Former Tennessee, Mich. St. LB Quavaris Crouch at JCSU

TENNESSEE ATHLETICS

Quavaris Crouch, a two-way standout who helped Harding High win the 2017 North Carolina 4A football title before going on to play at Tennessee and Michigan State, has enrolled at Johnson C. Smith. He'll play running back with the Golden Bulls.

Quavaris Crouch, who led Harding High to the 2017 North Carolina 4A football title, has enrolled at Johnson C. Smith.

A five-star college recruit at running back and linebacker at Harding High, Crouch will play running back with the Golden Bulls, who went 7-4 last year and earned a berth to the Florida Beach Bowl. At 6-foot-2, 237 pounds, Crouch, who has two years of eligibility, adds size to a backfield that featured 200-pound Tim Newman Jr. and 190-pound Jacob Newman.

Golden Bulls coach Maurice Flowers confirmed Crouch’s enrollment.

A linebacker at Tennessee and Michigan State, Crouch tallied 85 tackles in 22 games with the Volunteers (2019-20). At Michigan State, Crouch racked up 75 tackles, a pair of sacks and three pass breakups over 10 games in 2021. He sat out the last two seasons but posted to social media last year his possible enrollment at Charlotte.

Crouch was named North Carolina’s Gatorade Player of the Year in 2017 after leading Harding to the state title as a junior by rushing for 3,142 yards and 31 touchdowns in addition to racking up 14 sacks on defense.

Crouch isn’t the only former Mecklenburg County player with FBS experience to sign with JCSU. The Golden Bulls added quarterbacks Kennique Bonner-Steward and Darius Ocean to compete for the starting job. Both are Hough High graduates.

Ocean, who played at Western Kentucky and Division II Valdosta State, is a mid-year transfer. He completed 1-of-2 passes for 85 yards and a score last year at Valdosta and connected on 7-of-12 tries for 135 yards and two touchdowns with Western Kentucky in 2022. Three of those completions added up to 52 yards and a score against Charlotte.

Ocean (6-0, 200 pounds) redshirted in 2021 and attempted one pass in 2020 as a freshman.

At Hough, Ocean was rated a two-star recruit as a senior by 247 Sports and passed for 1,858 yards and 21 touchdowns to earn I-Meck 4A all-conference accolades.

Bonner-Steward previously played at Temple and Rhode Island, where he was a reserve with both programs. He played in four games with one pass attempt in 2022 with Rhode Island.

Bonner-Steward played at Coahoma (Miss.) Community College in 2021, where he passed for 798 yards and six touchdowns in eight games while running for 312 yards and one score.

In three varsity seasons at Hough, Bonner-Steward, who is 6-3, 225 pounds, accounted for 5,279 yards and 56 touchdowns on 354-of-639 passing while rushing for 1,493 yards and 21 scores. A team captain for two seasons with the Huskies, he passed for 2,558 and 30 touchdowns as a senior in addition to running for 599 yards and eight scores as a senior. He was named I-Meck 4A most valuable player in 2018.

JCSU struggled at quarterback the last two seasons when injuries forced the Golden Bulls to finish with a third-string quarterback. Robert Adams, a sophomore who took over as starter when concussions sidelined starter Tyrell Jackson after the second week of the 2023 season, as well as freshman Jamere Cherry, a Mooresville High graduate who went 2-0 as a starter in Adams’ stead.

Adams completed 56-of-110 passes for 526 yards and a touchdown in 2023 while Cherry hit 34-of-69 attempts for 485 yards and five scores. Both were intercepted three times.

This story corrects the spelling of Darius Ocean’s last name.

Comments