As Michigan State football continues to brace itself for potential NCAA sanctions, its new head coach continues to build his first coaching staff.
Wednesday, Mel Tucker announced that Courtney Hawkins has been hired as his wide receivers coach. The move to add Hawkins will certainly be a popular one for the fan base as the newest assistant played his college football at MSU.
From 1988-91, Hawkins was a wide receiver for the Spartans. Twice, he earned first-team All-Big Ten honors during his time in East Lansing.
“Courtney Hawkins was a phenomenal player here at Michigan State who went on to have a very successful career in the NFL,” the new Michigan State football head coach said in a statement. “He’s shown tremendous leadership serving as both the athletic director and head football coach at Flint Beecher High School. I’m really excited to get him here on campus.”
Since 2006, Hawkins served as the head football coach and athletic director at his alma mater, Beecher High School, in Flint, Michigan. That tenure followed a nine-year career as a wide receiver in the NFL.
This will, incidentally, serve as Hawkins’ first job of any kind at the collegiate level.
The hiring of Hawkins is the fourth officially announced by the Michigan State football program.
This past weekend, it was confirmed that Ron Burton and Mike Tressel would be retained. Shortly thereafter, Chris Kapilovic officially followed Tucker to MSU from Colorado.
Kapilovic will serve as offensive line coach and running-game coordinator for Tucker. Burton is expected to continue on as defensive line coach. Tressel has spent the past 13 seasons with Michigan State football as assistant head coach, defensive coordinator and linebackers coach.
