Tuesday, April 8, 2003 | 9:38 a.m.
After watching his team get manhandled up front by physical teams like Utah and New Mexico in recent years, UNLV coach John Robinson has made a recruiting effort to beef up his offensive and defensive lines.
No one fits the bill better than junior offensive guard Joe Critchfield.
Critchfield, a barrel-chested 6-foot-4, 315-pound first team J.C. All-American from Scottsdale (Ariz.) Community College, definitely passes the "look test." He already is penciled in to replace Tony Terrell at right guard for the Rebels next fall.
"I think he brings a man to our group," Robinson said matter-of-factly. "He's huge and he's very flexible. He can bend his knees and he can run. He's probably the best physical specimen we've had here in the offensive line and one of the best I've had in a number of years."
In fact, you probably would have to go back to Robinson's USC coaching days in the mid-1990s when he started a true freshman tackle named Travis Claridge, now a starter with the Atlanta Falcons and the older brother of Rebels linebacker Ryan Claridge, for the last time Robinson had an offensive lineman with Critchfield's impressive physical attributes.
Critchfield bench-presses 405 pounds and runs a 5.2 in the 40-yard dash. He has arms like tree trunks and looks like he could be Hulk Hogan's tag-team partner in Wrestlemania one day if he so desired.
"He's physically-gifted, size-wise," Robinson said. "Part of that is because he went on a (LDS Church) mission and he's also mature. There's a difference in the strength of a 20-year-old and a 23-year-old."
Critchfield was a late bloomer coming out of Chandler (Ariz.) High School where he was honorable mention all-state. He said he didn't start until his senior season when he remembers getting the best of a sophomore defensive line teammate in practice on a regular basis.
"Terrell Suggs was on our team," Critchfield said. "He's developed big-time since then. We used to push him around and bully him then. But he's gotten a lot better. Now we just laugh about it when we see each other."
Suggs, who went on to win the 2002 Lombardi Award at Arizona State after setting an NCAA single-season record with 22 sacks, is projected to be one of the top five picks in the NFL draft this month.
"I'm really happy for the guy," Critchfield said. "He's a real good guy. He wasn't real cocky or anything, which was one of the reasons everybody liked him. But back then he wasn't really that good yet. He always was a big person, though."
Critchfield was recruited by Idaho, Idaho State, Nevada-Reno and even was contacted by UNLV following his senior year at Chandler in 1998. But he failed his ACT and attended Eastern Arizona JC for a year instead. Then it was off to Uruguay for his two-year mission.
"I think the mission helped me mature more," Critchfield said. "I grew spiritually and I grew mentally."
He lost 30 pounds during those two years in South America, however.
"I had a tapeworm in Uruguay, so I lost a lot of weight," he said. "I only weighed about 270 when I got home."
Critchfield enrolled at Scottsdale Community College when he returned and spent a semester in the weightroom. He then went on to earn JC All-American honors the following year for the Artichokes.
UNLV beat out Arizona, BYU and Louisiana Tech among others for his services.
"BYU kind of screwed me in a way," Critchfield said. "All during spring ball at Scottsdale, and before the season, they said they were going to offer me (a scholarship) and they had me as one of their top recruits on their website. Then at the last minute they said they didn't have enough scholarships available because they had a lot of missionaries coming back.
"They wanted me to pay for the spring semester myself and they'd get me a scholarship in the fall. I didn't want to do that. Then when I told them that I was probably going to be coming here and they found out I got first team All-American they came back and said they suddenly had a scholarship available."
Despite his strong Mormon beliefs, Critchfield turned down the Cougars to play for their MWC rivals in Las Vegas.
"UNLV had been on me since spring ball," he said. "Coach (Steve) Johns was on me the past year. They showed more interest in recruiting. On the first day of recruiting, the coaches all came to my house. Coach Robinson was there. They all talked to my family. It was a big thing for me because they felt I was important to them."
If the first two weeks of spring practice are any indication, Critchfield could be an impact player for the Rebels next fall.
"There's better athletes here, that's for sure," Critchfield said. "It's a little faster and it's way more organized. It's non-stop working and it makes you a better athlete. I like the competition. I usually find myself blocking against guys like Adam Seward. It helps me get better."
Critchfield says his goal is to one day join Suggs and another old high school teammate, Adam Archuleta of the Rams, in the NFL one day.
"That's another reason I came here," he said. "Coach Robinson knows what you need to do to get to the NFL because he's an NFL coach."
"He obviously needs to learn our offense and he appears to be a good guy," Robinson said. "I think he does have a chance to play in the NFL one day."
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