Momentum shifts, mindset shifts: Inside the breakthrough season of Devin Haskins

Senior cornerback Devin Haskins isn’t shy about his love of special teams — “I LOVE SPECIAL TEAMS,” he’s quite literally declared in all caps not once, but twice, on Twitter — and is emphatic about the impact a single play can have. 

Take his first blocked punt of the year at Colgate, for example, which legitimately shifted the momentum of a game in which the Holy Cross football team found itself trailing in the second quarter, 10-7. After Haskins batted down the ball, Holy Cross took over at the Colgate 20-yard line, and immediately scored the first touchdown of what would eventually be 28 unanswered points in a 35-10 win.

With three blocked punts on the year — and with each one coming in the last three consecutive games — Haskins has already tied a Patriot League record for most blocked punts in a season. By all means, Haskins has been able to produce some of the most electrifying moments in a highlight-filled season for the undefeated Crusaders. Though Haskins, an All-Patriot League honoree in 2021, has previously experienced success on The Hill, his game has elevated as a senior through his selfless and hardworking attitude on the field. 

“It's really just being fundamental with your steps, no wasted movements, and then just not being afraid to make the play,” Haskins said. 

“Every time he’s out there,” said Holy Cross special teams coordinator Drew Canan, “I expect him to block a punt.”

You can attribute a good percentage of Haskins’ penchant for making explosive plays within the confines of the gridiron to his off-field personality. Haskins is unabashedly himself: sarcastic, amusing, entertaining, rarely subdued, fiercely competitive. 

“No filter,” he said with a sly grin when describing himself. “Make sure you put that in there.” 

Growing up in Texas — and as one of four energy-filled sons in the family — football was “literally everything” for Haskins and his family. Undersized relative to his two older brothers, who also played football collegiately, Haskins developed a sometimes-too-sharp tongue as a defense mechanism. Both Haskins and his entire family have long had that competitive edge, and shaped by a winning tradition in his hometown and at his high school, the expectations to win have always been high — and the drive to get better has always been strong.

Haskins has had athleticism and talent his whole life, and for him, there’s no feeling that compares to what it’s like to run on the field and display that talent for a stadium filled with fans.

“I love football because I can just go out there and feel free,” he said. “It's just something that's natural to me, and there’s really nothing better than running out of a tunnel or running out of the smoke to Coach Grautski. That adrenaline rush — there's nothing that really tops that for me.”

During the spring of 2022, on St. Patrick’s Day, Haskins woke up to a phone screen filled with missed calls from his family. He quickly came to find out that his father, Tray, had been in an accident back home in Texas, and he had multiple skull fractures. After a day of waiting for more clarity, Haskins’ mother, Sarah, bought him a plane ticket to come home. Tray had had multiple seizures and was in a coma, and amid the uncertainty of what would happen next, Haskins needed to be home. 

For the better part of the next several weeks, Haskins was by his mother’s side for everything she needed, accompanying her to the hospital while his father remained in a coma for around a month. Even after he came out of his coma, there were the next difficult steps of determining rehabilitation and sorting through the long-term side effects Tray would experience. 

In countless ways, Haskins had to step up and grow up in order to support his mother and father — balancing not only his own emotions, but staying strong for his mom (“My mom is my homie,” he notes, proud to be the ultimate mama’s boy and to call her his best friend).

“That’s her guy, that’s her rock,” Haskins said about his father, “and I just tried to step in for her as best as I possibly could.”

Though he missed a good portion of the spring season on campus and handled his academics remotely, Haskins channeled his sadness, fear and anger into working out, and focusing on his dreams — and his father’s dreams — more closely than ever before.

“My father and I have always had a shared dream, to just take this football thing as far as possible, and I told myself I was gonna do it,” Haskins said. “In the offseason, I just put my head down and tried to separate myself.”

When Haskins visited colleges as a high schooler, as soon as he met the coaches, staff and players at Holy Cross, he knew it was the right fit. (Even though his Texas blood was ill-equipped for New England winters, he quips that the Crusaders’ Indoor Practice Facility was a big selling point for him, too). 

“We’re all a family,” Haskins said. “We're not perfect, but we all love each other, and we’ll do anything for each other. And I think that's really what makes us so special.”

That selflessness has been a guiding principle for Haskins throughout his playing career — now more so than ever before. 

“I can say this, nobody practices harder than Devin Haskins,” Canan said. “It's incredible. He plays every play on defense. And then when we do a punt drill, he's the first one down there. He sits in front in every single meeting. All of those younger players look up to him, because of how hard he practices. He's a genuine, nice, nice kid.”

Haskins has always been a key contributor in the Crusaders’ secondary, but in many ways, this season has been a breakthrough for him. He had five pass breakups in a nail-biting, upset win over FBS foe Buffalo. Haskins followed up his Colgate blocked punt with a blocked punt at Harvard as the Crusaders defeated the Crimson at Harvard Stadium for the first time since 2001; the next week, he blocked a punt and returned it for a touchdown in a 57-0 dismantling of Bucknell at Polar Park. 

“This year, he just has even more urgency — not that he didn't have urgency before, but everything is ramped up a little bit,” Canan said. “It's so, so fun to watch.”

His elevated success this year has been the product of his shifted mindset since the spring.

“That’s kind of where my head was — I was just like, I'm gonna be the best player I can be,” he said. “I'm gonna leave it all out there. And I just worked my butt off. Like, there's not really much more to it. In the winter, in the offseason, spring, summertime, I was working as hard as possible. 

“I have a lot of goals. I've got dreams that I am taking more seriously than ever. I just want to be as good as possible for all of the people around me. And that's just how I take it every day, one day at a time.”

Haskins’ coaches have put him in roles to make a difference for his team — in a position to change the course of a game with a single play — and Haskins couldn’t be prouder to embrace that opportunity. 

“I take a lot of pride in that, because I play a lot of defense, and then they still trust me to put me in those kinds of positions to go and help the team win,” Haskins said. “ I love that they trust me so much to go out there and try to make a splash — it's so exciting to me. There's nothing better than having like a group of people, like your coaches, say: ‘we believe in you, now go do this.’”

And everything he’s done has come through hard work. Unfiltered, gritty, determined work.

“He's earned it,” Canan said. “He's earned it because of how he practices, and how detailed he is in everything that he does. Nothing is given in this program — everything is earned. And Devin has earned everything he’s gotten.”

Haskins continues to set his sights on continued opportunity to support his teammates in any way he can — and the opportunity to play hard for his father, who has made a strong recovery and been able to travel to the Crusaders’ home games and cheer on his son. 

“Whenever this is all done, I'm gonna make sure that I have no regrets, and that I tried my hardest at everything,” Haskins said. “And that I can make my father proud.”

TALKING POINTS AT LAFAYETTE…

• The No. 6 Holy Cross football team returns to action after a bye week with a Patriot League contest at Lafayette on Saturday, Oct. 22. Kickoff is set for 3:30 p.m. in Easton, Pa.
• One of six undefeated teams at the FCS level this season, Holy Cross has won 13 consecutive Patriot League matchups and 15 straight regular season road games. The Crusaders will be playing their fifth road game in their first seven contests of the season.
• The Crusaders have had a balanced effort on both sides of the ball, ranking in the top 10 in both scoring offense (eighth, 38.0 points per game) and scoring defense (ninth, 15.5 points allowed per game). 
• Junior quarterback Matthew Sluka, who was named to the Walter Payton Award watch list this week, ranks second in FCS with an average of 17.18 yards per completion.
• The Leopards are averaging just 8.8 points per game this year, but their defense has been strong, led by Patriot League Preseason Defensive Player of the Year Malik Hamm. Lafayette is holding opponents to just 18.8 points per contest.

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