Isaiah Crosby, In His Words: Why I Chose Cal

Wassup, Cal fans! I’m Isaiah Crosby, Cal safety.

I originally grew up in Fort Worth, Texas and have been playing football for as long as I can remember. I always loved the sport and never felt like i was forced to play it. When i was younger, both me and my brother did football track and basketball where I would always be looking up to my older brother, trying to beat him in whatever we did.

My dad played college football for a smaller D3 school but I never really heard much from him about his playing days.

My high school experience with football was definitely a journey for me. Going to three different schools having to learn new systems and calls and playing both WR and safety.

Some of my favorite memories of high school football are kick returns and interceptions for touchdowns. I've always wanted to play football at a Division 1 school and never not once did I think I could not play at this
level. For me though, I never got to have any big offers coming out of high school. I never really understood why and kept a chip on my shoulder because of it.

The only offers i had coming out of high school was Sul Ross, A D3 program, then Cisco and TVCC (Trinity Valley City College) where I ultimately took a chance on myself going the juco route. 

Once I played at the juco level that first year, I was a backup safety that got a little bit of playing time but I started as a punt returner and did that well my freshman year of college. Juco was an important part of my life. It is where I learned to put my head down and work. Nothing is given, everything has to be taken by the person who wants it the most.

I started to realize during my first year of spring ball at TVCC that I was going to go big at D1. During that spring, I had an offer from Jacksonville State and PVAMU that I was considering it but my coaches ultimately said it was best for me to stay and play a season and decide to go wherever I wanted, which is exactly what happened. I decided to play a second season and earned over 40 offers and decided to choose Cal.

I decided to choose Cal because I thought it was the best place for me to continue my career playing football and also set my life up well by having a Cal degree. For me it was perfect. Cal has sent alot of DBs to the NFL draft in the past few years and I'm going to keep that tradition going when it’s my time.

Spring ball has been great for me being able to get fully recovered and to go out and continue playing the sport I love. Coach Tosh and the new staff have given a new juice to the program. The coaching staff is relentless and super smart and always ahead of the game from what I can see. I think we are doing all the right things to put ourselves in a great position to win
as many football games as we can.

I'm just looking forward to being able to get back on the field with all my brothers and put on for Bear nation and put Cal back on the map as one of the most respected programs in the country.