Success On All Fronts

STARKVILLE – Jaden Crumedy and Jett Johnson are no strangers to success.

The Mississippi State football defensive stars have impressive resumes on the gridiron and are both now knocking at the door of their NFL dreams. However, it's not just on the field where Crumedy and Johnson have excelled.

Crumedy and Johnson are both set to celebrate the completion of their master's degrees in workforce leadership and for each guy, it's an incredibly meaningful conclusion to their time in Starkville.
"It's so awesome," Johnson said. "Very thankful to be leaving here with two degrees…It's a huge blessing."

Crumedy has similar feelings.

"It means a lot to me," Crumedy said. "[My degrees] allow me to be involved in something I want to be involved in after football…It's just given me a better opportunity. It's just a great honor to be able to accomplish all this and I'm just happy about it."

Make no mistake, both Johnson and Crumedy have the potential to head into the NFL soon. Both have already declared their intentions to be in the upcoming NFL Draft, and both showed in their State football careers they have the ability to make a living playing on Sundays.

Johnson is an All-Southeastern Conference linebacker that led the league in tackles a year ago, then was second in the conference in takedowns this past season. He's had a combined 245 tackles over the last two seasons. Teammate and fellow MSU linebacker Nathaniel Watson is the only SEC player with more over that span, leading Johnson by only five tackles.

Crumedy has been a huge part of State's defensive line the last half decade. He's been a starter for the last four years and developed into an incredibly impactful defensive performer. Crumedy has racked up 119 tackles in his career, including 16 for loss and 8.5 sacks. That's not to even mention the times his presence allowed other Bulldogs around him to make plays.

All that bodes well for the professional prospects of Johnson and Crumedy, but if football somehow doesn't work out in the long run for either man, their educational achievements have them set up to shine either way.

"It's always good to have a backup plan and being able to know what you can do in the future if football doesn't work out, it's just a great thing," Crumedy said. "It's really a blessing."

Adds Johnson: "Everybody is pretty realistic in knowing that football won't last forever. A very low percentage of people get to go to the NFL and retire happy. It ends at some point, and you have to get out in the working world. No one can take your football career and your accomplishments away from you…[but when it ends] at the same time, you've still got those degrees to fall back on for the working world which is always great."

Adding to the excitement of everything is that the degrees for both Johnson and Crumedy will say, 'Mississippi State University' at the top. That fact isn't lost on either young man. Johnson and Crumedy are forever grateful for all MSU has done for them, both on the field and now off it.

"Everyone knows I love this place," Johnson said. "It means so much to me. I'll have those papers framed and hanging up somewhere for sure."

Said Crumedy: "This university means a lot to me. It took me in and showed me a lot of different things and taught me a lot of different things. I just became a better person overall here. I really thank everybody that helped me out here, and I know they'll continue to help everyone out that comes here."

Mississippi State University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Jaden Crumedy

Jett Johnson

Nathaniel Watson

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