crouch left his own mark on that game. Crouch’s moment came on a 4th-and-6 early in the third quarter. Michigan was in formation to punt at midfield, but it was a fake. Punter Brad Robbins broke outside of Jacob Slade and looked destined for a first down. This was until Crouch came flying out of nowhere, leveling Robbins a yard shy of the first. Crouch, like any true Spartan, made sure to let the Michigan sideline know about it.

This effort gave the Spartans the ball back near midfield.

After that thrilling victory, Crouch unfortunately only played in two more games due to injury. At the conclusion of the 2022 spring season, Crouch announced he would again be entering the transfer portal, this time departing from the Michigan State football program.

This is where the rest of his story gets a little unclear, as he seemingly took both the 2022 and 2023 season off from football.

However, as many phenomenal athletes do, Crouch ended up on his feet. He found his way back to Charlotte, his hometown, at Johnson C. Smith University, which is an HBCU school that competes in Division 2. Crouch is having an outstanding season back home, but there is a catch: he has recorded zero sacks, zero tackles, and zero pass breakups.

One might ask, how is he having such a great season? Well, Crouch is now a running back.

In the Golden Bulls’ season opener against Tuskegee, Crouch went off. He ran 21 times for 161 yards and a touchdown. Two weeks later, Crouch only received five carries. He didn’t need many more though, as he took three of those five carries to the house. Ending the day with five carries for 40 yards and three touchdowns.

Flash forward to today, Crouch has helped lead JCSU to its best start in school history. The Golden Bulls are 6-0, and nationally ranked No. 21 in the D2football.com poll. His season totals are 73 rushes for 329 yards, which comes out to 4.5 yards per carry. Having missed one game, he has scored seven times in five contests, and added a 20-yard reception in a victory against Virginia Union.

Crouch and JCSU look to build upon their success this Saturday against Shaw University.

It’s always great to see a former Spartan doing big things. Crouch, while only a Spartan for one year, left his mark. He left East Lansing undefeated vs. Michigan and with a Peach Bowl ring. It would be great to see his success continue throughout the remainder of this season, and wherever he goes from there.

As the saying goes, Quavaris is a Spartan Dawg 4 Life.

Go Green.