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| Wednesday, July 16 |
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| Best foot forward By Jeff Lemberg SchoolSports.com | ||||||
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Forty-five. That's how many times Eric Crouch passed the ball in his senior season as the quarterback of the Millard North High (Omaha, Neb.) football team. And yet three of the most respected college football programs in the nation -- Notre Dame, Ohio State and Nebraska -- recruited Crouch to be their quarterback of the future.
One would probably guess Crouch was an extremely fast runner back in high school. Well ... guess again. "I ran track at Millard," says Crouch. "In my first three years (running the 100- and 200-meter dashes), I never won a race. Not a single one." So what's this athlete of seemingly mediocre talent doing these days, four years removed from high school? He's in his second season as the starting quarterback at the University of Nebraska. He finished fourth last year in the voting for Associated Press National Player of the Year after earning the Big-12 Co-Offensive Player of the Year award and Offensive MVP honors in the Fiesta Bowl, in which Nebraska beat Tennessee, 31-21. This fall, Crouch has again been among the best players in the nation. Despite a relatively disappointing season for the Cornhuskers -- they finished the regular season 9-2 after beginning the year as the country's No. 1 team -- Crouch has been anything but disappointing. Through 11 games, Crouch had passed for 1,101 yards and 11 touchdowns and rushed for 973 yards and 20 TDs. "He's one of those kids who's so attentive on what you want accomplished," says Millard North football coach Fred Petito, 48, who has coached and taught at the school for the past 17 years. "His concentration is amazing. "And he has a lot of physical gifts." Crouch turned into quite a runner over the summer prior to his senior year of high school. He gained 15 pounds of muscle and worked endlessly to improve his foot speed. Crouch led the Mustangs' football team to the state semifinals that fall, running their "wingbone" offense to near perfection. He later dominated the Nebraska outdoor track scene, losing only one race in 1997 -- to Erwin Swiney of Northeast High (Lincoln, Neb.) in the state final. "Not to make excuses, but I was pretty banged up going into that race," says the 21-year-old Crouch with a slight chuckle. "I guess that tells you how competitive I am. I have an excuse in my back pocket, four years later." Crouch hasn't needed any excuses since taking over as the starting quarterback midway through the Cornhuskers' 1998 season. As a redshirt sophomore last fall, he rushed for the second-most yards of any Division I quarterback in the nation (behind Navy's Brian Madden), compiling 889 yards on 180 carries. In Nebraska's 12 regular-season games (11-1), he scored 16 touchdowns on the ground and averaged 74.1 yards rushing per contest. But don't start thinking Eric Crouch is content with what he has accomplished in his football career. Sure, he relishes some of his past successes -- like when he helped Millard North beat Papillion-LaVista High, then ranked No. 1 in the state, 27-13, with a broken hand ("Three of my fingers were wrapped up," he says. "I was pitching the ball with only my thumb and index finger.") -- but the 6-foot-1, 205-pounder is more focused on the future. "I've always felt I can throw the ball," says Crouch, who has completed 75 of 156 passes this season, with seven interceptions to go along with 11 touchdowns. "Hopefully, I'll go to a few (NFL) combines and show what I can do." As for the advice Crouch has to offer the thousands of high school quarterbacks who, like him, can't throw for 2,000 yards per season and win state track titles year after year, he again focuses on the future. "You have to overcome a lot of adversity (in college)," says Crouch, who passed for a school-record five touchdowns in Nebraska's 42-13 win over Iowa on Sept. 23. "You come in as a freshman and think you have all the tools -- I know I did -- and that you should be playing. But then a coach might tell you to work on something and to improve in certain areas of your game ? and you're not playing. "You just can't give up," adds Crouch. "You don't ever want to look back and realize you could have done more to make the most of an opportunity."
Material from SchoolSports.com.Visit their web site at www.schoolsports.com | |
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