Dylan Crews was’ the dude’ at LSU. Now the MLB draft is calling
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Ryan McGee, ESPN Senior Writer
Editor’s note: This story originally ran in March, as Dylan Crews was leading the LSU Tigers to an eventual national championship. Now he’s expected to be a top pick in Sunday’s MLB Draft. It has been updated to reflect his end-of-season stats.
From the moment Dylan Crews officially decided he would become an LSU Tiger, the Florida-raised outfielder stated he had one goal: to come to Baton Rouge and, in his words, “be a dude there.”
Now, after a third season patrolling the turf of Alex Box Stadium, Dylan Crews isn’t merely a dude. He is The Dude. The anchor of the Men’s College World Series champions, the Golden Spikes-winning dude on a roster overflowing with dudes, a pack of OG LSU recruits joined by a pack of powerhouse transfers who came to Baton Rouge from the Rockies and the Pacific in no small part seeking to play alongside No. 3. But this isn’t simply a Crews crew movement. He’s also The Dude who has all of baseball buzzing, a hum that’s becoming harder to hear as the MLB first-year player draft is upon us and this five-tool, right-handed dude sits atop many selection spreadsheets.
He has been on their radars since his pandemic-shortened senior year at Lake Mary (Florida) High School in 2020. But he knew he had work to do then, leaving high school with a frustratingly incomplete résumé. Even just one year ago he knew he had more work to do, chasing way too many bad breaking balls. And he didn’t want to leave the LSU program as it had even more work to do.
The Tigers are arguably the greatest program of college baseball’s modern era, having made 19 Men’s College World Series appearances since 1986 and winning seven MCWS titles. But heading into this year, the last of those rings was won in 2009, the third of Paul Mainieri’s 15 seasons at the wheel. That’s an eternity by LSU baseball standards, and over the dozen Series since they’d had to watch five other SEC schools win a total of seven championships. Last year, four of the eight MCWS participants were SEC schools (plus soon-to-be members Texas and Oklahoma) and none of them were LSU, who hadn’t been to Omaha since 2017. Mainieri, who recruited Crews, was sent into retirement after the 2021 season in which LSU went 38-25 (13-17 in conference play). The arrival of Jay Johnson from Arizona had shown promise, but ended in Hattiesburg last year with an NCAA Regional loss to Southern Miss.
So, the big leagues? Crews had more to accomplish before he thought that far ahead.
“The one thing I say is that a lot of people took the elevator, but I took the stairs,” the soft-spoken, 6-foot, 205-pound junior said through the curl of a polite, confident grin. “We’re all going to end up at the same place, but I took a different route and it’s the route that I chose. I’m here at LSU and having the best time of my life.”
Here’s what a stat line looks like from The Dude having the best time of his life: 71 games, 110 hits, 18 homers, 16 doubles, 100 runs scored, 70 RBIs, 184 total bases, 171 putouts with zero errors in the field, a slugging percentage of .713 and … OK, here’s the number everyone’s waiting for … a batting average of .426.
That’s four HR’s in four games for 3️⃣@__dc4__ | SECN+ pic.twitter.com/c4F14CEMuV
— LSU Baseball (@LSUbaseball) March 26, 2023
Add it all up and you’ve got college baseball’s best player on the sport’s best team. Crews saved his best for last, going 6-for-12 in the MCWS finals series against Florida, including a 4-for-6 performance in the deciding third game that delivered the long-awaited title.
Because that’s how this Dude rolls.
“I don’t think people really understand the true impact he has on the program outside of being a five-tool talent,” explained Thatcher Hurd, one of those high-profile transfer arrivals, coming to Baton Rouge after a season on the mound at Jackie Robinson Stadium for UCLA. “You come in and you’re like, ‘What’s Dylan Crews about?’ He’s got everything. He’s the best player in the country, and he’s truly a better person than a player. And that says a lot. … People worry about how we’re going to manage a lot of good talent, managing egos. And I think it really all starts with him. He’s super humble. He leads by example. And he leads with his words.”
The 21-year-old has always led by example. It’s the words that are new to his dugout repertoire. Explosive as he is on the diamond, he can be highly introverted elsewhere in life. At home, roommate and righty pitcher Ty Floyd said college baseball’s best player can be found meticulously polishing his endless supply of custom cleats (he really loves his neon SpongeBob kicks) or working on Lego sets, most recently the Avengers’ “Infinity Gauntlet.”
“I can’t sit still for 10 minutes just to build a Lego set. I don’t know how he sits there for an hour or two building the whole thing,” Floyd said. “He’s like, ‘I love it.’ Oof. Good for you. That’s that focus. Then he’ll go to the ballpark and get three hits and a homer that goes out of the ballpark. Turns it on and off.”
When Hurd and his fellow transfers arrived over summer and were joined by a group of highly touted new signees, The Dude had his newfound captain’s voice turned on. He met them all at the clubhouse door and went teammate-to-teammate, those he knew well and those he’d just met, explaining the LSU workout schedule, summer and fall practice plan and then where they were all going to dinner. And lunch. And breakfast.
“I think that’s what’s different about this team compared to the last two teams is how close we are,” Crews said, confessing that he has had to work to become more vocal. “My whole life I’ve been leader by doing, a leader by example. That works when you’re a freshman and I didn’t really have a senior year of high school. But now I speak up. To me, that’s been as big a piece of my development as even the on-field stuff.”
End 5 | Dylan Crews is a five tool baseball player@__dc4__ | SECN+ pic.twitter.com/Hx8aDyXDu7
— LSU Baseball (@LSUbaseball) May 8, 2022
“The baseball part is easy to see. I have never seen a player as complete as him in college baseball. Usually, those guys sign out of high school,” said Johnson, who led Arizona to Omaha in the first and last of his five seasons in Tucson. “But it’s the other stuff. It’s the mental game. How he prepares, how he handles success, how he handles the minimal failure that he has and ability to get right back to doing what he does is special. And it’s leadership. He’s really found his voice and the players respect him so much because of the player he is, the person he is, that when he speaks, they really listen and follow.”
Said Crews, “Everybody’s their own leader in their own way, so doesn’t matter if you’re a freshman or a senior, we are all keeping each other focused. It’s pretty special to see. It is a lot of work, but it is also pretty fun.”
Those around Crews can attest his work ethic has never been an issue at any point in his young life. Even during his preteen years when he first started working with a personal swing coach in his homeland of baseball-mad Central Florida. When hours per day taking cuts in a cinder-block garage weren’t enough, his parents found an indoor batting facility and school that had been fashioned from an abandoned car dealership. When that wasn’t enough and little Dylan got twitchy around the house his father, George, founder and owner of a commercial printing company, built a batting cage in the backyard. When that wasn’t enough, and even hitting the road with a high-level travel team didn’t satiate the teen’s hardball hunger, George and wife Kim, a nurse, worked with his school to create a so-called “Dylan Rule” that heavily front-loaded his academic schedule each morning so that he could spend his afternoons at the nearby TXNL Baseball Academy.
“You can go to the academy full time, but I also wanted to have a normal high school student experience, as much as I could anyway,” Crews said, chuckling. “So, my parents did what they always do and they worked to make it work. I am so fortunate to have them, supporting me no matter what it takes.”
These days it takes an RV, or more accurately, a motorcoach, which George and Kim Crews bought as soon as their boy moved to Baton Rouge. They purchased it secondhand from a tailgate-loving Alabama Crimson Tide fan, who was happy to sell them the rig but refused their request and payment to redo the crimson décor and replace it with purple and gold. Now they steer that RV (they did the makeover themselves) wherever the Tigers and their boy are playing ball, making the drive from the Orlando suburbs to all points Southeastern. During LSU home games they work with their son to host families who have children with special needs, something the family hopes to continue to do as Dylan moves up the baseball ladder.
“He’s such a great baseball player, but then he’s also like the nicest, kindest guy, it almost makes you mad,” Floyd joked. “But it’s also a genuine privilege to know him and to watch him play. It’s next-level stuff and it’s awesome to see everyone else kind of discover the guy we already know.”
Those discoverers include the LSU icons who came before him. One by one, they have reached out, unofficially welcoming him into their club. Crews rolls off their names, the ones he wants to be listed among when he departs for the big leagues in July: Odell Beckham Jr., Shaquille O’Neal and the baseball player he talked to three years ago, when he was wrestling with whether or not to enter the MLB draft out of high school, Alex Bregman. You know, the dudes of their time.
“The reason I came here is to win a national championship, to put a new year up on that Intimidator,” he said of the legendarily gargantuan scoreboard that towers over the left field of the Box.
Then he went out and did just that.
And that’s what makes Dylan Crews The Dude.
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Mark Schlabach
Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza, who led the No. 1 Hoosiers to a perfect 13-0 record and their first Big Ten title since 1967, captured the 91st Heisman Trophy on Saturday night.
Mendoza beat out quarterbacks Diego Pavia (Vanderbilt) and Julian Sayin (Ohio State) and running back Jeremiyah Love (Notre Dame) to take home the trophy during a ceremony in New York.
Mendoza, who played two seasons at California before joining the Hoosiers this season, completed 71.5% of his pass attempts for 2,980 yards with 39 total touchdowns.
He was only the second Heisman Trophy finalist from Indiana. Running back Anthony Thompson was runner-up to Houston quarterback Andre Ware in one of the closest votes in 1989.
With Mendoza, Pavia and Love expected to move on to the NFL after this season, who are the top returning Heisman Trophy candidates for 2026?
In compiling the list of potential candidates, I projected that quarterbacks John Mateer (Oklahoma), Ty Simpson (Alabama) and Dante Moore (Oregon); receivers Carnell Tate (Ohio State), Zachariah Branch (Georgia) and Makai Lemon (USC); and running back Emmett Johnson (Nebraska) will turn pro (along with the aforementioned finalists from this year).
Here is a look at some of the top potential contenders (in no particular order):
2025 stats: 80 catches, 1,086 receiving yards, 12 total touchdowns
Smith’s highlight reel of acrobatic, one-handed catches continues to grow, and he arguably has been the best player in college football this season. He was the fastest Buckeyes player to reach career marks of 2,000 receiving yards (24 games), 100 catches (20) and 25 touchdown receptions (25).
2025 stats: 78.4% completion pct, 3,323 passing yards, 31 touchdowns, 6 interceptions
Sayin might have captured the Heisman Trophy this season if Ohio State’s offense hadn’t flopped in its 13-10 loss to Indiana in the Big Ten championship game. In his first season as a starter, Sayin is on pace to break the NCAA single-season pass completion record of 77.4%, set by Oregon’s Bo Nix in 2023.
2025 stats: 70.7% completion pct, 2,691 passing yards, 442 rushing yards, 31 total touchdowns
In his first full season as Georgia’s starting quarterback, Stockton helped guide the Bulldogs to a 12-1 record and SEC title. His legs and right arm were a big reason the Bulldogs averaged 31.9 points, despite enduring myriad injuries on the offensive line. Stockton was at his best when the game was on the line — he completed 86% of his passes with 11 touchdowns and one interception in the fourth quarter against ranked opponents.
2025 stats: 84 receptions, 970 receiving yards, 7 receiving touchdowns
Toney’s teammates call him “Baby Jesus,” and the true freshman delivered in a big way in his first season with the No. 10 Hurricanes. He ranks sixth in the FBS with 84 catches and had 1,328 all-purpose yards. Toney even threw for two scores. Not bad for an 18-year-old who would be a senior in high school if he hadn’t reclassified to the class of 2025.
2025 stats: 61.4% completion pct, 2,942 passing yards, 32 total touchdowns
Even after all the hand-wringing about Manning being overrated at the start of the season, the former five-star recruit ended up putting together a good campaign, throwing for 2,942 yards with 24 touchdowns. The No. 13 Longhorns need to find some offensive linemen (he was sacked 23 times) and receivers to help him in 2026.
2025 stats: 65.5% completion pct, 3,016 passing yards, 24 total touchdowns
Ole Miss officials have submitted a waiver to the NCAA on Chambliss’ behalf for another season of eligibility. He played his first three seasons at Division II Ferris State before transferring to Ole Miss this year. He was named SEC Newcomer of the Year after taking over the starting job in the third game of the season.
2025 stats: 1,560 rushing yards, 16 touchdowns
A transfer from Louisiana-Monroe, Hardy led the FBS with 130 rushing yards per game and was No. 2 with 1,560 total rushing yards. He had eight 100-yard games for the Tigers, including a whopping 300-yard effort with three touchdowns in a 49-27 victory against Mississippi State on Nov. 15.
2025 stats: 61.8% completion pct, 2,932 passing yards, 466 rushing yards, 31 total touchdowns
Reed announced this week that he plans to stay at Texas A&M next season, which is great news for the No. 7 Aggies. He was a threat with the ball in his hands, throwing for 2,932 yards with 25 touchdowns and running for 466 yards with six scores. His decision-making needs to continue to improve, so he can cut down on his 10 interceptions.
2025 stats: 63.6% completion pct, 3,117 passing yards, 20 total touchdowns
There’s a reason new Bears coach Tosh Lupoi took a late-night flight to Hawai’i to make sure Sagapolutele was staying at Cal. He was only the second true freshman in FBS history to pass for 200 yards or more in each of his first 11 starts. In the Bears’ late-season upsets of then-No. 21 SMU and No. 15 Louisville, Sagapolutele passed for a combined 653 yards with six touchdowns and no picks.
2025 stats: 1,279 rushing yards, 20 touchdowns
After transferring from Missouri, Lacy helped the No. 6 Rebels win 11 games in the regular season for the first time. He ranks No. 2 in the FBS with 20 rushing touchdowns and piled up 1,279 yards on the ground. Will he follow former coach Lane Kiffin to LSU or remain with the Rebels in 2026?
2025 stats: 66.2% completion pct, 3,431 passing yards, 29 total touchdowns
If Maiava returns to the No. 16 Trojans for another season, he’ll probably flourish in Lincoln Riley’s offense. This year, he threw for 3,431 yards with 23 touchdowns and 8 interceptions. He ranks No. 1 with a 91.2 total QBR. According to Pro Football Focus, he was second in the FBS with 26 big-time throws. (A big-time throw is defined as a high-difficulty, high-value pass.)
2025 stats: 1,035 rushing yards, 6 total touchdowns
Jackson became the fifth true freshman in OSU history to produce a 1,000-yard season, joining Robert Smith (1990), Maurice Clarett (2002), JK Dobbins (2017) and TreVeyon Henderson (2021). That’s good company. And, of course, he’d be the second Bo Jackson to collect a stiff-armed trophy.
2025 stats: 70.2% completion pct, 4,129 passing yards, 36 total touchdowns
Mestemaker is one of the best stories in college football. He didn’t start a single game in high school, then joined North Texas as a walk-on. This season, he led the FBS with 4,129 passing yards, helping him capture the Burlsworth Trophy as the top walk-on in the country. Will he join former Mean Green coach Eric Morris at Oklahoma State in 2026?
CJ Carr, QB, Notre Dame
2025 starts: 66.6% completion pct, 2,741 passing yards, 24 touchdowns
Fighting Irish coach Marcus Freeman entrusted Carr to lead his offense after a heated battle in preseason camp. The decision paid off, as Carr put together one of the best performances by a first-time starter in Notre Dame history. He threw for at least one touchdown in each of his first 12 starts, becoming the first Irish player to do that since Everett Golson in 2012-14. Carr’s 24 passing touchdowns are tied for the most in the first 12 starts by a Notre Dame player since 1966.
2025 stats: 70% completion pct, 2,850 passing yards, 595 rushing yards, 27 total touchdowns
Williams is one of the best dual-threat quarterbacks in the FBS, and his ability to run and throw was on display in the Huskies’ 38-19 victory against Rutgers on Oct. 10. He became the first player in school history to pass for at least 400 yards (400) and run for at least 100 (136) in the same game. Williams was second on the team with 595 rushing yards.
Others to watch: Sam Leavitt, QB, TBA; Cam Coleman, WR, Auburn; Brendan Sorsby, QB, Cincinnati; Josh Hoover, QB, TCU; Darian Mensah, QB, Duke; Nate Frazier, RB, Georgia; LJ Martin, RB, BYU; Bear Bachmeier, QB, BYU; LaNorris Sellers, QB, South Carolina; Bryce Underwood, QB, Michigan
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Adam Rittenberg
Maryland quarterback Malik Washington, who set the team’s freshman passing record this fall, will return to the Terrapins for the 2026 season.
Washington set Maryland freshman records for passing yards (2,963) and completions (273) this season, while connecting on 17 touchdown passes. He reached 200 passing yards in all but one game and finished as just the second Big Ten freshman since 1996 to record at least 2,500 passing yards and at least 300 rushing yards.
“Representing this team, this area, means so much to me and my family,” Washington said in a statement Saturday. “This is home and we’re going to continue keeping the best athletes from this area here with the Terps. I believe in everyone in our facility and I know we’re building something that our fans will be excited about for years to come.”
Washington, the nation’s No. 134 recruit in the 2025 class, grew up in Severn, Maryland, about 30 miles from Maryland’s campus. Despite a 4-8 record that included only one Big Ten win, Maryland announced that coach Mike Locksley, who recruited Washington, would return in 2026. Locksley will enter his eighth season as Maryland’s coach.
“Malik is a Terp through and through and I’m thrilled he’s coming back to lead this football team,” Locksley said in a statement. “He means so much to this area and this area means so much to him. What we saw from Malik this past season is only the tip of the iceberg. He has such a bright future and he’s already started putting the work in towards the 2026 season.”
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