'08 NJ DE Jack Crawford (Penn State signee)

[Hermits22]

Oh ok I didn't know that they couldn't sign yet..And I'm pretty sure that he'll stay at psu. He said he really likes the coaches there and that he really wanted to stay on the east coast, which I think was a big part in his decision as well.

 

[Buckskin86]

Posted on May 1, 2009
Lineman a Jack of all trades
By Matt Fortuna
Collegian Staff Writer

His journey has been eccentric, one that has spanned more than 3,500 miles and a half-dozen sports.

Yet just four years removed from the "real gray, real dull" environment of London, Jack Crawford is the man Penn State is pointing at to fill the gap left by Aaron Maybin, its All-America defensive end and first round NFL Draft pick.

The conundrum, of course, is that it's been a mere three years since the sophomore's discovery of football.

"I lined up offsides as a receiver on the first play. I stood up as a defensive end," Crawford said through his mild English accent.

"I had no idea. I didn't know the rules, to be honest. I didn't even no what offsides was."

Such is the predicament Crawford found himself in upon his arrival to the United States in 2005.

He entered a basketball camp at powerhouse St. Augustine Prep in Richland, N.J., the summer before his sophomore year.

The now 6-foot-5, 262-pounder hoped to dazzle opponents with his finesse as an off-guard and small forward the same way he had in England, where he gave boxing, cricket, rugby and soccer tries before realizing nothing would provide him the educational opportunities that America had to offer.

Lineman a Jack of all trades - The Daily Collegian Online

 

[Taosman]

Interesting! The next Nittany Stadium clean up guy?

 

[Buckskin86]

Penn State expects big impact from big British player Crawford
By Cory Giger,[email protected]
POSTED: July 12, 2009

Sophomore defensive end Jack Crawford has an intriguing background.

* He's British and moved to New Jersey in 2005 to play high school basketball.

* He also boxed and played soccer, cricket and rugby as a youth in his home country.

* He had never played football until he was a junior in high school but still was able to earn a scholarship to Penn State.

* He had never heard of Joe Paterno until the father of his host family pointed out the legendary coach during a game on TV.

* That host-family father, Steven D'Andrea, was a point guard on the St. Francis basketball team from 1977-80 and graduated from the Loretto school.
UNIVERSITY PARK - With all due respect to NFL first-round pick Aaron Maybin, even he wouldn't stack up against Jack Crawford in a contest of most impressive physical specimen.

As linebacker Jerome Hayes put it, the chiseled 6-foot-5, 265-pound Crawford "looks like a monster."

Anyone who saw Crawford work out Friday at Penn State's annual Lift for Life charity event surely took notice of his impressive physique. The sophomore defensive end is 30 pounds heavier than Maybin, a first-team All-American, was last season and is viewed by many to be the breakout player on the Nittany Lion defense this fall.

Those expectations are remarkable considering Crawford's past.

The 20-year-old from London, England, moved to the United States just four years ago to pursue a basketball career, and he had never played football until he was a high school junior three years ago.

Before then, Crawford had no idea who Joe Paterno was. He didn't even know what offsides meant or that there are four downs in a series.

He knew almost nothing about American football, short of what he had seen in a cheesy, glamorized Hollywood movie starring Jamie Foxx and Al Pacino.

"Until I watched 'Any Given Sunday' on TV, I didn't know anything about the sport," Crawford said.

That film, he added, taught Crawford "that there's a lot of money in football."

He will earn a bunch of that money someday, too - if he turns out to be anywhere near as good as his potential suggests.

"You can just imagine what he's going to be like once he gets a couple more years under his belt," PSU defensive tackle Devon Still said.

Penn State expects big impact from big British player Crawford - AltoonaMirror.com | News, Sports, Jobs, Community Information - The Altoona Mirror

 

[Buckskin86]

9/11/2009

Will Crawford be next big thing at Penn State?
By Rich Scarcella
Reading Eagle

New players are introduced to Penn State fans at the first game each season, along with new signs created by the student section at Beaver Stadium.

Jack Crawford, one of the 10 first-time starters last week for the Nittany Lions, noticed a banner in his honor hanging from the east stands Saturday: "Jack the Ripper."

"It's a nickname for me on the team," Crawford said. "The people who made it asked me about it before they hung it. It was a nice surprise."

The nickname and the banner are appropriate. Like the unidentified serial killer who roamed London in the late 19th century and whose exploits became almost mythical, Crawford's performance on the practice field became almost legendary.

"That kid's going to be an All-American very soon," said Aaron Maybin, a Penn State All-American himself last season and a first-round draft pick of the Buffalo Bills. "He reminds me of myself when I got here. He's going to be an outstanding player."

Maybin made those observations before the 6-5, 265-pound Crawford had made his first start or his first sack. Crawford got those issues out of the way Saturday against Akron, starting at right end and dropping quarterback Chris Jacquemain for a 4-yard sack in the first quarter.

"The potential and the expectations are there," defensive line coach Larry Johnson said. "It's just where he meets those kinds of things. I think he will. I think everything is in place for him."

Will Crawford be next big thing at Penn State?

 

[Buckskin86]

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