Grown, mature Crawford ready to "go all out" in senior season

The road hasn’t always been smooth for Justin Crawford.

A high school standout out of Columbus, Georgia, the versatile Crawford didn’t qualify academically to attend a major division one program which sent him down the junior college path. He knew at the time that he still had some maturing to do and had to shift his focus on what was truly important.

And it was at Northwest Mississippi C.C. where he would start to turn both his life and his career around accounting for over 2,000 all-purpose yards and 22 touchdowns during his sophomore season.

While away from the field, he received the only wakeup call he needed when his son Jaydense was born Dec. 23, 2015. Suddenly it became about more than just football, but setting an example in the process.

“That really made me grow and mature. Not only do I have to take care of myself but I have this little boy, this little person looking up to me and watching everything I do so I have to make sure I’m doing the right thing,” Crawford said. “So he’ll do the right thing.”

Major colleges took notice and Crawford started to take notice both on the field and off and the scholarship offers started to flow in for him. South Carolina, Missouri and Louisville were some of those programs but West Virginia didn’t jump into the picture until a few weeks before signing day.

That’s because junior running back Wendell Smallwood elected to declare for the NFL Draft leaving a hole on the roster that had to be filled. So a trio of West Virginia coaches made the trip to Mississippi and convinced Crawford to take an official visit there instead of South Carolina during the final visit weekend in January.

Even after his commitment to West Virginia following the visit, Missouri continued to recruit Crawford all the way until his letter of intent was faxed into the football offices. But he never wavered.

The late trip to Mississippi had paid off and as it’s often said the rest is history.

Crawford finished his first season in Morgantown as the leading rusher for the Mountaineers finishing with 1,184 yards and four touchdowns on only 163 carries. That’s an average of 7.3 per tote as he split time with three other running backs in the backfield for the majority of the year while also dealing with injuries.

And all of that was after arriving on campus in the summer without the benefits of a full off-season to work in both the weight room and with the team. Now in his second year, he has picked up where he left off this spring and has one goal in mind to better himself and his family. He will enter the season as the starter at running back atop a talented room of players that will compete for time this fall.

“I’m just working my butt off, trying to compete in every aspect. Pushing my teammates to get better, pushing myself to get better. I’m just trying to go all out this year,” Crawford said.

After the departure of the man that recruited him in former running backs coach JaJuan Seider’s decision to leave for Florida, he’s had to deal with getting to know a new assistant in Tony Dews. But it’s something that he has embraced and is taking to his teachings.

Dews has been equally as impressed with Crawford.

“He works extremely hard. He is knowledgeable, understands the game,” Dews said. “He has been well-coached prior to me showing up. I love him as a kid. He’s always got that bright smile.”

The senior now has another son in 10-month old Justin Crawford, Jr. and his two children along with his wife have accompanied him to Morgantown. It isn’t hard for him to remain focused anymore.

“That’s why I always have to remain focused and keep that goal in mind,” he said.

That goal is part of what’s truly important to Crawford.