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#83 Micky Crum

Class: RS Sophomore

Ht/Wt: 6-4/257

Position: Tight end

Hometown: Columbus, OH

Twitter: @TooHypeCrum

Thoughts: I tried to tell the world last year at this same time that Micky was primed to make a name for himself in 2015. He had the size, the hands, and the speed to become a VERY good tightend in the Petrino system when he arrived on campus, the big concern with Crum, voiced by Petrino and Crum himself early on, was learning the plays and becoming a better blocker. Based upon what I had read/seen in the offseason I thought he had done just that during his redshirt and was ready to hold his own with both Towbridge and newcomer Hikutini. Flash forward a month into the season and Crum is damn near a household name amongst fans. He had a couple grabs in the Auburn game but Houston was his “welcome to the party, pal” breakthrough moment.

Six catches, 103 yards, a diving touchdown, and a National Tight End of The Week Award later, Crum was raising some eyebrows and the future at the position is looking pretty solid too me. “But CardinalStrong”, they said, “it was just one game. Let’s see how he does against Clemson”. Well, how’s another four catches for 36 yards sound? And maybe we can sprinkle this near decapitation on that sundae to top it all off…?

(The best part of that video is Dabo double checking his man to make sure he’s still alive)

Crum was ready to play early last year, and as we saw, he took advantage of the opportunity he was given with an injured Hikutini and Towbridge to make his mark. As the season progressed and the two vets got healthy they obviously saddled up to the trough and began to “eat” as well, and all three players wound up with a fairly similar distribution, in terms of receptions (10-19) and touchdowns (3 apiece). As we turn the page to 2016, all three of these guys are back (I’m not forgetting Standberry, I just consider him a hybrid now) and I’d expect a similar distribution this season as well. I think Hikutini will still be the top dog, but Towbridge and Crum will both reap the rewards of an offense that will without a doubt spread the ball around more this year, if for no other reason than Lamar having a better understanding of his progressions and running slightly less. I love this group of tight ends as a whole as we have a solid mixture of all the tools needed to block, catch, run, and break tackles and can mix and match based upon our need in various situations. It may not be a “staple” of the Petrino offense but I’d be surprised if we didn’t see more and more two tight end sets this season in non-running downs.

Crum wound up with 14 receptions and three touchdowns in 2015 (I predicted 10-15 for him last year because I’m a tight end Nostradamus) and even though I’m a card carrying member of the Micky Crum fan club I’ll actually predict somewhat of a plateau in 2016 keeping him in the 15-17 range. He’ll make a few more plays this year, maybe grab another 2-3 touchdowns, but more importantly he’ll solidify his role as the man to beat in 2017 for the starting spot.

Sweet Tweet:

Any DMX gets me beyond T’d up

— Micky Crum™ (@TooHypeCrum) May 5, 2016

Oh, you gonna fit in reeeeal nice around here, Mick. Real nice.