MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — While Justin Crawford was shredding defenses for more than 2,000 yards last season, he was even tougher on teammates who straggled to get on the bus after road games.
That’s because the junior college national player of the year couldn’t be late for work.
Throughout two dynamic years at Northwest (Miss.) Community College, Crawford maintained multiple part-time jobs in order to support his wife and their two kids. Even after bruising games where he carried 30 times, he wasn’t focused on resting or getting treatment. He was eyeing the clock and heading to his second-shift job.
“You do what you have to do for your family,” he told me in May. “After football was done that day, I needed to spend my time working.”
That mindset didn’t dissolve just because Crawford enrolled at a Power Five program with a full-cost-of-attendance scholarship
Days before West Virginia opened preseason camp—the most physically grueling time of the year—running backs coach Ja’Juan Seider returned from a family vacation to learn his prized recruit was working at a Taco Bell in Morgantown.
Seider immediately put a wrap on Crawford making crunchwraps.
“He was trying to make extra money to help out with the kids at home, but I was like, ‘Dude, there ain’t no way you’re going to be able to function after you work out at all day over here and then go to work at Taco Bell. When are you going to rest? Your body can’t handle that.'”
Crawford’s speed and production impressed West Virginia enough that Seider and new offensive coordinator Joe Wickline tag-teamed his recruitment in January after Wendell Smallwood’s NFL jump left a void in the backfield. Once they quickly learned the backstory of Crawford marrying his high school sweetheart from Columbus, Ga., and saw first-hand the disciplined intent toward providing for family, they liked him even more.
“He’s wired different. He’s a man. He’s motivated,” Seider said. “You’re talking about a guy with a wife and two kids. He’s got his priorities straight. He looks at football with a purpose: This can change my life and their life.”