Jordan Hamm
Familiarity can play a massive role with a player when entering the transfer portal.
That was the case for former Washington State defensive back Javan Robinson, who gets to reunite with his old defensive coordinator in Brian Ward and former Cougs coach AJ Cooper.
“Coach Coop recruited to me to come to Washington State to begin with,” Robinson said. “That’s been my guy for three years now.”
Let’s get to work 💯 #ForksUp🔱 pic.twitter.com/b3wVTcQDWi
— ᴊᴀᴠᴀɴ ʀᴏʙɪɴsᴏɴ 🀄️ (@Robinson2Javan) December 10, 2023
That was a driving force for Robinson to transfer to Arizona State, which he announced last weekend after visiting Tempe. Not only was it the connection with Coach Ward and Cooper, but developing relationships with his new head coach and position coach.
“It was the right place to be. Coach Dillingham, he’s a cool guy,” Robinson said. “(Defensive backs coach Bryan Carrington) is very cool. Everything about it was easy. It just felt right.”
Robinson made his debut with the Cougars in 2022, appearing in three games and maintaining a redshirt status that year. He appeared in four games in 2023 and had 12 tackles. He will be vying for a spot in the secondary that will be replacing Ro Torrence, Jordan Clark, Chris Edmonds and Dee Ford.
The 6-foot, 168-pound defensive back feels his familiarity with Ward’s system will help him make the transition to Tempe pretty seamlessly. That will help him play fearlessly, which has not seemed to be a problem for him in the past. He said he’s played confidently since he was five years old, and that hasn’t changed.
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— ᴊᴀᴠᴀɴ ʀᴏʙɪɴsᴏɴ 🀄️ (@Robinson2Javan) November 18, 2023
“They’re looking for me to be a leader on the team, lead the guys, come in and be the vocal leader that they know I can be,” Robinson said. “I’ve known some of the coaches for 2-3 years so they actually know how vocal and and how much of a leader I am. They want me to just come in be the same guy.”
Now, he’s focused on getting to Tempe, and wanting to separate himself both physically and mentally.
“(I plan on) getting more in tune with the playbook, making sure I know each and everything before I get here and just hit the ground running,” Robinson said. “So that’s something that I’ll work on just being more mentally just just getting better mentally with everything.”
Robinson joins Laterrence Welch as fellow defensive back transfers.
