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The Michigan State Spartans are losing defensive graduate assistant Cordae Hankton from its staff. Hankton has accepted a job as a defensive analyst with the Texas Longhorns, under new head coach Steve Sarkisian.
Thank you @Coach_mtucker I really appreciate the opportunity you gave a high school coach from New Orleans to join your first program. It has been a pleasure learning from you. Thanks for being a mentor and servant leader. Continue to gain ground in East Lansing. Go Green!!!
— Cordae Hankton (@CoachHank_UT) February 26, 2021
In addition to his role as a graduate assistant on the defensive side of the ball for Mel Tucker’s staff, Hankton was highly-regarded for his recruiting ability, especially in his home state of Louisiana. Hankton played a role in helping the Spartans land heavily-recruited wide receiver, Keon Coleman, from Opelousas, Louisiana. Chester Kimbrough, a recent transfer from Florida, originally hails from New Orleans where Hankton is also from. Jah’von Grisgby, a three-star safety, was another prospect from Louisiana who was formerly committed to MSU, but eventually de-committed and signed with Purdue.
Prior to his time at Michigan State, Hankton was on Tucker’s staff at Colorado in 2019 as an offensive graduate assistant. Before his first stint in the college ranks with the Buffaloes, Hankton served as the defensive coordinator for John Ehret High School in Marrero, Louisiana in 2018. Hankton previously was an assistant for six seasons at his alma mater, Archbishop Rummel High School in New Orleans from 2012 through 2017, where he coached the linebackers. Archbishop Rummel won back-to-back state championships in 2015 and 2016 with Hankton on staff.
Tucker’s connection to Hankton came from working with Hankton’s older brother, Cortez, at Georgia. Cortez Hankton is currently the passing game coordinator and wide receivers coach for the Bulldogs, a role he’s held since 2018, working with Tucker who was Georgia’s defensive coordinator that year. Cortez Hankton is a former NFL wide receiver, who played for the Jacksonville Jaguars (Go Jags!), Minnesota Vikings and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
After playing safety at Jackson State, earning two letters in 2006 and 2007, Cordae Hankton actually served as a police officer in New Orleans for five years, following in his parents’ footsteps.
Hankton is the second staff member Tucker has lost this offseason, as safeties coach Mike Tressel took a job as defensive coordinator for the Cincinnati Bearcats.