Maryland defensive lineman Elijah Crawford was offered by Rutgers football on Thursday.
Rutgers now joins fellow Power Five programs Indiana, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Virginia Tech and West Virginia in offering Crawford. He is a 6-foot-4, 265-pound interior defensive lineman from the class of 2025 at McDonogh (Owings Mills, Maryland).
In nine games played as a junior last year for McDonogh, Crawford had 39 total tackles, three tackles for a loss and two sacks.
Because of his size and strength, Crawford is unable to be blocked at the high school level by most linemen. But while his power requires double teams, he is impressive in how he can evade blockers and get into the backfield.
Crawford is quick and agile, allowing him to get quickly after the ball once he sheds his blocker.
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He tweeted about the Rutgers football offer on Thursday night:
Blessed to say that I have received an offer from Rutgers University!@CoachFerrell55 @McDonoghFB pic.twitter.com/9pYUIBOtKL
— Elijah Crawford (@ecrawford__) March 1, 2024
He tagged defensive line coach [autotag]Colin Ferrell[/autotag] in his social media post.
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Since late January, he has been offered by Indiana as well as Liberty, Dartmouth, UConn and Delaware.