Jackson’s E.J. Crowell breaks loose for a long gain against Anniston in Friday’s Class 4A state championship game at Birmingham’s Protective Stadium. Crowell, a five-star Alabama signee, wrapped up his high school career with 304 yards on 25 carries and five touchdowns in the Aggies’ 52-0 rout. (Helen Joyce/Call News)
BIRMINGHAM — Jackson’s E.J. Crowell finished his final high school football game in the only way imaginable: By making everyone’s tongues droop in pure amazement at what they had witnessed, leaving a trail of skid marks where defenders had once stood and, of course, with records.
The imaginable for Crowell, however, is unimaginable for most running backs. The Aggies’ five-star Alabama signee — fueled by the fact that it was his career finale and intent on punishing Anniston for what he said were some unflattering remarks made in the runup to the Class 4A state championship game — turned the Bulldogs’ top-ranked defense into tapioca, running for 304 yards on 25 carries and five touchdowns in No. 2-ranked Jackson’s 52-0 (win) (victory) (bloodbath) (turkey shoot) Friday at Protective Stadium.
Crowell stayed in the game to the end so he could finish as the state’s leading rusher this year (2,628 yards) and with 6,329 yards and 91 TDs in his career. He’d have double those numbers if he had played full games.
As it was, Crowell set the rushing record and tied the touchdown record for the Class 4A Super 7 finals. He scored on runs of 2 yards, 1 yard, 56, 56 and 47 yards. On one of his 56-yarders, Anniston was penalized for sideline interference. Interference with what?
As he came off the field heading toward a career as the Crimson Tide’s prized running back recruit, Crowell tugged off his wristbands and gave them to a couple of kids hanging over the railing as he walked into the tunnel.
“He’s got to keep his pants on,” joked longtime Alabama High School Athletic Association Communications Director Ron Ingram, who was escorting Crowell and working his last Super 7 before retiring.
Those pants, most assuredly, are not put on one leg at a time like anybody else’s.
When Crowell was suspended for the season opener against Saraland for what the AHSAA said was a violation of its amateurism rule — got to admit, he doesn’t play like an amateur — he warned: “Y’all done woke up a monster.”
He was true to his word, enjoying a season that will make it impossible to deny him the state’s highest individual football honor. He was named Gatorade’s Player of the Year for Alabama Friday, which is usually a precursor to being named Mr. Football.
Aggies coach Cody Flournoy sensed something historic could happen before the game, noting Crowell had a chance to finish as the state’s leading rusher in 2025. All he needed was 293 yards. Just 293 yards, that’s all.
“He’d have to have a monster game,” Flournoy said, “but he could.”
Yes, and gas could catch fire when a match is tossed on it, as the previously undefeated and apparently untested Bulldogs did.
“Since the beginning of the season, they’ve been texting us, telling us they wanted to play us,” Crowell said. “Now they finally got us. I guess they ain’t lived up to what they were saying.”
He paused with a sense of satisfaction: “Fifty-two to nothin’ — that’s all I’ve got to say.”
But E.J., this was the best defense against the score in Class 4A.
“That’s what they were saying on paper,” said the nation’s No. 2 running back prospect, emphasizing the word “paper.” He didn’t say if he meant the recycled kind because that’s how he treated Anniston’s defense before folding it up, stuffing it in an envelope and putting his stamp on it.
A much more valuable piece of paper was signed by Crowell on Wednesday, when he officially joined Alabama. After Friday’s game, Kalen DeBoer probably wished Crowell could have driven to Atlanta and put on a crimson jersey because he is much better than any of the Tide’s current running backs and its non-existent running game could have used the help in Saturday’s SEC Championship Game against Georgia.
Crowell broke into a wide smile when asked if he wished he could have played Saturday.
“Yes, sir,” he said, “but my time will come. I’ve got to get a little bit better at the little things and there’s some stuff I need to work on.”
Pass blocking, yes. Waiting for his blocks to develop, sure, but presumably also other things, such as leaping over the goalposts and carrying all 11 defenders over the goal line.
As exceptional as he is on the field, Crowell is as unassuming off it. After returning to Jackson and getting some sleep, he was going to get ready to celebrate his nephew’s birthday party Saturday. After that, he’ll play in the Alabama-Mississippi All-Star Game, graduate early, then enroll in Tuscaloosa.
“He needs to mature a little bit more physically but that’ll come,” Flournoy said. “He’s going up there in January and by the fall, I think he’s ready. But in the modern NIL era, you don’t have stacked backfields and stuff. Coach Saban would have five running backs back there. They’re not as deep, so I think that also leads to him playing a little bit sooner.”
Crowell isn’t the only player Flournoy and Jackson fans will miss. Quarterback and South Carolina signee Landon Duckworth was a perfect 6-of-6 passing for 75 yards and managed, as he usually does, a highlight-reel play with wideout Keeyun “Red” Chapman, who missed most of the season with a knee injury.
Just as they did on the last play of the first half of last year’s 69-6 (win) (victory) (bloodbath) (turkey shoot) over Cherokee County in the finals, Duckworth hurled a touchdown pass to Chapman, as if to drive home the point that Anniston was powerless to stop the onslaught.
The 6-foot-4 Chapman, who has signed with North Carolina, reached over the Bulldogs’ 6-1 Kyree Lewis in the end zone on a 26-yard pass that made it 30-0. Lewis should just as well tried to jump into one of the low-flying jets on approach to the nearby Birmingham airport.
In the third quarter, Chapman raced 79 yards on a punt return for a touchdown but not before slinging Lewis off his shoes like a harmless caterpillar. Lewis picked himself up off the turf and then stood motionless as he watched Chapman become a dot on the horizon.
It was that way all day as the Aggies used only 27, 48, 9, 11 and 14 seconds to score five of their touchdowns, doing it with an offensive line that started two sophomores.
“I didn’t think we had a complete game today but the score was great,” Flournoy said.
The only suspense in the game — other than Crowell getting his records — came during a timeout, when a fan was selected, brought to the field, blindfolded and attempted to chase a man dressed as Santa Claus. She didn’t come close, of course, in a futile effort that was very much like Anniston chasing Jackson.
All of Class 4A has been engaged in the same chase the last three years as the Aggies have gone 38-4. What this team has done is easy to take for granted. Will we ever see its like again?
“What I ask from these guys is just to be their best and play at their best and just to win championships and that’s what they’ve done,” Flournoy said. “The term that I would use is generational. We have 22 seniors. We generally average about 15 in Jackson. And we’re going to sign about 12 guys off this team, including probably our whole defensive front. They let us coach them hard. We want to play hard football, play good football. They’ve taken me in and they’ve listened.
“They’re good kids. It’s been fun to watch these kids grow under the biggest lights. I’m a football fan. I love watching these guys.”
