Important weekend for Hawkins

Chris Hawkins and the other USC commits who took their official visits this weekend had a busy time since one crucial part of their trips was to focus on the two uncommitted players there.

The Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., four-star cornerback said he and others had good conversations with five-star safety Max Redfield and five-star defensive tackle A'Shawn Robinson, a Texas commit, and he has a good feeling both might join the Trojans' class.

Redfield, from Mission Viejo, Calif., had previously been committed to USC but backed out earlier this fall. Notre Dame is the main contender in his recruitment.

"It went great," Hawkins said. "There were nine of us and two of them were uncommitted but I'm sure we're going to get Max Redfield and A'Shawn Robinson. They had great times. They were really impressed.

"They both loved their visits. I think Max is going to come back. Su'a [Cravens] and I both were on him pretty tough and we had some good conversations with him. With A'Shawn, he liked it. The thing about A'Shawn is he needs to get his mom on board. She liked it and she loosened up in the end. I feel like he wants to be here with us."

One of the most important aspects of the visit was USC coach Lane Kiffin spent a lot of time with all the players and answered a lot of questions. That was crucial since many of the recruits wanted to clear things up.

Hawkins, who's still being pursued by other major programs, said it was a great visit for all the recruits, committed and uncommitted.

"Everybody got a lot of time to talk with coach Kiffin," Hawkins said. "He was around the whole time. Usually the head coach doesn't stay around but I saw a different side of coach Kiffin. He stayed around and he was really social with everybody. It was great because we talked to the coaches a lot.

"It was important for him to stay around because a lot of people wanted to talk to him. He brought his family around, too, so it was great. We got to ask a lot of questions that we needed answered.

"He talked to us while we were sitting down eating and then everybody got their own 1-on-1 time with him and we got to ask what we wanted to ask. He said this is a family. He said having the No. 1 recruiting class in the country doesn't mean anything and that he wants to keep the Trojan family together."

Rivals.com rates Hawkins as the eighth-best cornerback and the No. 87 prospect in the 2013 class.