Michigan State Football: Quavaris Crouch completes much-needed LB overhaul

Michigan State lost a handful of linebackers following the conclusion of the 2020 season. Antjuan Simmons (NFL), Luke Fulton, Charles Bullough, Jeslord Boateng, and Marcel Lewis all left the program with the hopes of playing more snaps elsewhere and Michigan State’s linebacking corps was depleted.

There was only a handful of returning players at linebacker, led by Noah Harvey and Chase Kline. That didn’t seem like the most ideal scenario, so Mel Tucker hit the portal hard.

The second-year head coach landed Ben VanSumeren from Michigan and then former four-star Itayvion “Tank” Brown from Minnesota. And this was after flipping four-star linebacker Ma’a Gaoteote from USC in the 2021 recruiting class.

Michigan State went from a couple of decent options at linebacker to five guys who could all push for starting time this season.

Quavaris Crouch completes the massive overhaul

And then Tucker struck gold yet again in the portal, landing former No. 61 recruit in the country Quavaris Crouch who many expected to be a running back at the collegiate level with Tennessee. He wanted to play linebacker to improve his longevity.

Crouch has played just two seasons at linebacker and he finished his Tennessee career with 85 total tackles, three tackles for loss, 0.5 sacks, three pass breakups, and a forced fumble. He was still raw while in Knoxville, but he was getting better each season he played linebacker.

Now Tucker will have a chance at molding him into a starter.

Heading into the 2021 season, there’s a decent chance Crouch will start at linebacker along with either Harvey, Kline, Gaoteote, VanSumeren, or Brown. If the Spartans want to get the most out of the linebacker unit, I think a combo of Kline and Crouch would be ideal or Brown and Quavaris. Either way, the staff now has options.

Tucker has done a great job of flipping the roster and turning what looked to be a weakness at linebacker into a strength in just one offseason.