Demetrice Martin, Courtney Hawkins: former teammates, now working together

Michigan State cornerbacks coach Demetrice Martin and wide receivers coach Courtney Hawkins go way back.

The former teammates at Michigan State are now working together once again – but this time, as coaches.

Hawkins and Martin first got to really know each other when Martin came on a visit to Michigan State. Martin’s hosts for that visit were none other than Hawkins and Michigan State Director of Athletics Alan Haller.

Eventually, Martin committed to Michigan State and played under George Perles and Nick Saban. Under Saban, Martin’s position coach was Mark Dantonio.

Martin had not returned to East Lansing after his playing career ended until he got hired at his alma mater by Jonathan Smith.

“It was kind of surreal, coming back, seeing all the new facilities,” Martin said. “It was pretty big time. I mean it was something I always watched from afar, always watching the guys from afar. I knew that any given opportunity, that (if) it was a right fit, I would love to be able to come back and give back to the university that gave me so much.”

Martin has coached out west in the Pac-12 since 2006 and he was quite familiar with Smith even before he was hired by him. Both Martin and Smith were born and raised in Pasadena, California. Martin coached and recruited against Smith, but has never coached with Smith until this year.

Smith has even been inside Martin’s home. Once upon a time, Smith, who worked for the University of Idaho at the time, recruited Martin’s younger brother.

Martin always wanted to come back to Michigan State. There were some talks, but there was “never really a true opportunity” until the “perfect storm” that happened this winter with the arrival of Smith.

One of Martin’s goals is to restore some of the elite play of previous defensive backfields.

“That is the goal, to restore that level of excellence in the back end,” Martin said. “We want to cover guys, we gonna hit guys and we gonna run around and have a lot of fun doing it. So, we got to get the guys in to do that.”

This is a new staff for Martin, and it’s also a new staff for Hawkins, who has been with Michigan State since 2020.

“I’m excited about working with Coach Smith and his staff,” Hawkins said. “A lot of guys, obviously they came from Oregon State, they all know each other, I’m kind of the new kid on the block. But they have been tremendous with pulling me in and making sure that I understand how things are done.”

In addition to the players learning a new offense, Hawkins is as well.

“I’m learning an entire new offense,” Hawkins said. “And teaching a new offense to the wideouts. And it’s very different than what anything that we’ve done here in the last four years. It’s been interesting. It's been fun. It's been challenging. It’s going to be an exciting, fun offense.”

Hawkins' room of wideouts is relatively young. Montorie Foster Jr. and Alante Brown have the most experience, but there are plenty of underclassmen that will contribute like Jaron Glover, Antonio Gates Jr., Aziah Johnson, Nick Marsh and more.

However, Hawkins does not like to use the word young to describe his wide receivers.

“I told them I’m not even using the word young anymore,” Hawkins said. “Nobody’s young. The time is now. There are no ones, twos and threes. Our room is wide open and we’re trying to establish, let the cream rise to the top. And it’s been competitive this spring.”

Just like Martin, Hawkins wants to help Michigan State get back to playing at the top of the sport.

“This is our program,” Hawkins said. “I helped put bricks in here, so this is our program.”

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