Joe Hamilton rising again at Georgia State

By Ken Sugiura

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

One of the greatest players in Georgia Tech history picks up cones after practice now and runs down errant balls. He calls high school guidance counselors to request transcripts of prospective Georgia State recruits.

The work can be tedious. Grunt work. But Joe Hamilton does it without complaint.

"I do it because my name is signed on it," he said. "I want it to be done right."

Two years after an embarrassing DUI arrest on the campus where he made his legend, Hamilton is starting over. The 1999 Heisman Trophy runner-up and ACC player of the year is a football intern for Georgia State.

Said Hamilton, 33, "I want to work my way from the bottom."

When recruiting videos come into the Panthers football office, Hamilton logs them into the system. When recruiting coordinator George Pugh wants to invite prospects to games at the Georgia Dome, Hamilton makes the calls to their coaches. He attends team meetings and practices – NCAA rules prohibit him from doing any coaching – and waits for opportunities to share his observations with the coaching staff.

The days start early. The first team meeting starts at 6:30 a.m. and practice follows two hours later. Hamilton often doesn't return home until 8:30 p.m.

"It's a day in the life of a guy in my shoes," Hamilton said.

He's hustling for an opportunity to get hired full-time.

"I think either here or somewhere, there'll be an opening," Georgia State coach Bill Curry said. "He'll apply for it and he'll get it."

Hamilton already had a foot in the door when he was hired at Tech in April 2008 as a player personnel assistant. After a run in the NFL and Arena Football, Hamilton had earned his degree from Tech the previous summer. His wife Kenya had given birth to their first child, Skylar, in February.

"We were just so high up," Kenya said.

But on May 5, less than two weeks after being hired, Hamilton was out with co-workers celebrating Cinqo de Mayo in Buckhead. He had too much to drink. He didn't want to drive all the way home to Fairburn, so he drove back to Tech to spend the night in the coaching office.

Hamilton called it "just a bad decision to get behind the wheel."

Shortly after midnight, he was arrested on Tech's campus and charged with DUI, open container, marijuana possession and hit and run. A day later, Hamilton resigned from Tech.

Kenya, a senior business-systems analyst for Turner Broadcasting, said her husband remained the same upbeat person on the outside, but "he felt like he had let so many people down."

Without a job, Hamilton spent more time with his son. He worked with different youth sports programs. He did some private quarterback tutoring for high school players. He talked to several student groups about his DUI. He spoke, he said, to cope with the negativity of his mistake.

"I think I dealt more with the man in the mirror more than anybody else thought about it," Hamilton said.

And he realized he missed football. He had stayed in touch with former Tech coaches George O'Leary and Ralph Friedgen, seeking their advice about how to get back in the game.

On the encouragement of two Tech grads, former quarterback John Dewberry and prominent Atlanta businessman Pete Petit, Curry reached out to Hamilton.

A Tech man himself, Curry grilled Hamilton for the details of his arrest and, satisfied, hired him. He has not disappointed.

"He knows what he did and he knows how to rectify it," Curry said. "We're really lucky to have him."

In September, Hamilton's case closed with a negotiated guilty plea to DUI and open container. The hit-and-run charge was merged into the DUI conviction and the marijuana charge was dropped.

Said Hamilton, "That's totally behind me."

Since coming to work at Georgia State, his passion for coaching has been re-ignited. He has impressed those around him with his diligence and humility.

Quarterback Kelton Hill, who collected Hamilton's autographs as a boy, expected Hamilton to be a little cocky. Instead, Hill said he found "a laid-back dude" who loves to joke and laugh.

"I look at him like a big brother to me," he said.

The former Tech star, whose joy for the game and competitive zeal once lit up Bobby Dodd Stadium, wants to be a head coach. He knows he'll likely first have to become a position coach and then a coordinator.

"I want to make sure that I've done all the crawling I can possibly do," Hamilton said.

After two years of penance, those are dues Hamilton will gladly pay.