MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Football coaches can sometimes spend a couple of years establishing relationships with recruits, getting to know them, their coaches, mentors and families.

 

So when junior college All-American running back Justin Crawford popped up on West Virginia’s radar screen in mid-January after Wendell Smallwood surprisingly declared for this year's NFL draft, the Mountaineers were swimming upstream getting involved with the 6-foot-1-inch, 200-pound tailback.

 

Players as good as Crawford are rarely still available just a few weeks away from signing day.

 

“I don’t know why his recruiting was slow taking off,” said West Virginia assistant coach JaJuan Seider, the Mountaineers’ lead recruiter for Crawford. “I think it was everybody taking a look at his transcripts and what type of kid he was.”

 

Immediately, Smallwood’s decision to leave a year early put West Virginia in a bind and the clock was ticking toward signing day. Ryan Dorchester, WVU’s director of player personnel, put together a list of the best available running backs and he sat down with Seider and they began going through their tapes to determine which ones were worth their time and which ones weren’t.

 

Clearly, Crawford’s highlight tape jumped out at them right away.

 

It was helpful that Crawford played at Northwest Mississippi Community College - a school the Mountaineer staff had some familiarity with. Former WVU assistant coach Shannon Dawson once worked with Jack Wright, Crawford’s junior college coach, so there was a prior relationship there. One of WVU’s recent signees also ended up at Northwest Mississippi as well.

 

Then from there, it was a matter of putting in the work and making up for lost time.

 

“We just attacked it,” explained Seider. “I knew we had a need; he had a need – he had to go someplace – so the important thing was to not make a mistake.

 

“We had to go find a dude who is mature, older and who is ready to play,” Seider continued. “That’s not to say the freshmen kids won’t be ready to play because we’re going to do everything we can to speed them up, especially with Kennedy (McKoy) who is already in the program.

 

“But sometimes you hit it right (with junior college players) and sometimes you don’t. It’s important that you make sure you are communicating with the right people. And it’s not just the kid. You can win over a kid with a weekend because they like what they see, but in the end you’ve got to make sure you’re talking to the right people. There is a lot of work involved.”

 

Seider had to use his instincts a little bit on this one because of the short time period he had to get to know him. Seider said Crawford left a very good impression on him when he made a visit to his hotel room during last weekend's campus visit.

 

“When he was up here he was in the weight room at the hotel working out while everybody else was taking naps,” said Seider. “That tells you where his mind frame is.”

 

West Virginia was able to sell Crawford on the immediate success running back Charles Sims had during his one season playing for the Mountaineers in 2013 when he ran for more than 1,000 yards and was able to parlay that production into a spot on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers roster.

 

WVU could also point to the great success the program has had in the past with Georgia players (Crawford is originally from Columbus, Georgia). A decade ago, Atlanta’s Pacman Jones became a first-round pick in the 2005 NFL draft and played in this year’s pro bowl.

 

And Stone Mountain’s Bruce Irvin was a first-rounder in 2012 who has spent the last four years playing outside linebacker for the Seattle Seahawks.

 

Way, way back in the day, Duluth’s Danny Buggs was a sensational wide receiver playing for Bobby Bowden in the early 1970s, although nobody involved with recruiting Crawford today would likely remember that.

 

But what this demonstrates is the quality of players coming out of the Peach State on a yearly basis, and it shows that sometimes really good ones can pop up on short notice.

 

In Crawford’s case, he was the 2015 Spalding NJCAA Offensive Player of the Year after rushing for more than 1,600 yards, scoring 16 touchdowns and averaging 6.5 yards per carry. Of equal importance to WVU coaches is his exceptional ball skills - Crawford caught 29 passes for 394 yards and six touchdowns playing in a well-conceived offense similar to West Virginia’s.

 

“Justin is more of an all-purpose guy,” said West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen. “You watch his video and you can see he can hit the hole and he’s got unbelievable ball skills just like Wendell did. You can do a lot of different things with him. When he gets into the open field he can make people miss and he can score touchdowns. He’s a 200-pound, athletic guy that can really go.”

 

“I don’t know if there are too many kids out there better than him in the entire class - high school or junior college,” added Seider. “He’s a kid that is very comparable to Wendell and to Charles Sims because his junior college does a lot of the same stuff we do as far as throwing the ball. You don’t just rush for all of the yards he rushed for and be the national junior college player of the year and not be pretty good. I’m excited to have him.”

 

Again, if Smallwood was still in the program it would have been a moot point regarding Crawford, who would have likely ended up at Missouri, South Carolina, Louisville or some of the other schools getting involved with him late.

 

“If we had Rushel (Shell) and we had another (established) kid ready to be a No. 2 or No. 3 guy, we probably wouldn’t sign a JC kid, but right now we don’t,” noted Seider. “We have Rushel and that’s it as far as those we know who can go out there and play, outside of (fullback) Elijah Wellman.”

 

Clearly, it will be important for Crawford to get to Morgantown as soon as possible, the sooner the better if he wants to contribute in 2016.

 

However, Seider believes with what coaches are permitted to do now with players during the summertime that will give Crawford ample time to understand West Virginia’s system and speed up his development in time for fall camp in August.

 

“What we can do now in the summer time with these kids with the early meetings and individual drills you can do with them on the field, minus the ball, you can expedite their learning curve and they can go out there and take it from the month of July when we go on vacation. Then you hit it right back in August,” he said.

 

Earlier today, when Crawford’s signed letter came across the fax machine late in the morning, it was clearly a big hit in the Milan Puskar Center.

 

“I don’t know if anyone heard me when Crawford came through, but that was one that got me really excited,” said Holgorsen.

 

Now, we’ll see if Justin Crawford can become a big hit with Mountaineer Nation when it comes time for him to hit the field.