Pitt FB Recruiting
Pitt Football Lands Charlotte Long Snapper Nico Crawford
Pitt football landed a new long snapper on Tuesday, as Charlotte transfer Nico Crawford committed to the program, announcing his decision on Twitter.
Let’s ride panther nation pic.twitter.com/iQbgsTZPpm
— Nico Crawford (@Nico_Crawford23) January 2, 2024
Crawford will make this his third school in his first three years of playing college football. He started out at Illinois and then transferred to Charlotte last season, where he started at long snapper through the season.
After spending one season at Illinois, Greg Froelich, a special team’s analyst with the program at the time, asked Crawford if he’d want to join him at Charlotte, where he would serve as running backs and special teams coach. Crawford took a chance on himself and left the Big Ten to go play for Charlotte in the American, where he would play all throughout 2023, gaining valuable experience along the way.
The journey to Pitt football started much earlier in the summer of 2023. Crawford worked over the summer with Dan Orner, a specialist who works with NFL players, college athletes and high school kids, who play special teams’ positions.
Orner told Crawford that he saw Power Five talent in him and that he should enter the transfer portal. Due to this coming during the summer, Crawford chose to mull on that decision over the season, but as the season wore on, he knew he wanted to go back to the top of the college game.
Luckily for Crawford, Orner had a relationship with Pitt special teams and running backs coach Andre Powell. Orner played under Powell at North Carolina in the 2000s and helped start that connection between him and Crawford.
Powell got into contact with Crawford around the second/third week of December before the dead period. The two talked often, throughout that time, three to four times a week, which eventually led to a visit that Crawford went on. Once Powell offered him a spot on the team, he was never going to turn it down.
“It was a good time to go to the American, understand how college ball is, play and then give myself a chance to play Power 5 and get a great degree at the University of Pittsburgh,” Crawford said.
Crawford actually committed to Pitt football on Dec. 19, but chose to wait to post his commitment for two weeks. He credits his dad, a businessman, for telling him to wait until he applied to make sure everything was good going forward before announcing publicly his new school.
The relationship that Crawford built with Powell is what convinced him on becoming a Panther. He loved the attention he received from Powell, his genuineness as a person and the honesty that he showed throughout the process, which showed him that he wanted to play for this coach for his remaining years in college.
“The biggest thing for me and coach Powell is that he’s a very honest man,” Crawford said. “That’s what I look into a coach. He was being very transparent, telling me what the situation was like, “Hey, I’m giving you the full, blunt truth about everything.” That’s what I was mostly looking for in a coach and who to play for. When I started talking with him, I was like, “I really want to play for this guy.” I think he’s an awesome man and an awesome coach and I can’t wait to play for him over the next three years.”
Crawford will join Pitt football as a preferred walk-on, normal for a long snapper, who generally don’t receive scholarships. He is the second long snapper to join the program this winter as Nilay Upadhyayula transferred in from UConn, receiving a scholarship.
A self-described workaholic, Crawford has spent time during the offseason improving on his speed training and lifting a ton to get ready for 2024. His discussions with Powell also assured him that he liked his play and that the best player will see the field, regardless of scholarship or preferred walk-on status.
“My goal is to come in and play,” Crawford said. “I know [Pitt kicker] Ben Sauls really well, we went to camps together and stuff. Just trying to do my part, just see whatever happens and leave no regrets. That’s what I was telling coach Powell. So, we’ll just see what happens.”
One benefit to playing for Pitt for Crawford is being much closer to home than his previous two spots. He hails from Dublin, Ohio, a suburb north of Columbus, making it around just a three-hour drive for his family to come watch him play. It also helps that most of his family is already from Pennsylvania and that his parents met up in Erie, which is just a two-hour drive from Pittsburgh.
“It’s a blessing to be close to home,” Crawford said. “I’m used to being far away, but I’m happy to be in the situation I’m in.”
