The Johnson C. Smith University (JCSU) football program has officially gone from rebuilding to resurgent as the Charlotte, North Carolina HBCU is now 3-0 for the first time in 11 years and headed into the biggest game of the Maurice Flowers era with the defending CIAA Champion Virginia Union Panthers coming to the Queen City on Saturday, Sept. 21 to give JCSU its first real test of the 2024 HBCU football season. One of the biggest pieces of the winning puzzle for JCSU football in 2024 has been former 5-star high school prospect and Charlotte native Quavaris Crouch, who found the endzone three times in the Golden Bulls’ 52-6 win over Lincoln this past Saturday in his first game at running back in Charlotte since he graduated high school in 2017.
Quavaris Crouch had a storybook high school career where he dominated both sides of the ball at Harding High. Crouch ran for 3,142 yards and 31 touchdowns at the running back position, while running up 14 sacks on defense, en route to winning a State championship and the 2017 North Carolina Gatorade Player of the Year. Crouch, a highly touted 5-star recruit signed with the University of Tennessee and like many of the top high school players coming out of Charlotte, NC was on a direct path from the Queen City to the NFL.
But that wasn’t the path that Crouch’s career would take, after two seasons at the University of Tennessee and one at Michigan State, Crouch found himself out of football and at a pivotal crossroads in his personal life.
After returning home to restart his career at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 2023, Crouch was delivered another tough blow when he discovered he wasn’t eligible to play because of issues with his transcript. Seemingly out of options to continue his playing career, Crouch overheard a conversation about his hometown HBCU football program at Johnson C. Smith University while visiting his old stomping grounds of Harding High School.
“It hit me right then,” Crouch told Cameron Williams of the Charlotte Post. “There is a Division II school right there in front of you in the middle of the city. So, I took that opportunity to get signed up.”
Crouch now finds himself under the tutelage of JCSU football head coach Maurice Flowers, who coached current Green Bay Packers running back and Charlotte native Emanual Wilson at Fort Valley State University, another Division II HBCU. Wilson’s success in the NFL proves that Quavaris Crouch’s NFL path may have been deferred but not denied, as he still has two years of eligibility to make a name for himself as one of the top backs in HBCU football.
Crouch enrolled at JCSU in January of 2024 and is already turning heads only three weeks into the season. Crouch had a breakout performance right out of the gate in week one against Tuskegee University at the Red Tails Classic. He had 21 carries 161 yards and a 75-yard touchdown as the Golden Bulls won a close 21-13 contest in Montgomery, AL.
Week three versus Lincoln University saw Quavaris Crouch return to play running back in Charlotte, NC for the first time since his time as a high school superstar at Harding. Crouch only ran the ball five times during the blowout win but he did find the endzone on three different occasions, twice from the wildcat formation at the goalline and one 29-yard touchdown straight through the teeth of the Lincoln defense.
“I feel like it’s special, you know god always got a plan for me, and I’m just grateful he let me just go through it… I’m just grateful for the opportunity to be able to come out here and play with my boys” Crouch told HBCU Gameday after his comeback game in Charlotte. “Everybody knows my story, how it was almost already over… I feel like god never made no mistakes, he brought me right back where everything started, Charlotte, North Carolina. I feel like JCSU is another version of Harden.”
HBCU Gameday is currently in production of season 2 of its ‘Hard Knocks’ style documentary series titled “Brick x Brick,” which has chronicled the resurgence of JCSU football beginning with Coach Flowers’ first win in 2022, through the Golden Bulls’ 2023 spring football program, crucial moments of its 7-4 season and a behind-the-scenes exclusive on their trip to the inaugural Florida Beach Bowl. Watch full episodes of Brick x Brick with JCSU football on the hbcugameday.com homepage and the HBCU Gameday app.