Specialist Crawford excited for opportunity at Nebraska

Nebraska struggled with its special teams last season, especially when it came to finding consistency in the kicking game.

That inconsistency led the Huskers to be active on the recruiting front as far as finding specialist that could help with kickoffs, field goals as well as punting. Those are all things NU's most recent walk-on commit, Tyler Crawford, can help with.

The Broken Arrow, Okla. native visited Lincoln two weeks ago and announced his commitment via Twitter over the weekend.

“I just see them as a program that is building up and I want to help them do that,” Crawford said. “They need help in the special teams category, so I want to come in an help them out. I called on Sunday and let them know I was committing. They were pretty fired up.”

The 5-foot-11, 175-pound Crawford had preferred walk-on offers from Oklahoma State and Nebraska as well as a partial scholarship from Northeastern Oklahoma A&M Junior College.

In the end, it was how the Huskers recruited him that made the biggest difference.

“The visit went well, they just recruited me really well,” Crawford said about Nebraska. “They all wanted to talk to me, I got to talk with Coach Frost one-on-one, and they seemed really interested in me. I was really interested in them, too. So it all came together and we just kind of linked up.”

While Crawford considers himself a kickoff specialist first and foremost, he also says Nebraska will be letting him compete in several different areas once he gets on campus.

“They just want me to come in and show them what I can do and we’ll take it from there,” Crawford said. “I’m a kickoff specialist. I believe 44 out of 60 kickoffs were touch backs last season. That’s pretty good, especially in Oklahoma with the wind and everything. I also punt and can place kick, too.

Crawford has attended specialists camps with both Kohl's Kicking and Chris Sailer Kicking both of which consider him a five-star prospect.

Kohl's Kicking had this to say about Crawford following one of their showcase camps last summer.:

"Crawford had an impressive showing at the 2019 Kohl’s National Scholarship Camp. He once again had a very impressive overall camp with all three disciplines. Crawford has the tools to play at the Division 1 level and this fall will be key for him to continue to progress and be ready to compete at the next level. Crawford attended Texas Showcase in the spring of 2019 and showed great athletic improvement since his last camp. He was able to hit Division 1 type kick offs in the charting session. Crawford also made an impressive 12 points during the field goal portion of camp. He has matured athletically since last summer and moved into the 5 star category as a kicker. His charts were some of the best in the country and might have the talent to be a top 15 kicker in the country."

Coming from a big high school program like Broken Arrow, Crawford says he feels like he should transition well to kicking at Nebraska.

“I love the crowd and I love feeling the energy of the crowd,” Crawford said. “I think that’s a big part of my game and should help me when I get [to Nebraska].”