Cronkrite shines in career reboot
TAMPA — During a phone conversation earlier this week, USF senior slot receiver Tyre McCants tried breaking the news gingerly to former Bulls signing classmate Marlon Mack.
Who are we kidding? McCants was needling Mack’s pride like a pin cushion.
“I said, ‘Jordan might be a little bit faster than you,’ ” McCants told Mack, the Bulls’ three-time 1,000-yard rusher and Indianapolis Colts tailback. “He just laughed, he kind of smirked. He said, ‘I knew my time was gonna come up.’ I said, ‘We still love you over here, but somebody’s got the [record] right now.’ ”
On an overcast New England Saturday, USF junior Jordan Cronkrite — built eerily similar to Mack — ran for 302 yards and three touchdowns on 23 carries during a 58-42 victory against UMass.
The performance eclipsed the USF single-game rushing record shared by Andre Hall and Mack, who gained 275 yards on 24 carries as a last-minute starter in a 36-31 victory against Western Carolina in the 2014 season opener.
“I wanted [Cronkrite] to get 300 yards,” Bulls coach Charlie Strong said. “I left him in the game … because the way he had played that night, he deserved it.”
The Mack-Cronkrite comparisons have wafted around the Selmon Center ever since. There’s quite a bit to compare.
A University of Florida transfer, Cronkrite is listed at 5-foot-11, 207 pounds; Mack was listed at 6-foot, 210 pounds his final college season. Both played some safety in high school (Cronkrite at Miami Westminster, Mack at Sarasota Booker) and probably could’ve flourished on defense in college.
And both are threedown backs with fourthgear explosiveness.
“Both backs, they’re both gifted,” McCants said. “And I tell [Cronkrite,] ‘It’s amazing watching you run, how fast you are and how you can do it.’ ”
Yet in this deliberation of Bulls backs, perhaps it’s wiser for now to cool all jets instead of comparing theirs. Mack, after all, ran for 3,609 career yards and evolved into a fourthround NFL draft pick.
Whether Cronkrite reaches such stratospheres remains to be seen. But four games into his USF career, the 21-year-old south Floridian isn’t a replicate of Mack (who departed after the 2016 season), he’s a darn solid replacement.
His breakthrough as a Bull (Cronkrite has three consecutive 100-yard games) represents a second lease on his collegiate life. He showed promise in a limited role (157 rushing, 89 receiving yards) at UF as a freshman in 2015, but found himself mired in a tailback logjam the following season, when he managed only 31 carries.
“At the time it wasn’t a good situation for me personally, and I didn’t feel I could excel athletically,” said Cronkrite, a U.S. Army All-American who ran for more than 3,000 yards at Westminster.
With the Bulls’ oncediverse backfield depleted by injuries, Cronkrite (69 carries, 606 yards, five touchdowns) has emerged into a bellcow. He enters Friday’s game at Tulsa ranked third nationally with 151.5 yards per game.