The Cardinal Countdown: 83 Days Until Kickoff

#83 Micky Crum

Class: RS Junior

Ht/Wt: 6-4/235

Position: Tight End

Hometown: Columbus, OH

Twitter: @TooHypeCrum

Thoughts: As I briefly mentioned back on Friday, Crum is without a doubt one of my favorites on the squad. From the moment he signed with the Cards I just felt as if he was a great fit in the Petrino system with his size and speed, and was a prototypical “Petrino tight end”. After a redshirt season Crum was thrown into the fire early in 2015 as both Hikutini and Towbridge were dinged up and he came out and performed like a stud, grabbing a few balls against Auburn, having a big game against Houston (6rec/103yds) and then had a solid game vs. Clemson, including nearly killing a guy . As expected, when Cole and Towbridge got healthy the opportunities for Crum got smaller and he settled into a supplementary role as a redshirt Freshman.

Last year, I think the whole fanbase knew that Cole was going to be an absolute beast in that offense, but I also expected a second tight end to emerge as defenses began to try and eliminate Hikutini from the gameplan. I pegged Crum in that role due to his performance from the year prior during the countdown but hats off to Towbridge who really played well and kept Crum, who was fighting injuries most of the year, once again sitting in more of a complementary role.

So, as we enter 2017 is this finally the year Micky becomes the man at tight end? Is this the year he stays healthy and remains on the field all 13+ games? Is this the year Crum becomes the type of threat in the Petrino offense that Hikutini has been the last two seasons? In my opinion…yes, yes, and yes. We all saw what Crum was capable of in 2015 as a freshman (14rec/163yds/3TDs) with limited PT, and with another year in the books to work on his blocking and route running I expect to see big things from the Mickster (don’t call him that) this year. Big things like 40 catches and 5 or 6 touchdowns? I honestly think so, and this is taking into account that as the season wears on I believe Jordan Davis will become more and more involved as well. There is no doubt in my mind Crum will be the #1 option at tight end entering the year and with a system that targets that position often and a Heisman trophy winning quarterback who is actually getting better than he was a season ago, this is the start of a recipe that could fans talking about “Crum” like it’s the 1980’s all over again.

Sweet Tweet:

Pretty sad when I’ve probably learned more anatomy due to sports injuries (ACL, MCL, PCL, tendons, oblique, hip flexor, etc) than I did back in high school. Hell, you could probably print poor Michaelee Harris’ injury list and fill an anatomy textbook or two. With that said, don’t you worry folks, I got the important stuff memorized…I did manage to figure out how to have two children soooo, yeah, I’m good.

“The toe bones connected to the foot bone, the foot bones connected to the ankle bone, …”