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Christien Hawks didn't need more time, commits to KU

On Tuesday Christien Hawks did a virtual visit with the Kansas coaches to get a better look at the program.

After the visit he talked to his parents and he was getting advice that could go two directions.

In the end his mother won out.

“My mom told me that I should start looking at committing to KU,” Hawks said. “And I was like, ‘Well, I've been kind of on the fence about that.’ And then, I talked to my dad because he was the one that was kind of wanting to wait and see how things go. But he seemed like he was ready for me to make my decision.”

On Thursday evening Hawks knew what he wanted to do and reached out to offensive line coach Luke Meadows. He told Meadows of his intentions and they set up a staff Zoom call for 9:30 on Friday morning.

That’s when he informed the coaches, he was ready to give them a verbal commitment.

“We went over the Zoom meeting with everybody, the whole offensive staff, Les Miles was also on there,” Hawks said. “And told them I'm committing, and there was a lot of shouts and everything. It was great.”

Hawks committed to the KU staff during a Zoom call on Friday morning
Hawks committed to the KU staff during a Zoom call on Friday morning

Hawks and his family took a visit to Lawrence a couple weeks ago to look at the campus and drove around the town.

Although Hawks is from Norton, Kan. he never had a chance to see everything up close.

“We all really, really loved KU and went down there and we loved everything we saw,” Hawks said. “We went over the virtual tour, loved everything we saw, and I just felt like, yeah, this is right. We need to do this. And as soon as I convinced my dad, it was all downhill from there.”

At 6-foot-5, 260 pounds Hawks has a frame that can easily carry more weight. The Kansas coaches saw his upside and offered him a scholarship last month.

“Coach Meadows likes how I am pretty aggressive on the defensive side and how I take that to offense,” Hawks said. “And he likes that I have a lot of length and I'm able to move well.”

Hawks and his family dissected the recruiting process quite a bit over the last month. His decision to commit to a school close to home and playing at the Power Five level has taken a lot of stress off.

“The main thing going through my mind is I can just think about football,” he said. “As soon as I committed, I just started thinking about our football, about KU football and everything that relates to football. I'm just so pumped up because I finally made a decision. I feel like a burden is off my shoulders and I am free now.”

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