USF's D.J. Crowther's big night earns top American Conference honor

The popular way to describe South Florida running back D.J. Crowther is to call him a bowling ball. At 5-foot-11 and 215 pounds, he is short enough to disappear behind USF's massive offensive line and strong enough to run over and through anyone who gets in his way.

He introduced himself Saturday night to Delaware State with the subtlety of a ball headed down the alley at high speed to impact the 1-3 pocket. Instead of sending pins scattering, he blasted his way past Hornets' defenders en route a 101-yard, three-touchdown night as the Bulls dispatched the visitors 59-17 to move to 3-0 overall.

"D.J's refusal to go down sometimes -- I mean, when he runs like that, a man on a mission. Yeah, that was probably the best part. DJ. did a great job of not letting the first guy make the play," Bulls coach Brian Hartline said. "At times for sure, we didn't have it (positioned) correctly from a front perspective -- O line, tight ends. And DJ kind of was the eraser. So, a great job with that. We got to keep building on that.

"We can't assume that the running back can do that every time, but it was great to see and a lot of credit to D.J. but we're not overly shocked that either, given the way he prepares and the way he works and how consistent he is at practice."

For his effort, Crowther was named The American Conference's Offensive Player of the Week. He became only the third Bull with 100 rushing yards, 40 receiving yards, and three touchdowns in a single game.

He did all that on just eight carries. He had touchdown runs of 38 and 39 yards. As a team, USF had 290 rushing yards and seven TDs.

Eight players divided up 31 carries, and Chase Garnett made the most of his first carry of the season with a game-high 45-yard run.

"On paper, every run can go for a touchdown if you're blocked correctly and your wideouts are blocking down field. so there'll always be one spare hat somewhere. I would say that we have a staple of guys that can do a lot of really good things," Hartline said. "And so, um, you know, the guys that that you saw (Saturday), you can kind of see what they can do. There's still a pecking order from guys that have earned opportunities through camp and you want guys that who have earned those opportunities to see the fair share of those.

"That's just the reality of earning kind of the pecking order, right? And but we have a lot of great dudes, a lot of guys that are learning. And I'm glad those guys were able to, you know, see the fruits of their labor tonight."

Hartline has made no secret of his preference for the running game, but it's comforting to know that when the situation demands that the Bulls air it out, they can do that. Quarterback Michael Van Buren proved that in the waning minutes against Army, and he tacked on a 300-yard passing night with one touchdown against the Hornets.

He hasn't thrown an interception in 80 pass attempts over three starts.

"His timing, his ball location, what he's seeing, there are a lot of positives on that -- definitely a lot of things you can build on. And the command of the offense is just continue to progress.," Hartline said. "A lot of positives, not just stats, but it's everything under the hood that allows this thing to collect that Mike's doing a great job with."

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow