Fremont Native Reshaping USF Football
- A Fremont-born Ivy League standout is reshaping the University of San Francisco football team with notable on-field contributions. - Coaches credit his leadership and playmaking for recent improvements, and teammates point to his experience as a catalyst. - Local fans and high-school programs say his success raises Fremont's profile and could boost regional recruiting efforts. (patch.com)
D.J. Crowther, a Fremont-born running back who spent four seasons at Dartmouth, has become a central piece of South Florida’s 2026 spring rebuild. (gousfbulls.com) Crowther joined the Bulls in January 2026 after rushing for 1,312 yards and 13 touchdowns in 31 games at Dartmouth. In 2025 alone, he ran for 929 yards and 10 touchdowns in 10 games and earned first-team All-Ivy League honors. (gousfbulls.com; tampafp.com) South Florida coach Brian Hartline brought in 41 transfer players in the January portal window after a 9-4 season in 2025, and Crowther was one of two transfer running backs in that group. The Bulls said the class ranked No. 1 in the American Athletic Conference and best among Group of 6 programs by 247Sports. (gousfbulls.com) By the spring game on April 19, running back had become one of the roster’s most productive positions. Hartline said the ground game “can change the energy of a game,” and USF’s recap singled out Crowther and Jason Collins Jr. for multiple big plays. (gousfbulls.com) Crowther’s move also fits the larger shape of South Florida’s offseason. Hartline took over a team that had already reached three straight bowl games, then used the portal to overhaul the roster with 58 newcomers between transfers and early signees before spring practice. (gousfbulls.com) For Crowther, the transfer was not just about football. He told Tampa Free Press he enrolled in a master’s program in entrepreneurship at South Florida after finishing his undergraduate degree in sociology at Dartmouth. (tampafp.com) His background adds a Bay Area thread to a program based 2,800 miles away in Tampa. South Florida lists him as born in Fremont on March 11, 2004, though his hometown on the current roster is Sacramento and his high school is Christian Brothers. (gousfbulls.com) The immediate test is whether spring flashes carry into the fall. Hartline said on April 20 that USF still needs more consistency, but he pointed to the running-back room as both productive on the field and solid in the classroom, with a 3.3 grade-point average. (gousfbulls.com)
