Michigan State Football: Quavaris Crouch adds athleticism to LB corps

Quavaris Crouch announced his decision to join the Michigan State football team on Tuesday via the transfer portal from Tennessee. With this decision, Crouch adds another level of athleticism not seen yet in the linebacking corps for the Spartans.

Crouch, who was a four-star athlete coming out of high school and was the top recruit in North Carolina for the 2019 class, brings speed and a tenacious on-field ability to Michigan State.

In his two seasons at Tennessee, Crouch became an instant starter, taking the field for all 12 games in 2019 and 10 games in 2020. In those games, he accumulated 85 total tackles and three tackles for loss, with a forced fumble thrown in there as well.

But what jumps out the most for Crouch when seen on tape is his athleticism.

Coming out of high school, some thought Crouch might be a running back, but decided to switch to linebacker. This running back history is seen on the field thanks to his speed and ability to read offenses quickly.

Against Texas A&M in 2020, Crouch was seen not only running down Aggie quarterback and NFL prospect Kellen Mond and beating him to the corner on designed runs, but he also showed spurts of a seasoned vet, reading the offense and sniffing out different plays and waiting on them to develop.

Crouch also showed the tenacity needed to be a Big Ten linebacker, putting his nose in every play he could, and running across the field most of the time to get into a play.

However, Crouch is still young and needs a little tightening up, it seems on tape he can get a little over-excited for plays and over-pursue or take bad angles to get to the ball. Overall, Crouch should be able to at least step in a helping role for the Spartans and help the defense get back to what it has been known for in the past with solid linebackers.