Shaun Crawford, Professional Job-Winner, Strikes Once Again
Six seasons in, Brian Kelly ought to have observed the theme by now.
Give Shaun Crawford a chance, even a temporary one, and he will force your hand. Solve a position hole. Shore up a weakness. Because Shaun Crawford is a professional job-winner and job-taker. Has been since his first week on campus. It’s only fitting, because he’s older than plenty of professional athletes.
Crawford has finished just two of his five seasons healthy, concealing his track record of filching positions from someone else into a hidden narrative rather than a front-and-center achievement. This year, his sixth at Notre Dame, he once again claimed something he wasn’t supposed to – the starting safety spot opposite Kyle Hamilton. He’s a team captain as well.
“We didn’t come into camp expecting him to win it,” Kelly said. “We came into camp expecting him to be a placeholder. He went out and won that position.”
That’s the easy part for Crawford. The tricky matter is staying healthy enough for even the most casual of observers to see why. He has missed two full seasons, failing to even reach the season opener in both instances, and all but four-plus quarters of a third. He’s here now, though, available Saturday against Duke. The stopgap option turned sudden asset sensed the snug fit in his newest victory all along.
“Last fall camp, I got some reps at safety,” Crawford said. “That was just the plan for this year as well, just to get some reps and to stay up on things just in case. I was there maybe a little longer than they expected. I got comfortable, started making some plays. I was communicating on defense, being a vocal leader. I felt at home back there and the coaches saw the same thing with my playmaking and ability to tackle.
“It was a smooth transition because me being able to play corner and nickel the previous years, it’s sort of similar but just from a different angle. All the calls are the same. It’s just a different key now. It’ll translate.”
Indeed, the new role will allow the 5-9, 180-pound Crawford to cover slot receivers and move around, as he has done while playing nickel and field corner his first five years. It will also allow him to do more reading and reacting, which he has proven is a strength. He finds his way around the ball, in run defense and in coverage. At safety, those skills can be magnified.
The move also gives him a clear path to every-down work. He would have needed to fend off TaRiq Bracy and freshmen Clarence Lewis for field corner snaps and a starting job. In nickel packages, he can play either spot, which allows Notre Dame to pick among the corners and safeties for that fifth defensive back instead of needing to play a safety.
“We are a better football team with Shaun playing that position,” Kelly said.
In every preseason camp since 2015, Crawford has reminded Kelly of it. Barely a week into his freshman year, he beat out senior Matthias Farley – now a six-year NFL veteran – for nickel back duties before he tore his ACL later that month. He came back the next season, stronger than before, and stole a starting job until he tore his Achilles in the second game of the year on a pass breakup. In his one full game, he had an interception and blocked PAT return for two points.
In 2017, Crawford reclaimed his nickel role and, finally, remained healthy all year. Despite playing the fifth-most snaps among Irish defensive backs, he ranked second among the group in defensive stops, Pro Football Focus’ stat for individual plays that constitute an offensive failure.
Another ACL tear struck in 2018, but Crawford returned from that only to grab a starting corner role yet again. His 10 defensive stops led all Notre Dame cornerbacks. He had one of the group’s two interceptions. In two-plus seasons, he has four interceptions, seven backs breakups, 2.5 tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks.
This 2020 camp might be his most impressive act yet. It sure seems like it’s the most rewarding. He proved too indispensable for former top-100 recruit Houston Griffith and former Ohio State starter Isaiah Pryor to unseat.
“I never thought I’d be starting as a safety,” Crawford said. “It was in the back of my mind, like a dream, because some of my favorite players play safety. Tyrann Mathieu, Ed Reed, Troy Polamalu, Budda Baker. Those are some guys I look up to and try to model my game after. They have been safeties most of their career. I try and take the physicality, instincts, playmaking skills and put it into my game wherever I am on the field.”
The Arizona Cardinals’ Baker – only a year older than Crawford and the NFL’s highest-paid safety – is similar in stature for the position, at 5-10 and 194 pounds. So is the man Crawford is replacing, Alohi Gilman, himself a smaller safety who lacked elite athletic traits but dealt in winning plays and tackled with an oomph that made one forget he’s 5-10. Gilman was a sixth-round pick and made the Los Angeles Chargers‘ roster.
Notre Dame would love similar production, but Crawford can be his own player without feeling pressure or the need to produce Gilman. The Irish have Hamilton’s endless upside alongside Crawford, and he will have the offense’s attention all week. Kelly has also indicated Hamilton will be deployed all over the field like Gilman was, from deep safety to at the line of scrimmage.
But Kelly may be wise to view that as merely a tentative strategy. As he has discovered, Crawford has made a career of exceeding expectations and shredding plans.
“The size of Alohi Gilman and Shaun Crawford – you can still play that position at a high level if you have great instincts, toughness and ball skills,” Kelly said. “Shaun has all those things. He has been extremely productive at that position.”
• Learn more about our print and digital publication, Blue & Gold Illustrated.
• Watch our videos and subscribe to our YouTube channel
• Sign up for Blue & Gold's news alerts and daily newsletter
• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Follow us on Twitter: @BGINews, @BGI_LouSomogyi, @Rivals_Singer, @PatrickEngel_, @MasonPlummer_ and @AndrewMentock.
• Like us on Facebook.