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Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
Aug. 10, 2008
If this football thing doesn’t work out for Texas Tech All-American Mike Crabtree, no one need worry about him. The spirit of entrepreneurship burns inside Crabtree, much like the competitive desire he displays on a football field.
Those close to Crabtree know of his proclivity for cutting hair. He plays barber to assorted teammates and roommates. A couple of barber friends back home - Big T Plaza in Dallas - taught him how to handle a set of clippers from a young age.
“Hanging out at the barbershop all day, that’s the way I learned,” he said.
Yet, it’s not dreams of his own barber pole that fuel Crabtree’s most creative ideas these days.
Just maybe, coming someday to a mall near you, could be this outlet: Crabtree’s Clothiers.
“I’m into a lot of fashion, so I thought I would just have my own clothing line,” he said. “Different people, different tailors, work with me.”
Crabtree said he’s been drawing fashion designs since he was in eighth grade and genuinely expects to see tangible results. He declines to reveal a name, but said he will have his stamp on a line of clothing soon.
“With a clothing line, you’ve got to have different options,” Crabtree said, “so I try to make clothes everybody will like. Anytime I have free time, I’m drawing up something that I like, something different.”
So there’s much more to Crabtree than going back to a dorm room and indulging in endless hours of NCAA Football 09.
“Oh, yeah. I have a lot of stuff on my agenda,” he said. “I can’t be bored. I don’t like sitting around, so I just try a lot of stuff.”
Still at the top of Crabtree’s agenda - and not at odds with his off-field pursuits - is fashioning a season to match the storybook one he enjoyed last year. The only thing to make it better would be to have a few more victories thrown in. Tech went 9-4 in 2007, and Crabtree caught 125 passes and scored 22 touchdowns. Going into his sophomore season, Crabtree, if he ever was one, no longer qualifies as a secret weapon.
“It’s going to be real different,” he acknowledged. “This is my second year. I’m more experienced. I’m coming in ready, knowing what I have to do. Last year, I knew what I had to do, but now I’m playing some teams that it’ll be my second time playing. That’s even better. Playing a team a second time, you know what they’ve got and you know what you’ve got to do to improve, so that’s what I’ve been working on.”
If opponents want to assign a disproportionate amount of coverage to him, Crabtree says, he’s confident that his running mates - such as Eric Morris, who caught seven of his nine touchdown passes last year in Big 12 games, or Edward Britton, who scored four times in the last six games - can make them pay.
Crabtree is especially fired up about the team’s only new starter on offense. Detron Lewis plays the “Y” inside receiver which, in Tech’s offense, is anchored on the right, regardless where the other pass catchers line up. Crabtree lines up at flanker, which is deployed to the right side more often than not.
Lewis scored the first touchdown in Tech’s Gator Bowl victory over Virginia and hasn’t stopped impressing since. He was a hit in spring practice and had a strong first week of preseason workouts.
“Really, I think Detron Lewis is … ,” Crabtree said, searching for the words. “Us on the right side, that’s probably the best you can get. A lot of people are going to see that as soon as the season gets started.”
Yet, Crabtree’s name remains the one that carries the sizzle. His catches, yardage and touchdowns in 2007 all ranked among the top 10 single-season figures in NCAA history.
Crabtree might have gotten into Deion Sanders’ Prime U at SMU weekend in May even if he didn’t have a cousin who knew some of the principals.
Happening to be home in Dallas, Crabtree showed up at the two-day Sanders camp and got into the informal workouts against some of the game’s biggest talents: the Chicago Bears’ Devin Hester, the Cincinnati Bengals’ T.J. Houshmandzadeh and the Dallas Cowboys’ Adam Jones, to name a few.
v
The key, Crabtree says, was to act like he belonged.
“To tell you the truth, I really don’t worry about names or the NFL,” he said. “Football is football. That person on the other side of the ball, I’m going to do him like I do anybody else.
“I mean, I caught the ball just like I catch it out here.”
Someday soon, Crabtree will be squaring off on Sundays with the game’s best. Tech fans would like that to be no sooner than the 2011 season.
Crabtree is widely projected to be a first-round draft pick, however, if he leaves school after this year. Some consider it a foregone conclusion.
Crabtree’s reaction?
“I don’t have a reaction to that,” he said. “My reaction to that is they need to focus on this season. That’s what I’m doing - because I’m trying to get better. I’m trying for the team to be the best Tech’s ever been. To do that, my mind can’t be wandering off somewhere else. My mind’s got to be on my team and what we’ve got to do to get better.”
With Crabtree, all pursuits - conceiving of clothes, cutting hair, catching passes - fit in their proper place.
Aug. 10, 2008
If this football thing doesn’t work out for Texas Tech All-American Mike Crabtree, no one need worry about him. The spirit of entrepreneurship burns inside Crabtree, much like the competitive desire he displays on a football field.
Those close to Crabtree know of his proclivity for cutting hair. He plays barber to assorted teammates and roommates. A couple of barber friends back home - Big T Plaza in Dallas - taught him how to handle a set of clippers from a young age.
“Hanging out at the barbershop all day, that’s the way I learned,” he said.
Yet, it’s not dreams of his own barber pole that fuel Crabtree’s most creative ideas these days.
Just maybe, coming someday to a mall near you, could be this outlet: Crabtree’s Clothiers.
“I’m into a lot of fashion, so I thought I would just have my own clothing line,” he said. “Different people, different tailors, work with me.”
Crabtree said he’s been drawing fashion designs since he was in eighth grade and genuinely expects to see tangible results. He declines to reveal a name, but said he will have his stamp on a line of clothing soon.
“With a clothing line, you’ve got to have different options,” Crabtree said, “so I try to make clothes everybody will like. Anytime I have free time, I’m drawing up something that I like, something different.”
So there’s much more to Crabtree than going back to a dorm room and indulging in endless hours of NCAA Football 09.
“Oh, yeah. I have a lot of stuff on my agenda,” he said. “I can’t be bored. I don’t like sitting around, so I just try a lot of stuff.”
Still at the top of Crabtree’s agenda - and not at odds with his off-field pursuits - is fashioning a season to match the storybook one he enjoyed last year. The only thing to make it better would be to have a few more victories thrown in. Tech went 9-4 in 2007, and Crabtree caught 125 passes and scored 22 touchdowns. Going into his sophomore season, Crabtree, if he ever was one, no longer qualifies as a secret weapon.
“It’s going to be real different,” he acknowledged. “This is my second year. I’m more experienced. I’m coming in ready, knowing what I have to do. Last year, I knew what I had to do, but now I’m playing some teams that it’ll be my second time playing. That’s even better. Playing a team a second time, you know what they’ve got and you know what you’ve got to do to improve, so that’s what I’ve been working on.”
If opponents want to assign a disproportionate amount of coverage to him, Crabtree says, he’s confident that his running mates - such as Eric Morris, who caught seven of his nine touchdown passes last year in Big 12 games, or Edward Britton, who scored four times in the last six games - can make them pay.
Crabtree is especially fired up about the team’s only new starter on offense. Detron Lewis plays the “Y” inside receiver which, in Tech’s offense, is anchored on the right, regardless where the other pass catchers line up. Crabtree lines up at flanker, which is deployed to the right side more often than not.
Lewis scored the first touchdown in Tech’s Gator Bowl victory over Virginia and hasn’t stopped impressing since. He was a hit in spring practice and had a strong first week of preseason workouts.
“Really, I think Detron Lewis is … ,” Crabtree said, searching for the words. “Us on the right side, that’s probably the best you can get. A lot of people are going to see that as soon as the season gets started.”
Yet, Crabtree’s name remains the one that carries the sizzle. His catches, yardage and touchdowns in 2007 all ranked among the top 10 single-season figures in NCAA history.
Crabtree might have gotten into Deion Sanders’ Prime U at SMU weekend in May even if he didn’t have a cousin who knew some of the principals.
Happening to be home in Dallas, Crabtree showed up at the two-day Sanders camp and got into the informal workouts against some of the game’s biggest talents: the Chicago Bears’ Devin Hester, the Cincinnati Bengals’ T.J. Houshmandzadeh and the Dallas Cowboys’ Adam Jones, to name a few.
v
The key, Crabtree says, was to act like he belonged.
“To tell you the truth, I really don’t worry about names or the NFL,” he said. “Football is football. That person on the other side of the ball, I’m going to do him like I do anybody else.
“I mean, I caught the ball just like I catch it out here.”
Someday soon, Crabtree will be squaring off on Sundays with the game’s best. Tech fans would like that to be no sooner than the 2011 season.
Crabtree is widely projected to be a first-round draft pick, however, if he leaves school after this year. Some consider it a foregone conclusion.
Crabtree’s reaction?
“I don’t have a reaction to that,” he said. “My reaction to that is they need to focus on this season. That’s what I’m doing - because I’m trying to get better. I’m trying for the team to be the best Tech’s ever been. To do that, my mind can’t be wandering off somewhere else. My mind’s got to be on my team and what we’ve got to do to get better.”
With Crabtree, all pursuits - conceiving of clothes, cutting hair, catching passes - fit in their proper place.
