MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. — Eric Crume’s older brother worried about the nose tackle’s focus.

Not because of football. Because the woman who made her famous German chocolate cake for Crume every year for his birthday was gone. It was famous to him and his family in the way that only a dish, coming from a loved one to another who enjoys it more than anyone else, can be.

Jeanette Harris would’ve turned 67 on Saturday, but she died in January and Crume promised his brother, Freddrick Wofford, he’d dedicate his performance at Central Michigan to his maternal grandmother.

In front of about 10 friends and family members who drove up from Crume’s hometown of Detroit, the Syracuse (2-0) senior nose tackle made three tackles, a sack and forced the fumble that gave SU the permanent lead in its 40-3 win against Central Michigan (2-1) on Saturday at Kelly/Shorts Stadium.

“Mostly I wanted him to stay focused because I knew the grandma thing was bothering him,” Wofford said. “So I just told him, ‘Just try to focus on football, try to channel your anger on the football field.’”

Hitting Cooper Rush with just less than 11 minutes left in the second quarter, Crume forced the ball out of the CMU’s quarterback’s right hand. After Marqez Hodge scooped the ball up and ran it in for a 36-yard touchdown, Crume jogged past the SU bench, gave his family and friends, who were seated right behind it, a nod and a dance.

Crume’s father called it a “happy dance,” and Wofford knows it as the dance to Rich Homie Quan’s “Walk Thru.”

Rather than being burdened by emotion, Crume was fueled and lifted by it as he and the Syracuse pass rush held CMU to 18 completions for 185 yards.

“It was great coming home and everything,” Crume said, “but the biggest thing for me today was my grandmother passed, her birthday was today.”

When Crume was a child and his mother, Latonya Evans, went to work, Harris watched him. As she aged, she moved in with Crume and his family and the now 6-foot-2, 297-pound tackle hung around his grandmother.

Living together, the whole family bonded more closely to Harris, Wofford said, but especially Crume.

“He was one of the kids that he stayed around his grandma and said he was going to play with her,” Wofford said.

Saturday was also the first time his mother had seen him play in person since last season.

She couldn’t remember which game — “I’m not sure, they all go crazy,” she said. It was the first time since SU’s 49-14 loss to Clemson last season that Crume’s father had been in attendance and the first such game for Crume’s cousin, T.J. Triplett, since the Orange lost to Cincinnati 30-13 in Crume’s freshman year.

They had all followed his career remotely, Triplett watching on ESPN or keeping tabs on his phone when he could. But after the two-hour drive from Detroit and the quarter-plus-long wait to celebrate Crume’s play, his section of support erupted behind the SU bench.

Crume’s 21st birthday, Oct. 18, will be his first without Harris. Saturday’s game was his only collegiate game in his home state and the best time to honor his grandmother with his play.

Said Crume: “It was a beautiful experience.”

Published on September 13, 2014 at 6:54 pm

Contact Jacob: jmklinge@syr.edu | @Jacob_Klinger_