He may be Kentucky’s most coveted prospect and leading the pack at his position in the Class of 2021. He’s also a fantastic kid who has been a wonderful friend to KPGFootball over his career which we first began covering when he played for Team Kentucky Future Stars in middle school.
Dekel and his Team Kentucky teammates lost a beloved member of the team to a tragic accident with a gun resulting in that young man’s death. Dekel chose to wear his number in high school in tribute to this fallen friend who he only knew through Team Kentucky.
That has always touched me about the humanity and character of this young man. Having met his mother at the UK Spring game, and having gotten to talk with her at some length, it is easy to see what has kept this superstar so humble, grounded, and human.
For that reason primarily we were devastated when he bolted to the IMG Academy to play football just prior to the 2019 season. We are elated he is back in Kentucky for his senior year.
He has narrowed his choices down to Kentucky, Louisville, The Ohio State University, Michigan, Baylor, South Carolina, Virginia Tech, and Texas but not in this order necessarily. He’s known all over Kentucky as “The Flash.” We love us some Dekel Crowdus. We aren’t alone.
Crowdus is listed at 5-10.5 and weighs in the neighborhood of 165-pounds. He has been timed in the 40-yard dash at 4.32-seconds, shuttles in 4.14-seconds, and has a standing vertical of 44.3-inches indicating his running speed is for real. He made “The Opening” and matriculated to the finals of this nationally prestigious, Nike event.
Both major recruiting services (247Sports & Rivals) have him as a 4-Star prospect and ranked among America’s top-300 high school football players as does ESPN. Crowdus is a big-play threat who, the last time he suited up for Douglass, averaged just over 22-yards per reception, in his 37 catches, for 831-yards with 11 TDs and he was just a sophomore then playing 5A football. He made both of our All-State football teams his freshman and his sophomore seasons.
He’s a kid a tad shorter than what schools typically look for at the WR position who makes up for it with plus length (long wing-span), large, soft, and sure hands, disciplined routes, blazing speed and quickness, and unbelievable verticality. He’s physical enough to put the defender on his back and win the 50/50 ball or just climb him for the football using his hops.
On the college level, this is a prospect with what we call “corner speed” and, if we are being honest, he has the perfect frame and skill-set to play in a defense’s back-four. His having played receiver in HS will add to his attraction as a corner should a school move him once he’s enrolled. He also would be a dynamite option as a kick/punt returner.
This is a kid who has the discipline and intelligence to stay eligible in the classroom and the character to end up the team’s captain as well as its most explosive player, regardless of the position he ends up playing. When it comes to predicting this kid’s future success, it just doesn’t take a Nostradamus or Edgar Cayce.
Welcome back Dekel. Thanks for giving us one last opportunity to watch you on the high school level before moving on to thrill us on television in the near future.
This is Coach HB Lyon, reporting for KPGFootball, and we’re JUST CALLING IT LIKE WE SEE IT!
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