SBLive Oklahoma All-State Football 2022: Grove senior tailback Emmanuel Crawford selected as MVP

By Mike Moguin 

Photos by Emmanuel Crawford 

Emmanuel Crawford has an established pattern in what makes him a thriving running back.

He utilized it, helping his team, the Grove Ridgerunners, to an unbeaten regular season, a District 5A-4 Championship and a No. 1 ranking in Class 5A polls.

“I think the thing that makes me play as good as I am is field vision. It’s always been something I’ve had since fifth grade,” Crawford said. “I’ve just been able to predict what’s going to happen.

"Another is my work ethic, and I feel that’s one of the biggest things that any good player has is work ethic. You have to be willing to put in a lot of time and hours in doing things that you necessarily don’t like.”

The Ridgerunners, who finished the year 12-1 after falling to eventual state champion Midwest City Carl Albert in the state semifinals, relied on their running attack often with Crawford carrying the load, and he often broke open for long gains to the end zone.

Crawford (5-foot-10, 170 pounds) finished the 2022 season with 36 touchdowns, 2,304 yards on 230 attempts - averaging 10.0 yards per carry on the ground - and caught seven TDs. He also had 19 receptions for 546 yards, averaging 28.7 yards per catch.

This earned Crawford the 2022 MVP award for the SBLive Oklahoma All-State football team.

“When I received the award for player of the year, it made me sit down and think back on all of the long practices and late nights during the journey,” he said. “I credit a lot of it to my work ethic and to the people that were around me and pushed me to be a great running back, a great player, and a great human being.

“It’s an incredible honor. I always think of the other players in the state, particularly all the talent in Tulsa and Oklahoma City, and it’s a big deal."

People have told Crawford he runs like Bo Jackson, the two-sport athlete who played the football part of his career for the Los Angeles Raiders in the late '80s and early '90s.

“That’s the only thing I can recollect being compared to, which is incredible that someone would say that," Crawford said.

Indeed it is, considering how strong, stout and solid Jackson was in his playing days. Jackson, who also won the 1985 Heisman Trophy at Auburn, was known to drag some defenders. Crawford has done that himself, he remarked.

“I’m not going to say that I’ve run over anyone," he said. "I use speed really to create yards after contact.”

Season highlights for the Ridgerunners included scoring 70 points or more three times, including a first-round playoff game, and more than 40 points in 10 of their 13 games.

In the three games it did not, it finished in the 20s and that came against quality opponents. One of those came in Week 3 with a 28-20 win against Wagoner, which went on to win the 4A championship.

Crawford said the biggest win came in Week 8 when the Ridgerunners took to the road to derail Collinsville, 49-21, who at that time was the defending 5A state champions and was riding a 21-game win streak.

“It was due to the fact that we were a (Class) 4A team moving up to 5A playing against a state championship team from the year before,” Crawford said. “That was definitely a big win and the atmosphere in the locker room was just different that night. You can tell everyone wanted it.

"We were just on a different level that night. It seemed like all the pieces were well put together, and everybody was working together as one unit.”

The Arkansas signee rushed for 319 yards on 21 carries and scored four TDs that evening, on runs of 20, 70, 56, and 1.

After the Collinsville game, Crawford did not hesitate to credit his offensive line. He didn’t refrain this time around, either.

“Most of us have been playing together since fifth grade, and a lot of them have been playing together since first grade, so there is a lot of connection and brotherhood there,” Crawford said. “I know that I can trust my linemen. I know that on every play, they’re going to give me their all. And as a running back, and as a quarterback, you have to (credit) your linemen if you want to have success because when it comes down to it, you’re not successful without your line.

"They worked hard all summer, and all season, and gave their all. Just having linemen that are going to be in the right gap, blocking the right person for you, they’re going to be there to celebrate with you when you score because when you do score a touchdown, it’s not just you scoring. It’s you and the linemen.”

Crawford had dreams to play college football, but he was uncertain until he got a call from Arkansas coach Sam Pittman, who was a big factor in why he signed to attend as a preferred walk-on.

Ironically, Pittman himself is a native of Grove.

“He’s really a good genuine person,” Crawford said of the Razorbacks' coach. “He told me in sincerity, ‘We want you here.’”

Crawford had 15 other opportunities to go somewhere else, he said, “But Arkansas just felt like home. I like the people there around me.”

Fayetteville is also just an hour and a half from Grove.