Tennessee Football: Quavaris Crouch is Vols “Next Big Thing”

After the BYE week, Quavaris Crouch was one player that won over a lot of the fan base with his comments, and that’s a great thing for him and Vols.

A 1-3 start is probably one of the most demoralizing things for a group of college athletes and coaches that had much higher expectations. That hasn’t stopped some players on Tennessee to speak up for Jeremy Pruitt and their team.

Freshman linebacker Quavaris Crouch is one of a few players who have openly spoken up for Pruitt and the Vols, and that list is growing, but Crouch added something new to his list of comments this past week.

"“When I was in high school, my first year, my sophomore year, we lost everything. We just lost all the time,” Crouch said. “My first year playing high school football, we lost every game except one. I’m used to having adversity.“This right now is really not bothering me, because I’m used to be able to build something upon a rock, that’s what my coach was saying, just building something upon a rock and just getting everybody to buy in. It’s not too much for me, because I’m used to starting and building something and then it becomes big, because my junior year, I won the whole thing. I won a state championship as a junior.”"

If you read only the first paragraph, it’s pretty obvious that Crouch is a leader. He’s used to facing adversity, and in the second paragraph, he talks about how he and his team overcame it, and they won the state championship.

I’m not going to lie; I’ll take this year and next year as a wash if the Vols come back and win the national championship in Pruitt’s fourth year.

That’ll also be Crouch’s third year which is the same year he won the state championship in high school so if he’s looking to repeat that process; then I fully support it.

Crouch had a huge impact on his team, especially in their state championship run, and he’s already contributing in a big way for the Vols. Seven tackles, two pass breakups, and three hurries is a decent stat line, but I can already tell he’s a leader in the locker room and on the field.

"“I’m still having fun. Obviously I’m a little disappointed from the losses that we took,” Crouch said, “but for the most part, for me, I’m here just to get better and get all our team on the same page and just keeping the family aspect about everything and trying to get better each and every day. I’m learning a lot, so I’m happy with that, because I feel like every time I go out there and put my cleats on, I get better in something, every day. So I’m just excited to keep going.”"

There’s a lot of confidence coming from Crouch when it comes to the state of the program. He believes in Pruitt and so do a lot of the young players Pruitt has brought in. It’s obviously been difficult for a lot of players that Pruitt didn’t recruit, but they’re getting thin.

With that attitude you can only think that Crouch is going to be the Vols’ “Next Big Thing.” He’s drawn comparisons to AJ Johnson and he’s embracing them too. I think he’s going to be a star on that Tennessee defense for the next few years.

Some of Tennessee’s future opponents struggled this past week so that could be a good thing for the Vols if everyone buys in and they can turn this ship around.