Critchfield welcomes his chance to lead line

Steve Guiremand

Friday, Aug. 13, 2004 | 9:51 a.m.

UNLV guard Joe Critchfield knows big things are expected of him during his senior year.

Head coach John Robinson is even quoted in the team media guide as saying he expects the 6-foot-4, 300-pound former junior college All-American to "be the leader of the offensive line."

And that's just fine with Critchfield, who started all 12 games last year with the Rebels and is expected to contend for all-Mountain West Conference honors this fall.

"I'm going to try and live up to that," Critchfield said after a fast-paced three-hour practice on Thursday night at Rebel Park. "I'm going to try and live up to what coach wants me to be."

Critchfield, who drew Robinson's wrath during one practice drill on Thursday night for not being aggressive enough, is just happy to be playing football this fall after undergoing emergency surgery to have his appendix removed on the Fourth of July.

"Basically, I ate some Mexican food and that night I started feeling a little crappy and started cramping up," Critchfield said. "I thought I had some food poisoning. The next day the pain was still bad and I called (offensive line coach Jonathan Himebauch). ... He just told me to get to the hospital as soon as possible."

Critchfield then went to University Medical Center.

"Six hours later they discovered my appendix was about to burst," he said. "They finally took it out with emergency surgery. ... It was the most pain I've ever experienced."

Turns out Critchfield had the surgery just in the nick of time.

"If they had waited another 10 minutes it would have burst," he said. "I could have died or I could have been in the hospital for several weeks. I probably would have had to miss fall camp. It's definitely a good thing it didn't burst."

Critchfield lost 12 pounds after the surgery, dropping to 293 pounds. Thanks in part to his diet on a cruise he took with his fiance, Savannah Williams, he was back up to 300 pounds for the start of camp on Thursday.

"I think Joe has real power and strength and he has good quickness," Robinson said.

Seward limped around with an ice bag on his right foot. The good news was that it was his other foot, the left one, that had to have a pin inserted in it last spring to heal.

Senior defensive end Brian Nicholson, expected to battle senior Pete Dunbar for a starting spot, left practice with a sore hamstring.