"Bro has a hell of a story" - Coach Prime's son Bucky gives shoutout to Shrine Bowl MVP

Arizona Wildcats running back Jacory Croskey-Merritt was named the Shrine Bowl Offensive MVP in the East-West game on Thursday evening. The annual game was won decisively 25-0 by the East, with Croskey-Merritt tallying 97 yards on 11 carries for two touchdowns.

Colorado coach Deion Sanders' eldest son, Deion Sanders Jr., gave a shoutout to the Shrine Bowl MVP on his Instagram stories.

"Bro has a hell of a story!" Deion Jr. wrote.

Deion Sanders Jr.'s IG stories

In his interview after winning the Shrine Bowl MVP, Croskey-Merritt said:

"It's a blessing just to be up here. I wanna thank God first, thank my coaches for just teaching us the small details of the game, man. I'm just excited. It's amazing, we all came here for one reason and just to show scouts that we can do this and just happy for one another.

"We were like that all weekend, just practicing, and it was all good to see those guys excited."

Shrine Bowl MVP had a complicated 2024 college football season

After excelling for the New Mexico Lobos during the 2023 season, Jacory Croskey-Merritt entered the transfer portal and committed to the Arizona Wildcats. While finishing the spring semester in New Mexico, Croskey-Merritt was lured by Ole Miss, flipping his commitment to Lane Kiffin's team before flipping back to the Wildcats.

Wildcats running backs coach Alonzo Carter revealed to the Arizona Daily Star how Croskey-Merritt was flipped by the Ole Miss Rebels.

“Not being able to enroll early, it left him out there for people to poke at him and sway him either way,” Carter said. “We still recruited him and told him our arms are wide open. ‘We want you here.’ I think our relationship grew from that.

“We just showed him love. It wasn’t transactional, it was all about the love, and he felt that. ... We’re glad he’s here. We don’t even talk about the decision, because I want him to focus on, ‘Now that you’re here, let’s move forward.’”

The Shrine Bowl MVP also spoke to the Arizona Daily Star about the confusion around his commitment.

"There were a lot of confusing things going on,” Croskey-Merritt said. “I can’t really say what was happening, but there were a lot of people talking that I didn’t know about. It was a lot of stuff. I don’t really want to get into the details, but people blow things up that shouldn’t have been blown up. A lot of people and schools were talking to each other.”

The Shrine Bowl MVP ran into more trouble during the season with the Arizona Wildcats when his college eligibility was called into question. The NCAA investigated claims that he had played eight games during his freshman season at Alabama State instead of the four games maximum allowed for redshirting.