Maurice Crum – a two-time captain at Notre Dame with multiple years of experience playing in the professional ranks – enters his sixth season on The Hill and second as WKU's defensive coordinator.
2020
Crum helped the WKU defense rank eighth in pass yards allowed (177.3), 28th in total yards allowed (348.7) and 41st in points allowed (25.3) per game.
Primary starting linebackers Kyle Bailey and Eli Brown combined for 129 tackles – including 16.5 for loss – with five sacks, two interceptions and six quarterback hurries. Both Bailey and Brown were voted 2020 Conference USA Honorable Mention by the league’s coaches. Later in the season, Nick Days started seeing more playing time rotating into the lineup, and he made 25 tackles in the final four games.
2019
Crum helped lead a group of linebackers with a lot of new faces. After making the change from safety to linebacker, Kyle Bailey burst on to the scene for the Hilltoppers, leading WKU with 109 tackles and three interceptions. He was one of only seven defenders with at least 100 tackles and three picks in the 2019 season. Bailey earned Conference USA Defensive Player of the Week honors vs. UAB and was voted C-USA Honorable Mention.
Another player in Crum's position group who made strides was Clay Davis. After sitting out the 2018 campaign due to NCAA transfer rules, Davis put together a solid season by racking up 60 tackles, three TFL's, one sack and a forced fumble.
As a team, WKU produced a top 25 overall defense, as the Hilltoppers completed one of the best defensive seasons in recent memory. WKU allowed only 20.1 total points per game, which was the lowest mark for the program since 2004 and ranked No. 22 in FBS.
WKU held opponents to a 29.7% rate (51-of-172) on 3rd down attempts, which ranked sixth in FBS and was the lowest mark for the program since a 30.1% rate (49-of-163) on opponent third down tries in 1987. The Hilltoppers ranked third in FBS with only 82 missed tackles all season long. With 835 total plays in 13 games, that equated to about 6.3 per contest and one every 10 snaps. Only Michigan (74) and Air Force (81) had better such numbers.
WKU also ranked among the best in the nation in a handful of other statistics: 15th with 224 first downs allowed, 19th in red zone defense with a scoring rate of 75.8%, 24th in total defense with 335.5 yards allowed per game and 28th with 200 passing yards allowed per game. The Hilltoppers allowed only 142 plays of 10-plus yards all season – which ranked tied for 10th in the country – and was down from 180 such plays WKU allowed in 2018.
Only 38 points allowed in a four-game stretch from Sept. 28 to Oct. 19 were the second-fewest for WKU since 2004, and only 125 points allowed thru the first seven games were the Hilltoppers’ fewest since 2004. In a 20-3 victory over Old Dominion, WKU held the Monarchs to three points, the fewest allowed by the Hilltoppers since 2016, while allowed just 160 total yards, their fifth-fewest since 2007.
In a 17-8 win over Army, WKU held the Black Knights to 208 total yards, their lowest in 40 games, and kept Army in single-digit scoring for the first time in 29 games. In a 45-19 win at Arkansas, the defense held the Razorbacks to just 87 yards through the air, their first time under 100 passing yards since 2014.
2018
During his second year on The Hill, Crum developed linebacker Ben Holt into a tackling machine and team leader. Holt, who was elected one of two yearlong captains by his teammates, set WKU's FBS Era record for tackles per game (9.67) with 116 tackles in 12 games. That mark ranked fourth in C-USA and his 116 total tackles were the third-most among league players in the regular season. Crum's second protege, senior Masai Whyte, finished the regular season with 76 total tackles and ranked No. 22 in C-USA in that mark.
According to ProFootballFocus.com's statistical grading, Holt's 15.2 was the highest among all WKU defenders and the 10th highest in all of C-USA.
2017
In his first season, Crum's experience at the highest level was put on display as WKU needed to replace two of the season's previous three starting linebackers, returning only junior Joel Iyiegbuniwe. Under Crum's direction, Iyiegbuniwe exploded in 2017 en route to an All-CUSA First Team season. He led the Hilltoppers in tackles with 116, the third-most in a single season in the FBS Era, and tackles for loss with 11.5. The junior declared for the NFL Draft a year early and was selected 115th overall in the fourth round by the Chicago Bears.
Alongside Iyiegbuniwe, linebackers Masai Whyte and Ben Holt developed a solid rotation in coordinator Clayton White's 4-2-5 scheme as Whyte's 64 tackles were fifth-most on the squad and his pair of forced fumbles tied Iyiegbuniwe for the team lead.
Previous
Crum, was a standout linebacker at Notre Dame from 2005-to-2008. During his playing career, Crum played in 50 games with 42 consecutive starts and registered 306 tackles – including 23 tackles for loss – with eight sacks. His 306 career tackles ranked 11th in Notre Dame history. A two-time team captain in 2007 and 2008, Crum was one of only 17 players in school history to accomplish that feat.
Prior to his time at Indiana State in 2016, Crum was a defensive graduate assistant at Notre Dame in 2015 which included an appearance in the Fiesta Bowl. Crum's post-college playing career included a three-year stint in the UFL (2009-11) and three seasons on Charlie Weis' staff at Kansas in various roles included defensive graduate assistant (2012), Assistant Director of Operations (2013) and Director of High School Relations (2014).
A 2009 graduate of Notre Dame with a degree in Sociology, Crum is married to the former Crysta Swayzer and the couple has three sons, Maurice III, Allen and Noah. Crum's father, Maurice Sr., was a consensus All-American at Miami in 1990.
THE MAURICE CRUM FILE
PERSONAL
Born: May 29, 1986
Hometown: Riverview, Fla.
College: Notre Dame, '09
Wife: Crysta
Children: Maurice III, Allen and Noah
PLAYING CAREER (Linebacker)
College: Notre Dame (2005-08)
Professional: Sacramento Mountain Lions (UFL, 2009-11)
COACHING CAREER
2012: Kansas (Graduate Assistant)
2013: Kansas (Assistant Director of Operations)
2014: Kansas (Director of High School Relations)
2015: Notre Dame (Graduate Assistant)
2016: Indiana State (Cornerbacks/Nickelbacks)
2017-19: WKU (Linebackers – Co-Special Teams Coordinator in 2018)
2020: WKU (Co-Defensive Coordinator/Linebackers)
2021-present: WKU (Defensive Coordinator)
BOWL EXPERIENCE
2005: Fiesta (Notre Dame, Player)
2006: Sugar (Notre Dame, Player)
2008: Hawaii (Notre Dame, Player)
2015: Fiesta (Notre Dame, Coach)
2017: Cure (WKU, Coach)
2019: First Responder (WKU, Coach)
2020: LendingTree (WKU, Coach)
2021: Boca Raton (WKU, Coach)
