At one point, the Texas State Bobcats had five runningbacks committed to their 2016 class. After de-commitments from Tyler Tutt, Kyle White, Terrell Aldridge and Alontae Harris, only Robert Brown remains as the lone committed runningback for this class.
The same day Alontae Harris announced his de-commitment from Texas State, another Texas runningback, Everman runningback Kierre Crossley, announced his de-commitment from a different Sun Belt team, the University of Louisiana-Monroe.
I’m officially decommitted from Louisiana at Monroe
— kierre crossley (@kierre_crossley) January 7, 2016
“I just felt a lot of the love wasn’t the same since the coaching change and the firing of coach (Todd) Berry,” said Crossley. “They got rid a lot of their staff and I just didn’t feel the love with the new guys so that’s why I decided to de-commit. Once Berry left, things were real different. After the coaching change, I didn’t hear from anybody. That’s why I wasn’t feeling the love. It got so bad that I didn’t even know who to contact to de-commit. When I finally did talk to them and told them I de-committed, they were like, ‘We decided to go a different route anyway so we’re glad you weren’t planning on coming here.’ So that was a shocker to me.”
The 5-8, 165-lbs back has a three-star rating on 247 Sports and a two-star one on Rivals. He holds an offer from Central Arkansas and he had one from ULM before they took it away when he de-committed. He doesn’t have an offer from Texas State but there is some interest there and he has been contacted by the new coaching staff.
“I talked to coach Withers but it wasn’t a long conversation, through Twitter,” said Crossley. “He said he would be contacting me soon with more information. At that time, he was focused on getting his staff together but he said he would make sure to contact me. I’m trying to stay close to home, that’s one of the biggest things I want to do. I’m not in a hurry to leave and get out of state.”
With a reported 4.4 40 time at camp last year, Crossley said he is more of speed back than a power one. At Everman high school, he was the main focus on a running offense, “Everman has a real good football program. I would say in the last 17 years, since our head coach Dale Keeling has been there, we’ve gone to the playoffs 17 years straight. We are mostly a running team. We run the ball a lot. I had a lot of opportunities but I didn’t have a lot of opportunities catching the ball. I didn’t get to show how real my hands are so there were a lot of questions about that. But there is great tradition of football there. I really enjoyed playing there.”
Despite not having an offer, Crossley has fond reflections of Texas State and San Marcos. He even has a few connections to Texas State athletics.
“I have a lot of friends that go there,” said Crossley. “My friend, Demarcus Porter, runs track down there and I know they had a pretty good year. I went down there once for a track meet and saw the campus. It wasn’t an official visit or nothing but I’ve been down there. I am also real good friend with Devin Williams who just recommitted to Texas State. I really like the school.”
No official visit is planned but we will update you on Crossley’s status when more information is available.
