Texas DE Trimming List
Wednesday, July 3, 2002

Crowder Down To 7 Schools After A Hectic Spring

By Mike Capshaw

The Morning News/RazorbackCentral

FAYETTEVILLE — John Tyler (Texas) defensive end Tim Crowder received as much recruiting attention as anybody during this past spring's early evaluation period.

"I ended up with about 15 (scholarship) offers," Crowder said. "I just thank God for the opportunity and am trying not to let it go to my head."

The last few weeks Crowder (6-foot-4, 227 pounds, 4.67 second, 40-yard dash) has weighed the positives and negatives of each school that's offered and has managed to chop his list in half.

"I'm thinking about seven now," Crowder said. "Right now, I like Arkansas, Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Kansas State and LSU."

Now the hard part.

"I know there's only five schools I can (officially) visit in the fall, so I have to eliminate two," Crowder said. "There's a lot more that I have to look at."

Like playing time.

"I'm going to look at depth charts first," Crowder said. "I want to see how many defensive ends they have (on campus) and how many they're recruiting and how I compare."

And coaches?

"That's key," Crowder said. "I'm going to look closely at the staff and see if I like them."

So far, Arkansas assistant Bobby Allen has met that criteria.

"You know, all the coaches kind of tell you the same thing, so it's hard to look at that," Crowder said. "But I really enjoyed coach Allen when he called to offer (a scholarship). He wasn't as serious as some of the others and seemed like a coach that you could joke around with."

Crowder is rated as a 4-star prospect and is ranked as the No. 8 prospect in Texas regardless of position by Rivals100.com's Jeremy Crabtree.

Last season, Crowder finished with more than 40 tackles and five sacks on defense, and pulled down three receptions for 40 yards and two touchdowns on offense.

Crowder said his 3.5 GPA is "on the way up" and that he's still awaiting the results of the ACT he took last month.

ALL IN THE FAMILY

Desoto (Texas) linebacker Victor DeGrate Jr. doesn't need anybody telling him how great Arkansas would be for him.

He hears enough of that from his dad.

"My dad keeps telling me about how much I would like it and how good Arkansas would be for me and stuff like that," DeGrate said. "But I'm going to look for myself, and I'm trying to get an official visit to Arkansas."

DeGrate hinted that he may take an unofficial visit to Oklahoma this summer, but he also talked about his dream official visit.

"I want to narrow it down to four by the fall so I can try to save one visit," DeGrate said. "I've always wanted to go to Hawaii and I've been kidding dad that that's where I'll end up.

"But I really just want the free trip."

While Hawaii hasn't showed much interest, schools that have include Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia Tech, Kansas State, Michigan, Michigan State, Missouri and Oklahoma. All have reportedly offered scholarships.

"Right now I'm thinking about all of them," DeGrate said. "I won't start even thinking about a decision or any favorites until I go on all my visits."

DeGrate is rated a 3-star prospect by Rivals100.com. He finished with more than 90 tackles and five sacks as a junior.

DeGrate sports a 3.1 GPA and is awaiting the results of the ACT he took last month.



<small>[ July 03, 2002, 09:55 AM: Message edited by: calling_the_hogs ]</small>