ACC football record book: ‘We did not intend for them to tie.’ Duke WRs share mark.
Editor’s note: This is part of a 10-story series focusing on ACC football records. See the bottom of this story for a list of all the other content in the series.
DURHAM — Locker room neighbors because their Duke jersey numbers were separated by a single digit, Jamison Crowder and Conner Vernon share an important number in the ACC record book.
Both left college with 283 pass receptions, leaving them tied for the league’s career record.
Vernon, Duke’s top receiver from 2009-12 who wore No. 2, grabbed the record first. Crowder, a Blue Devils star from 2011-14 wearing No. 3, caught his former teammate two years later.
“It’s interesting how it’s held together,” Duke coach David Cutcliffe said. “And we also did not intend for them to tie. It looks measured, but it wasn’t.”
All one has to do is look at Crowder’s final game, the 2014 Sun Bowl, for proof.
With Duke trailing 36-31 late in the fourth quarter, Crowder caught a 43-yard pass from Anthony Boone for his 283rd career catch to tie Vernon and move Duke to the Arizona State 24.
On third-and-10 from the 14, Boone fired the ball toward Crowder in the end zone, seeking to not only give the senior receiver the record but give Duke the lead and likely it’s first bowl win since 1961.
Arizona State’s Kweishi Brown thwarted those plans, grabbing the underthrown pass for an interception.
Crowder, now with the New York Jets and entering his sixth NFL season, said it was the worst of both worlds because two accomplishments slipped away.
“That’s a play, man, that always, I don’t want to say it haunts me, but I could have made a better play on the ball than what I did,” Crowder said.
Cutcliffe, too, said that play sticks with him.
“You know Conner would have been happy because the victory was in hand there,” Cutcliffe said. “That’s one of those games for not just that reason, that was one of the more frustrating losses that I’ve been a part of.”
Vernon would have been fine being No. 2 on the all-time list after once holding the record.
“At the end of the day,” Vernon said, “I have no issue sharing that record at all. None whatsoever. At the end of the day, it’s just a name in a book. Records are made to be broken. Even if I had it a year and he broke it the next year, it is what it is.”
Having two Duke players at the top, plus former Blue Devils receiver TJ Rahming at No. 5 overall with his 253 catches from 2015-18, shows how potent the passing game has been during Cutcliffe’s tenure with Duke.
The Blue Devils run a no-huddle, spread offense, regularly using sets with three and often four receivers.
In Cutcliffe’s early days at Duke, it simply allowed the Blue Devils to be competitive after having won only 10 games over the eight seasons prior to his arrival in 2008.
But, starting with Vernon’s senior season in 2012 and continuing until the present, it’s fueled one of the program’s most successful stretches.
Duke hadn’t played in a bowl game or had a winning season since 1994 when Cutcliffe arrived. Even after going 5-7 last season to miss a bowl, Duke has played in bowl games in six of the last eight years, posting five winning seasons.
Vernon and Crowder got Duke going and share a record because of it.
“It just worked out to where those guys were tied,” said Scottie Montgomery, Maryland’s offensive coordinator who recruited and coached Vernon and Crowder while a Duke assistant. “I can’t say enough about the two of them. It’s almost like they are the same person. They took the culture and they expanded the culture. The receiver room became the receiver room because of those guys.”
The younger of the two, Crowder said Vernon influenced the path of his career early on.
“Conner was the guy that everybody kind of looked up to, especially in the receiver room,” Crowder said. “To be tied, it’s kind of crazy. I think it’s something unique. Obviously I would have liked to be the guy at the top solely but it’s cool to share it with a teammate that I played with for two years.”
Both players rode the wave of not only Duke’s improving program but the spread offense craze that’s swept across college football.
Vernon enrolled at Duke in 2009, one year after Clemson’s Aaron Kelly set the ACC career receptions record with 232.
Vernon eclipsed that mark during his senior season and nine other players — including Crowder and Rahming — have done so over the last eight seasons.
But the closest anyone has come to the leaders was Florida State’s Rashad Greene, who caught 270 passes between 2011-14.
“The fact that the record still stands shows you a lot,” Vernon said. “It shows the upswing of our program in that sense considering that two guys from our program sit at the top of it. I couldn’t be more honored and happy to have that record and to have Duke’s name at the top of it all.”
Cutcliffe is already pondering who will be the next Duke receiver to make a run at the record.
Last fall, freshman wide receiver Jalon Calhoun hauled in 46 receptions for the Blue Devils. That’s a pretty good start While Vernon caught 55 as a freshman back in 2009, Crowder only caught 14 as a freshman in 2011.
Still, Calhoun will have to average 80 catches a year over the next three to own the record.
“Looking at Jalon Calhoun,” Cutcliffe said. “Is he the guy who breaks those guys’ record?
“I like the fact that we talk about breaking that record. They should be highly motivated. We have some great young ones right now that should try to take this and attack.”
THE SCHEDULE FOR THIS SERIES
(Dates the stories will be posted online)
MAY 29 — Duke receivers Conner Vernon and Jamison Crowder are tied for the ACC career receptions record with 283 apiece. They were teammates for a time in the early 2010s.
MAY 31 — North Carolina’s Kendric Burney has the record for most interception return yardage in a game — 170 against Miami in 2009.
JUNE 1 — N.C. State’s Ted Brown still holds the ACC career rushing record, a mark he set from 1975-78.
JUNE 2 — Wake Forest’s Tanner Price has the ACC passing record by a left-handed quarterback.
JUNE 3 — A quick roundup of other interesting and important ACC footbal records leads with the 2011 Clemson team, which became the first in ACC history to win three straight games against ranked opponents. That team had a bevy of kids from the state of North Carolina.
FROM THE ACC RECORD BOOK
Career receptions — 1 (tie) Conner Vernon (Duke, 2009-12) — 283; 1. (tie) Jamison Crowder (Duke, 2011-14) — 283; 3. Rashad Greene (Florida State, 2011-14) — 270; 4. Tyler Boyd (Pittsburgh, 2013-15) — 254; 5. T.J. Rahming (Duke, 2015-18) — 253
Season receptions — 1. Jamison Crowder (Duke, 2013) — 108; 2. Steve Ishmael (Syracuse, 2017) — 105; 3. Sammy Watkins (Clemson, 2013) — 101; 4. Rashad Greene (Florida State, 2014) — 99; 5. (tie) Kenneth Moore (Wake Forest, 2007) — 98; 5. (tie) Mike Williams (Clemson, 2016) — 98
Career receiving yardage — 1. Rashad Greene (Florida State, 2011-14) — 3,830; 2. Conner Vernon (Duke, 2009-12) — 3,749; 3. Jamison Crowder (Duke, 2011-14) — 3,641; 4. Peter Warrick (Florida State, 1996-99) —3,517; 5. Sammy Watkins (Clemson, 2011-13) — 3,391
Season receiving yards — 1. Torry Holt (North Carolina State, 1998) — 1,604 yards; 2. Amba Etta-Tawo (Syracuse, 2016) — 1,482 yards; 3. Sammy Watkins (Clemson, 2013) — 1,460 yards; 4. DeAndre Hopkins (Clemson, 2012) — 1,405 yards; 5. Jerricho Cotchery (North Carolina State, 2003) — 1,369 yards
Career receiving touchdowns — 1. Clarkston Hines (Duke, 1986-89) — 38; 2. (tie) Torry Holt (North Carolina State, 1995-98) — 31; 2. (tie) Peter Warrick (Florida State, 1996-99) — 31; 4. (tie) E.G. Green (Florida State, 1994-97) — 29; 4. (tie) Greg Carr (Florida State, 2004-08) — 29; 4. (tie) Rashad Greene (Florida State, 2011-14) — 29
Season receiving touchdowns — 1. DeAndre Hopkins (Clemson, 2012) — 18; 2. Clarkston Hines (Duke, 1989) — 17; 3. Torry Holt (North Carolina State, 1997) — 16; 4. (tie) Andre Cooper (Florida State, 1995); 4. (tie) Calvin Johnson (Georgia Tech, 2006); 4. (tie) Kelvin Benjamin (Florida State, 2013) — 15