GamecockCentral.com traveled to Charlotte on Tuesday to round up the latest on five-star athlete Quavaris Crouch, who made his most recent visit to Columbia to watch South Carolina take on Texas A&M back on Saturday.
While in Charlotte, we were able to catch up with Crouch and also speak with several other sources familiar with his recruitment. We were able to answer a few key questions surrounding his process and also learn some valuable pieces of information that give a clearer picture, or as much as possible with him, as to where things stand.
In a one-on-one “media” type setting, Crouch was not very talkative on Tuesday. It would, to be frank, have been difficult to squeeze out a content item based solely on his personal thoughts on the South Carolina recruitment and his process in general. He gave short answers and was non-committal on essentially everything. It was not until we began speaking in a large group, to include Harding interim coach Van Smith Sr., the school’s strength coach, and several teammates that Crouch began to open up and joke around.
Before moving on to what was really learned on the trip, here is what Crouch did have to say about the South Carolina trip during our short one-on-one conversation.
“It was cool. I just hung out with Jovaughn and watched the game. He’s doing alright. They need pieces. Everybody sees that. Bentley’s always been a good dude. I didn’t really go for recruitment, I was just there to watch the game with Jovaughn.”
When Crouch was asked about any further visit plans this season, he said that he was unsure. That was followed by a request for an update on his official visit schedule, to which he answered that he had already stated his official visit plans and that nothing had really changed.
One adjustment to the official visit plans had already been made previously, since Crouch scrapped a previously scheduled official visit to Michigan to head to South Carolina over the weekend. Based on what we are hearing, it would not be a shock if that trip does not get put back on the books. Even if it is, Michigan’s chances do not seem as high right now.
Since he did not name them outright, the other official visits that Crouch has spoken of making are Clemson (for the Duke game), Florida State (for the Florida game), and Michigan (which was scheduled at the time for last weekend, as noted). He said that Alabama and Southern Cal could get one as well, as has at times mentioned South Carolina and/or Tennessee as a candidate for a slot if available.
We do not believe Alabama to be a substantial factor due to the program’s loaded roster, and Southern Cal simply seems to be too far; if that one took place it would amount to a courtesy, “for fun” visit.
Multiple folks connected to the recruitment have told us that Crouch’s grandmother would much prefer her grandson stay close to home. Crouch’s brother, Malik Dunlap, is a freshman defensive back at NC State. Our readers may recall that Crouch missed a planned visit earlier this season to South Carolina (for the UGA game) in favor of a trip to Raleigh. Neither Crouch nor anyone else around him give the Wolfpack much of a chance to actually land him, however.
Even though Crouch would commit to no type of announcement plans during our interview, he mentioned in my presence during the school visit that he hopes to reveal his choice at the All-American Bowl on January 5. College coaches, Crouch said, will already know by that point.
Crouch has said before that his preference would be to play for an established program. It’s also thought that he’ll end up staying closer to home. He was mum in our conversation as to whether or not he has made a choice on playing linebacker or running back at the next level. Crouch himself classified that decision as “wishy/washy.” Per conversations we have had the last several days, behind the scenes it appears that the current lean is towards playing on the defensive side of the ball in college.
We have frequently mentioned that Crouch’s recruitment would be more of the marathon variety and would take some time to actually take shape, given that several programs have taken a turn seemingly at the top of his list. And indeed, during our trip the school Crouch said multiple times that he is in no rush to render a commitment.
We have also made note of the fact that there are multiple parties with varying degrees of input into Crouch’s decision-making process and that the dynamic has made it difficult to sort through which ones have the most pull and which ones really have Crouch’s ear.
An interesting anecdote from the school visit: in the course of talking about his desire to enroll early and what type of preparations he’s making to do so, Crouch noted that he would have a quick turnaround between the All-American Bowl and his early enrollment report date. The date he specifically cited was January 7; that happens to be Clemson’s orientation.
To what extent that should be read into is debatable; Crouch could have simply been using that as a reference point since essentially any program will have orientation and the beginning of classes in early to mid-January. Not necessarily related to that, in putting a lot of conversations and factors together, there are plenty of reasons to believe here that Clemson has a strong chance.
By no means is it believed that Crouch has finalized anything, and he’s continuing to ask critical questions about programs, including Clemson, as we witnessed in person on Tuesday.
To close out, one more note here: Crouch apparently is not going to play the rest of his senior season. He played in Harding’s season opener against Hough, but has not played since. An ankle injury is being cited, although the extent of the injury beyond that is unclear.
While in Charlotte, we were able to catch up with Crouch and also speak with several other sources familiar with his recruitment. We were able to answer a few key questions surrounding his process and also learn some valuable pieces of information that give a clearer picture, or as much as possible with him, as to where things stand.
In a one-on-one “media” type setting, Crouch was not very talkative on Tuesday. It would, to be frank, have been difficult to squeeze out a content item based solely on his personal thoughts on the South Carolina recruitment and his process in general. He gave short answers and was non-committal on essentially everything. It was not until we began speaking in a large group, to include Harding interim coach Van Smith Sr., the school’s strength coach, and several teammates that Crouch began to open up and joke around.
Before moving on to what was really learned on the trip, here is what Crouch did have to say about the South Carolina trip during our short one-on-one conversation.
“It was cool. I just hung out with Jovaughn and watched the game. He’s doing alright. They need pieces. Everybody sees that. Bentley’s always been a good dude. I didn’t really go for recruitment, I was just there to watch the game with Jovaughn.”
When Crouch was asked about any further visit plans this season, he said that he was unsure. That was followed by a request for an update on his official visit schedule, to which he answered that he had already stated his official visit plans and that nothing had really changed.
One adjustment to the official visit plans had already been made previously, since Crouch scrapped a previously scheduled official visit to Michigan to head to South Carolina over the weekend. Based on what we are hearing, it would not be a shock if that trip does not get put back on the books. Even if it is, Michigan’s chances do not seem as high right now.
Since he did not name them outright, the other official visits that Crouch has spoken of making are Clemson (for the Duke game), Florida State (for the Florida game), and Michigan (which was scheduled at the time for last weekend, as noted). He said that Alabama and Southern Cal could get one as well, as has at times mentioned South Carolina and/or Tennessee as a candidate for a slot if available.
We do not believe Alabama to be a substantial factor due to the program’s loaded roster, and Southern Cal simply seems to be too far; if that one took place it would amount to a courtesy, “for fun” visit.
Multiple folks connected to the recruitment have told us that Crouch’s grandmother would much prefer her grandson stay close to home. Crouch’s brother, Malik Dunlap, is a freshman defensive back at NC State. Our readers may recall that Crouch missed a planned visit earlier this season to South Carolina (for the UGA game) in favor of a trip to Raleigh. Neither Crouch nor anyone else around him give the Wolfpack much of a chance to actually land him, however.
Even though Crouch would commit to no type of announcement plans during our interview, he mentioned in my presence during the school visit that he hopes to reveal his choice at the All-American Bowl on January 5. College coaches, Crouch said, will already know by that point.
Crouch has said before that his preference would be to play for an established program. It’s also thought that he’ll end up staying closer to home. He was mum in our conversation as to whether or not he has made a choice on playing linebacker or running back at the next level. Crouch himself classified that decision as “wishy/washy.” Per conversations we have had the last several days, behind the scenes it appears that the current lean is towards playing on the defensive side of the ball in college.
We have frequently mentioned that Crouch’s recruitment would be more of the marathon variety and would take some time to actually take shape, given that several programs have taken a turn seemingly at the top of his list. And indeed, during our trip the school Crouch said multiple times that he is in no rush to render a commitment.
We have also made note of the fact that there are multiple parties with varying degrees of input into Crouch’s decision-making process and that the dynamic has made it difficult to sort through which ones have the most pull and which ones really have Crouch’s ear.
An interesting anecdote from the school visit: in the course of talking about his desire to enroll early and what type of preparations he’s making to do so, Crouch noted that he would have a quick turnaround between the All-American Bowl and his early enrollment report date. The date he specifically cited was January 7; that happens to be Clemson’s orientation.
To what extent that should be read into is debatable; Crouch could have simply been using that as a reference point since essentially any program will have orientation and the beginning of classes in early to mid-January. Not necessarily related to that, in putting a lot of conversations and factors together, there are plenty of reasons to believe here that Clemson has a strong chance.
By no means is it believed that Crouch has finalized anything, and he’s continuing to ask critical questions about programs, including Clemson, as we witnessed in person on Tuesday.
To close out, one more note here: Crouch apparently is not going to play the rest of his senior season. He played in Harding’s season opener against Hough, but has not played since. An ankle injury is being cited, although the extent of the injury beyond that is unclear.
