Calin Criner is in his first season as a member of Jake Dickert’s staff, serving in a defensive quality control role. Criner arrives in Pullman after spending the past two years as a defensive graduate assistant at Boise State, culminating with a Mountain West Championship in 2023.
A two-time team captain at Eastern Washington (2016-21), Criner tallied nine interceptions, 273 tackles (eight for loss), 20 passes broken up, three forced fumbles and three fumble recoveries in his 54-game career (32 as a starter). His number of games played ties for the third-most in EWU history. Criner is tied for 11th in interceptions and pass break ups, and he places 15th on the all-time tackles leaderboard. He had five performances in his career with at least 10 tackles. Criner continued the legacy of wearing the No. 4 jersey for the Eagle Football team. Since the 2008 season when senior Jason Belford had the number, the coaching staff has selected a leader on defense to wear the jersey. It symbolizes the defensive player who most embodies the characteristics of defense at Eastern -- grit, toughness, effort, leadership and academic success.
His father, Mark, is a former player at Boise State and most recently spent three seasons (2021-23) as an assistant coach at Southern Miss. The long-time college coach previously had tenures at Idaho, Portland State, Utah State, Minnesota, Eastern Michigan, Cincinnati, Middle Tennessee State, Lamar, and Colorado State Pueblo, as well as stints with Seattle and Las Vegas in the XFL.
Calin is the grandson of former Boise State University head football coach Jim Criner (1976-82), who guided the Broncos to the 1980 NCAA Championship Subdivision (then I-AA) title. He was 59-21-1 overall and 34-12 in the Big Sky at BSU, and was later head coach at Iowa State (1983-86). Cal also has twin siblings, Jackson and Brooklyn. Nickname is “Cal.”
