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Football
Q & A With Asst. Football Coach Ryan Crawford
Feb. 20, 2008
Beginning February 11 and leading up to the Rams annual Spring Game on April 26, one member of the Rhode Island football coaching staff will participate in a 'Q & A' session for GoRhody.com. This week's edition features assistant coach Ryan Crawford, who joins the URI staff after spending the 2007 season at Bucknell. Talk about the first two months here at URI. "It's been a lot of work, but it's also been a lot of fun. This has been a very easy place to fall in love with. Granted, I was coming from central Pennsylvania, which was a great experience, but everything this University has to offer - from its location to the people I work with - has been a great experience." The staff just announced its first recruiting class. Talk about the process of getting the recruits on campus and selling them on URI. "It happened so fast. We came in day one and there were literally boxes and stacks of film lying around. We all had a base group of recruits who we'd been recruiting at our other respective jobs. We had to evaluate as much film as we could as fast as possible, identify the players we liked, and get out to see as many as we could. Again, everything has been sort of a whirlwind and it has happened very fast, but it's a necessary evil in this profession. We ended up with an absolutely outstanding class." How did you end up at Rhode Island? Did you have a prior relationship with coach Rizzi?
"The head coach my senior year at Davidson (Joe Susan) left after my senior year and went to work with (head football coach) Greg Schiano at Rutgers. He had recruited Schiano to play at Bucknell, so that was my tie to (Rhode Island head football coach) Darren Rizzi. He'd been working with coach Rizzi at Rutgers for the past six years, and I always stayed in touch with coach Susan. I had worked Rutgers' summer camps for the past four or five years, so I'd had the chance to meet everyone on the staff. I didn't know coach Rizzi very well, but I respected the job he and the rest of the staff did and was definitely excited about the opportunity to come on board here."
Talk about how the coaching staff has `meshed' here at Rhode Island. "I think one of the things about this profession is that it's a people profession. It's always hard to leave a situation that you're comfortable with, but being here has been awesome. It's an interesting dynamic you have with coach Rizzi, coach (Joe) Trainer, and coach (Chris) Pincince because they have all worked together previously and have a great relationship. They're all a lot of fun - they love to joke and pick on each other. It's been a lot of fun to meet and work with these guys and everything is going as well as I could have hoped." Who were your coaching influences both while you were playing and later a coach? "That's a great question. Every year I was at Davidson, I had a different position coach, so I played for a lot of coaches during the course of my career. Anytime that happens, you try and take a piece of each of them with you along the way. I've had the opportunity to play for and meet and work with a lot of great people in this profession. Coach Susan is one of those guys - I respect him for the person he is and for the job he did with us at Davidson and then at Rutgers. Coach (Tim) Landis at Bucknell, who I played for my first three years at Davidson, is one of the people who helped me along the way and helped me get to where I am now. Coach (Mike) Toop at the Merchant Marine Academy was the coach I worked for my first two years at Davidson - he sought me out and got me into the profession. I had graduated two years prior to my first coaching job, and I was at a point in my life where I really didn't know where I was going to go next. I was contemplating going back to school to become a physical therapist, but I got an opportunity to become a coach through coach Toop and his staff at Davidson. Those guys had a huge impact on getting me to where I am now." So it was Coach Toop who recruited you to become a football coach? Or was this something you'd aspired for some time? "I had always been interested in coaching. It wasn't something that as player at Davidson or when I graduated I knew I was definitely going to do, but I knew it was something I'd like to do and if ever given the opportunity that I would enjoy doing. My father is a superintendent of a school system who started out as a teacher. He also coached for I don't know how many years, but I basically grew up on the sidelines of a football or basketball game, or a wrestling match. I was always around different sporting events." Talk about your duties here at URI and what you bring to the table. "I will be working with the secondary, and I'm definitely looking forward to the challenge. Three of the better secondary players from last season are graduating, so it's going to be a very young group. There are some question marks to fill in back there, but I'm excited for the challenge and about the opportunity. One of the things I can bring to the table immediately is experience from having played the position and an enthusiasm and a work ethic to make these guys better. I'm looking forward to continuing these winter workouts and getting into spring ball." What's the best thing about living in Rhode Island? "The location is beautiful. Again, transitioning from Lewisburg (Pa.) to the beach is not a bad deal. The best thing, though, is the people. I've met a lot of great people and I'm looking forward to having a lot of fun. We have an opportunity to win a lot of football games here, too." Outside of football, you had a role as a stunt double in the movie `Radio,' which starred Cuba Gooding, Jr. What was that experience like? "I had just come back from Montreal after playing in the Canadian League, and when I arrived back in Charlotte, I really didn't know what was going to happen next. I was willing to go anywhere and do anything. I went to Davidson to visit the coaching staff, and a fax came in from the production company that was shooting the movie in Walterboro, S.C. It probably went to every college within a few hundred miles looking for athletes that they would not have to coach very much, guys with experience who still looked young enough to pull off a high school athlete. The coaches told me about the fax and I said, `Why Not?' "That was an experience that was absolutely awesome. We were on set off and on for about seven months; whenever they needed us, we'd be there for a week or two at a time. It was a great experience just being on the set of a movie and seeing how things work. It was fun and a great opportunity and something I can look back at with my kids and my grandkids and laugh." |
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