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DE Crawford adjusting to life as PSU starter
Buzz up!
By Tricia Lafferty, TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, September 26, 2009

When Penn State sophomore defensive end Jack Crawford takes the field against Iowa at 8 tonight, his parents likely will be asleep.

It will be 1 a.m. in his hometown of London, where no one can truly appreciate that Crawford will be played at college football's highest level.

Not even his parents, Janet and Lincoln, comprehend the life Crawford is living and the dream he's chasing.

"I don't think they really understand football," the soft-spoken Crawford said in a British accent. "But they understand the position I'm in, that I'm getting a college education for free."

You can't blame Janet and Lincoln for not being able to grasp the whirlwind of events that have taken place since Crawford left London as a teenager in 2005.

They sent their son to the United States five years ago to pursue a basketball career. Now, he's a football player, starting for the nation's fifth-ranked team.

"He's got really good natural ability," Penn State coach Joe Paterno said. "He's a big, long-armed kid. He can run. I think once he gets a little better feel for the game, he'll be pretty darn good."

Crawford, a 6-foot-5, 262-pounder, was involved in a plethora of sports ? soccer, cricket, rugby, boxing and primarily basketball ? in London but was never exposed to football.

That happened by accident when St. Augustine Prep (Longport, N.J.) football coach Dennis Scuderi spotted a chiseled student in the hallway of the all-boys high school, where Crawford came to play basketball.

Crawford was such an overgrown high school sophomore at 6-foot-3, 235 pounds, Scuderi initially mistook him for a faculty member.

"Every time I saw him, I asked him to play football," Scuderi said. "Finally, I talked him into it."

Crawford played receiver ? where he often lined up offsides at first ? and caught six touchdown passes. He also played defensive end.

Crawford learned the rules quickly and fell in love with the once foreign sport.

"People stopped running to his side," Scuderi said. "To watch someone play like that and learn that quickly, you can only imagine how good he was going to be."

At the end of his junior season, after just four months of playing football, Crawford racked up offers from Ohio State, Michigan, Arizona State and Boston College, among others.

DE Crawford adjusting to life as PSU starter - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review