Shaun Crawford Approaches 2016 As A Second Freshman Season
After his 2015 season was wiped out by a torn ACL during fall camp, sophomore cornerback Shaun Crawford views 2016 as a sort of freshman season do-over.
Named the starting nickel back in his first months on campus just weeks before the season was set to kick off against Texas, Crawford’s injury kept him off the field the entire season, but he focused on using it as a learning experience.
“The only difference is I know the system more [than a typical freshman], so I'm like a freshman on the field but I'm like an early enrollee kind of just because I know the system and I'm very excited because now that I got a chance to learn the defense, I think it's going to help me in the longer run,” he said.
The injury came on a non-contact play, one Crawford says he has made “probably 100 times before in the past.”
“It was just a freak accident but it allowed myself to get stronger and bigger and smarter for this coming season,” he said.
He has settled back into the nickel back role seamlessly and it’s difficult to observe even a few periods of spring practice without seeing Crawford making a play here or there. With Crawford — and senior cornerback Cole Luke — taking reps at nickel this spring, Notre Dame hopes the position will be an area of strength for a recently maligned defense this fall. Once Crawford suffered the injury last year, Notre Dame essentially abandoned the nickel position.
“You've got to play linebacker, you have to know safety and you have to know corner,” Crawford said of the position’s responsibilities. “You have to know it all. I definitely when I got injured spent a lot of time trying to learn the defense, trying to learn what every position does on the field. It was just a lot easier for me knowing what my health is and coming back from the injury.”
Crawford’s combination of athleticism and football knowledge allowed him to quickly master the jack-of-all-trades position.
“So smart. Just a smart, smart, smart football player,” head coach Brian Kelly said. “He gets it. … We just want to be careful with his volume. We don't want to give him too much coming back.
“We like his ability to play man. Very smart player, instinctive player. I think you have to have a real good sense of the field. Corners play out by the numbers and they've got a friend with them called the sideline. The guy that plays inside has got to understand the field a lot better, has got to have an instinct to play inside. And he has a natural instinct of playing inside a lot better. A guy that can play inside is a little bit more unique in the sense that he's got to have really good speed because he's got to cover guys coming across the field, going vertical and he possesses that speed and instinct.”
Defensive backs coach Todd Lyght also praised the attributes Crawford brings to the position.
“Shaun is a real football guy,” he said. “He loves the game, he studies the game, he works at it really hard. Obviously he was going to start for us last year at the nickel position, but had the knee injury. He did a great job in the offseason of working to get back and has been doing really, really well as far as these last six practices have gone and we're really happy with his progress.”
So is Crawford, who credits the injury for helping him to grow in some ways while being unable to compete last fall.