Michigan State's Demetrice Martin and Courtney Hawkins on a mission for Jonathan Smith's program

EAST LANSING — Demetrice Martin walked through the tunnel at Spartan Stadium for the first time in nearly 30 years Saturday, glancing around and remembering his days playing for Michigan State football.

One thing immediately stood out before the Spartans’ second scrimmage of the spring.

“Man, it was surreal,” Martin recalled Thursday. “First of all, I'd never been on the field since I left. And then getting on the field and it's grass, I'm like, ‘Oh wow, man, look at this.’”

The last time the Spartans’ new cornerbacks coach was inside the stadium was the final game of the 1995 regular season, a close loss to Penn State in Nick Saban’s debut as head coach and Mark Dantonio’s first season coaching defensive backs. Martin eventually followed his mentors into coaching, with his 23-year journey back to MSU coming full circle.

It includes a reunion with the two former players who hosted him on his recruiting visit back in the early 1990s when George Perles was their coach: current athletic director Alan Haller and wide receivers coach Courtney Hawkins. And it sparked a mission Martin and Hawkins feel is their duty as part of Jonathan Smith’s new coaching staff.

“Me being the last full-time hire, I came in and just kind of brought the energy and bringing what being a 'Spartan dawg' means and all that type of stuff,” the 51-year-old Martin said. “Obviously, going along with Coach Hawk here, we're just kind of showing the guys the old way of how we used to do things and kind of mixing it with the new ways.”

Hawkins was a two-time All-Big Ten first-team receiver with the Spartans under Perles from 1988 to 1991 before he embarked on a nine-year NFL career. After coaching high school football and serving as an athletic director at his high school alma mater Flint Beecher, he returned to the college game in 2020 when he joined Mel Tucker’s staff. Hawkins, 54, was the only member of Tucker’s staff retained by Smith, who brought six of his 10 assistant coaches with him from Oregon State.

READ MORE: MSU's Pro Day offers reminder of Mel Tucker's failed mission and Jonathan Smith's big task

“I'm the new kid on the block, I just mean from a staff standpoint. These guys know each other,” Hawkins said Thursday. “I'm learning an entire new offense and teaching a new offense to to the wideouts. And it's very different than anything that we've done here in the last four years.

“So it's been interesting, it's been fun. It's been challenging, which I think our guys need. It's gonna be an exciting, fun offense.”

Martin arrived at MSU as a receiver during Hawkins’ senior year in 1991. He started five of his eight games played in 1992 before transitioning into an All-Big Ten cornerback by his junior season two years later, Perles’ last before being fired. Martin started as a senior for Saban, with Dantonio as his position coach, and made nine interceptions and 107 tackles over his final two seasons.

Those years and those men, Martin said, planted the seeds for his coaching career and philosophies.

“Maybe as a young player, I relied on athleticism a lot,” said Martin. "And then when Coach Saban came in and Coach Dantonio, they'd kind of hold me down, like, 'Hey, calm down, let's walk down the hill and let's let's play all the routes instead of just running down and playing one of the routes.' So trusting in the preparation and relying on a technique, definitely.”

Martin spent the past two years coaching cornerbacks at Oregon, his sixth stop in the soon-to-be-defunct Pac-12. He has worked with 18 All-Pac-12 defensive backs and has been on coaching staffs for 12 bowl games. Previously, he spent three seasons at Washington (2009-11), six at UCLA (2012-17), two at Arizona (2018-19) and two at Colorado (2020-21).

So there was a familiarity as foes with Smith, who coached at his alma mater Oregon State for six seasons before taking the MSU job in November. Their connection goes deeper and far beyond that.

Both Martin and Smith grew up in Pasadena, California, though Martin graduated from Muir High in 1991 and Smith graduated from nearby Glendora High in 1997. Martin said Smith also recruited his younger brother in the early 2000s while Smith was in his first assistant coaching position at Idaho.

“We go back,” Martin said. “We just never got a chance to really coach with each other. ... We always had a connection there. So it was easy for me, knowing Coach Smith and his history of being a real family guy, real business oriented. He's a guy that's always three steps ahead in whatever he's doing. He's always been known like that. So going against him at Oregon State just recently, it was always a big game-plan week. He put a lot of stress on us as a defense.”

READ MORE: Jonathan Smith promises Michigan State's spring showcase will feature some actual football

Hawkins emerged as a developer of receivers in four seasons at the collegiate level. He mentored Jayden Reed, a second-round pick of the Green Bay Packers last year, as well as spending two years teaching potential first-round pick Keon Coleman before he transferred to Florida State last spring. His next wave of wideouts includes early enrolled true freshman Nick Marsh, whose mother on X recently called Hawkins “the (GOAT)” and her son “the pupil.”

“I mean, for people — for anybody — to step up and say, ‘This guy's basically doing a good job and taking tremendous care of my son,’ that's what this is about. It's not just about Xs and Os,” Hawkins said. “There's a lot of time that we spend in those meeting rooms, and then half the time will be about football and the other half will be about life itself. So for parents to step up and say, 'We want coach Hawk around our son,' I mean, it makes me smile from ear to ear, man.

“It makes me feel like what I'm doing and the things that I'm doing in the classroom and outside of the classroom, when we go hang out together, that it's having an impact.”

Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.

 Subscribe to the "Spartan Speak" podcast for new episodes weekly on Apple, Spotify or anywhere you listen to podcasts. And catch all of our podcasts and daily voice briefing at freep.com/podcasts.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: MSU football: Coaches Demetrice Martin, Courtney Hawkins on a mission