Retaining WR Coach Courtney Hawkins Crucial For Spartans Future

The Jonathan Smith era has begun for Michigan State football.

Smith arrives as the Spartans new head coach after six seasons leading his alma mater, Oregon State. He built up the Beavers from ruins and is now tasked with building Michigan State back to prominence as well. One of his first orders of business is to finish assembling his coaching staff.

Head coaches often prefer bringing as much of the coaching staff from their previous stops as possible. Smith credited his assistant coaches for his success at Oregon State and has already confirmed five of that group will come with him to East Lansing. However, new head coaches soemtimes like to retain a coach or two from the previous staff to help bridge the transition. In Michigan State’s case, that one assistant is reportedly wide receivers coach Courtney Hawkins, and deservingly so.

Hawkins is a Michigan State alum who played eight seasons in the NFL and coached at Flint (Mich.) Beecher High School for 14 years. He joined Mel Tucker’s staff in 2020. Since coming back to East Lansing, Hawkins helped develop two receivers into NFL draft picks (Jalen Nailor and Jayden Reed) and has been credited for landing and developing former MSU and current Florida State star receiver Keon Coleman.

With Coleman transferring, Hawkins has been tasked with finding a new star receiver and has already done so. One of Michigan State’s few remaining verbal commitments in the 2024 recruiting class is four-star River Rouge (Mich.) wide receiver Nick Marsh. The 6-foot-3, 200-pounder is the No. 118 overall recruit, No. 19 wide receiver and No. 2 prospect in the state of Michigan, according to 247Sports composite rankings.

Marsh originally committed to the Spartans in July 2022, before backed off his commitment in March 2023 and re-committed to MSU in early July. He has stayed solid in his commitment to the Spartans through September after the suspension and firing of former head coach Mel Tucker. Marsh was asked in early October about what he would like to see from Michigan State going forward, his response was to see the coaching staff retained, referring to Hawkins.