For many of the Sun Devil football players, the Nov. 7 matchup with USC will serve as a homecoming. Out of the 100+ players on the roster, nearly half of them hail from the state of California; however, for a particular Sun Devil position coach, the return to the L.A. Coliseum might carry more weight than others.
In 2017, three years before he was hired by Herm Edwards to be ASU’s defensive backs coach, Chris Hawkins was a redshirt senior safety for the USC Trojans. Hawkins, who grew up on the eastern end of Los Angeles in Rancho Cucamonga, California, began his career at USC as a four-star recruit in 2013. Hawkins redshirted before contributing to the Trojan secondary, a unit he would go on to ultimately lead during his final two years in cardinal and gold.
In his final year at USC, Hawkins, who was a captain for the Trojans, recorded his best statistical season of his career, notching down 88 total tackles, three sacks, three pass deflections, one interception, and one forced fumble.
After his redshirt senior season, Hawkins moved on to the commercial real estate world before returning to USC to contribute as a graduate assistant, working directly with the defensive backs in 2019. Hawkins helped guide the USC secondary to fourth in the Pac-12 In both passing yards allowed and passes defended.
Just before the turn of the decade, on Dec. 29, 2019, Edwards announced Hawkins' appointment to the Sun Devil coaching staff.
"I am very excited to announce to appointment of Chris Hawkins as defensive backs coach at ASU. Chris impressed myself, Tony White, Antonio Pierce, and Marvin Lewis as a young, up-and-coming coach who has a very bright future in our profession," Edwards said. "Chris played the position at an elite level at USC, and the young players in our secondary will benefit from his knowledge and experience. Chris will be instrumental in recruiting Southern California for us as well."
Hawkins was tasked by Edwards to take the reins of ASU’s most experienced position group this season, one that boasts numerous veteran upperclassmen who have cut their teeth against Pac-12 competition and know what it takes to succeed at a Division I level.
The Sun Devil secondary is anchored by redshirt senior cornerbacks Jack Jones and Chase Lucas. Over the middle at safety, ASU returns senior Evan Fields, junior Aashari Crosswell, and redshirt sophomore Cam Phillips. At the new position in ASU’s fresh 4-3-4 defense, the nickleback, redshirt freshman Jordan Clark and freshman T Lee have been taking reps. New additions, such as redshirt senior safety transfer DeAndre Pierce bolster the group’s depth and experience.
With 11 days remaining until kickoff versus the Trojans, Hawkins spoke to his position group's development before identifying some final adjustments ahead of the week one install.
“Their sense of knowing football (has improved),” Hawkins explained. “(They’ve improved on) knowing different concepts and knowing where offenses are trying to attack in each defense, (because) each defense has a weakness. Them knowing exactly how offenses are going to try to attack us in certain defenses has raised a lot since I’ve gotten here. We still got to do a lot better at just knowing our defense and knowing (what happens) assignment-wise, but I think we are on the right track.”
The new ASU defensive backs coach, who was a Pac-12 Honorable Mention in both 2016 and 2017 and one of USC’s captains in 2017, boasts an impressive resume of leadership and experience, traits that the Sun Devil defensive backs adore about their coach.
“I love Hawk, man,” redshirt freshman cornerback Jordan Clark said. “Hawk is like a big brother to me. When he got here, he asked me to play a different role, something I wasn’t used to and something I had never done. He’s been flawless in teaching me the technique and flawless in teaching me what my responsibilities are. Playing for him is gonna be amazing.”
“He’s a guy I would run through a brick wall for. I’ll play for him any day of the week.”
In his short time as the defensive backs coach for the Sun Devils, Hawkins has been praised by more players than just Clark. Nonetheless, there’s one player in that group who fell under Hawkins' tutelage before he transitioned to the realm of coaching.
Jones, one of ASU’s most experienced players in 2020, played alongside Hawkins for the two years he spent at USC, navigating the early stages of life as a collegiate student-athlete with his former teammate-turned-coach serving as his mentor.
“Well the situation with me and Chris Hawkins, me and coach Hawk, he’s always been an older guy and a guy I looked up to, even when I was at [USC], and we were playing on the same field together,” Jones described earlier in the preseason. “He’s always been that coach and always been that mentor, even if it was on or off the field… I think that’s why the trust runs so deep, just because we played at [USC] together, and we kind of know each other.”
In 2019, the Sun Devil secondary was a mixed bag. Although the Arizona State defense ranked in the top half of the Pac-12 in points allowed per game, the group still managed to produce a stellar 2.2 turnovers per game, good enough for fourth-best in the country.
By returning a plethora of experienced talent and adding capable players to reinforce the Sun Devil back four, Arizona State is poised for a promising 2020 on defense and eager to take the field once again. The keenest of the bunch to reach Nov. 7 are ASU’s California natives who want nothing more to return to their home state and play football.
“We had practice last week, and all I heard was ‘When do we start USC prep? When are we going to start for USC prep?’” Hawkins explained. “You can tell they’re anxious to get this game going; we have a lot of guys from California, so they’re excited to get back down there and try to repeat what happened in 2018.”
For the Sun Devils, an opening victory in the home state of the near majority of its players' roster in 2020 would be a resounding statement and one that could shape the Pac-12 South championship race. Yet for Hawkins, the prospect of returning to his alma mater is not something he’s allowed to cloud his judgment and mindset. As a leader and now a full-time coach, Hawkins’s obligation is to his players, not his former school.
“To me, it's just my first game as a, as a full-time position coach,” Hawkins proclaimed. “I’m not looking too much into it because I feel like if I'm too emotional, my players are going to be emotional. So, I got to be even-keeled so that they're even-keeled. We're just going to go in there and do our jobs.”
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