Dustin Crum’s career at Kent State didn’t end the way he wanted it to as the Golden Flashes fell 52–38 to the Wyoming Cowboys in the Potato Bowl. Statistically speaking, it wasn’t too bad of a day for the quarterback, who completed 16-of-26 passes for 265 yards with four touchdowns and zero interceptions. He also made an impact on the ground, carrying the ball 14 times for 70 yards with one rushing touchdown.

While there were some passes that he may have liked to have had back, as the stat line would imply, he did show some notable flashes both through the air and on the ground, with the longest pass in Potato Bowl history (for 80 yards)—his rushing touchdown was impressive as well. Overall, it was a solid illustration of all of his abilities and he’s done well with a variety of concepts, including read-options.

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While Crum wasn’t able to cap off the season with a bowl game win, he had a good campaign overall, completing 64.1% of his passes for 3,238 yards with 20 touchdowns and six interceptions on 382 passing attempts.

“When he steps in an arena, there's not a better competitor I think in all of college football. To the very end he's going to continue to fight, he's going to continue to compete,” head coach Sean Lewis said after the game. “He's an elite decision-maker, an elite leader. When one of your best players is your hardest worker, goes about the process of winning and holds it in really high regard, that spills off on everyone else. For him to go out and have another day like how he did speaks to who he is, the way he prepares, and more importantly the character that he has.”

He isn’t a quarterback who will get this same amount of attention as the Sam Howells and Matt Corrals of this year’s draft, but he does have the potential to help a team in the later rounds or as a priority undrafted free agent depending on how things shake out throughout the offseason.

Crum’s career with Kent State may be in the books now, but he’ll have a chance to continue increasing his draft stock with a chance to play in the Shrine Bowl ahead of the 2022 NFL Draft. The opportunity to play in that showcase alone shows just how much he made of himself at a small school, considering that no player from Kent State has been selected to play in the game since 2010 and that Crum is only the eighth player out of the program to participate in it.

As things currently stand, Crum projects as a player who could be at least become a reliable backup (though he has been rightfully tagged as a potential sleeper with the success he’s had) and brings a lot of exciting traits to the table as a true dual-threat quarterback who has all the arm strength to be desired and is a shifty runner.

He ends his Kent State career with a 66.7% completion percentage, 7,449 passing yards, 55 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions to go with 2,071 rushing yards and 24 scores on the ground.