Krysten Hammon has returned to Georgia State’s football team.
Hammon, as a freshman, started and was the Panthers’ leading rusher through the first two games last year before being suspended and then leaving the team to return home to Texas. He had 38 carries for 197 yards and two touchdowns, finishing as the team’s third-leading rusher.
Hammon enrolled at Blinn Junior College and then enrolled at Kansas, but took just one one-hour class in the summer semester in Lawrence, Kan. and paid his own way, so it didn’t affect his eligibility. He will have four years to finish three at Georgia State.
Despite his absence, he was frequently in contact with coach Trent Miles.
Miles had steadfastly refused to allow him to return until a few days ago when he was meeting with everyone involved with the program.
During that meeting, as he was sharing his mission statement and coaching philosophy, Miles said he realized that he wasn’t heeding the lessons taught to him by his father and former bosses Tyrone Willingham and Pat Hill.
If he is in the business to teach young men, he needed to give Hammon another chance.
He then went to the team’s council, which is a collection of players, and told them why he wanted to give Hammon another chance. They agreed. Miles made the call and Hammon drove back.
“We are here to make a difference in kids’ lives,” Miles said. “Some of us, sometimes, need more help than others.”
Miles has yet to meet face-to-face as with Hammon as of Wednesday morning and said he hasn’t given any thought to the possibility of him redshirting this year, but he will be on scholarship. He said he needs to see what shape Hammon is in and that he needs to earn back his teammates’ trust.
Hammon wasn’t made available to the media.
He will join a group that is suddenly very deep with Kyler Neal, Kendrick Dorn, Marcus Caffey and DeMarcus Kirk.
