The upward trajectory in Bryce Crawford's San Jose State University football career matches a long, high, majestic field goal that clears the goal post and sails into the stands.
There is the baseline of being an outstanding student. Four Mountain West awards for academic excellence and being the Spartans' 2018 nominee for a National Football Foundation Scholar-Athlete Award and William V. Campbell Trophy, known as the "Academic Heisman" sufficiently support the communication studies major.
"Bryce Crawford is everything that is right about college football. He is a young man that takes his academics very seriously. He is an honor roll guy every semester. He works extremely hard at being the best he can be," says San Jose State head coach Brent Brennan. "He's dependable, on time, a good leader for our team. Guys look up to him."
After a less than satisfying freshman season in 2015 when he only made one 38-yard field goal, Crawford now is one of the most reliable players on the team and one of the top kickers in the country.
For the last two seasons, he consistently forces San Jose State opponents to take touchbacks with his deep kickoffs which follow a kicked point after touchdown or one of his field goals which he now is registering over an 80 percent pace. The Plano, Texas native set single season and career records and was a semifinalist for the 2017 Lou Groza National Placekicker Award based on sharing the national lead among Football Bowl Subdivision players with five field goals of 50 or more yards. That's remarkable considering the Spartan career record was three by Austin Lopez, Crawford's predecessor as the placekicker.
Late last season, he even became the team's punter just for the Colorado State. He managed a 39.7 average punting 10 times.
This year, he's doing it all in the kicking department -- kick scoring, punting and kickoffs. Last week, he punted 11 times. One of them was a career-best 60 yards, three yards further than the 57-yarder he booted against UC Davis in the season opener. Crawford is averaging 42.3 yards per punt, good enough to be among the top punters in the Football Bowl Subdivision.
"During the week, we try to focus on two of the three disciplines - field goals and kickoffs, field goals and punts to limit what I'm thinking about so I'm not thinking about everything at once," said Crawford, who punted 11 times in the September 8 game at Washington State. "It helps me focus on each of the individual tasks that I have."
He hopes his punting duties lessen and his kick scoring opportunities increase when San Jose State takes on #20/#23-Oregon, Saturday, September 15, at Oregon's Autzen Stadium.
"...We're really focused going into this week. It's a big game for us playing against a top-20 opponent. I feel we're locked in and ready to go," he said about facing the high-powered Pac-12 Conference team.
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