SE: Justin Hughes, Elijah Sullivan and the Seven-Year Journey to Take the Field Together
Sep 11, 2020 | Football, Sports Extra
By: Austin Siegel
Before the crutches, the months of physical therapy and waking up injured on the kind of fall Saturdays in Manhattan that you would swear were made for college football, Justin Hughes looked at a text on his phone.
The sender was another one of the Georgia Boys.
"He was the first person I told, after my parents, that I wasn't going to be able to play that season," Hughes said. "And he was the first person to text me, this long paragraph and a Biblical verse, basically just telling me anything that comes, this too shall pass."
Make no mistake, the friendship between Justin Hughes and Elijah Sullivan has been forged in football.
But the game also has a way of only showing you the bond between teammates, and not the relationship that helped both players push forward after season-ending injuries at Kansas State.
When Sullivan and Hughes, both sixth-year seniors, take the field this season, it will be their first time lining up next to each other since high school.
"Just the journey that we've been on and trying to get on the field at the same time, we talked about that when we first came here," Sullivan said. "That's made our bond stronger, having similar injuries and going through the same things – he had to sit out for a whole year, and I had to sit out a whole year. Now that it's our last year, it's finally time to go get it."
With the exception of a few NFL veterans, most football players will never go seven years between starts alongside one teammate.
Every position group in the game can benefit from familiarity, but that unspoken communication is especially important at linebacker, where knowing the part of the field your teammate has covered can be the difference between fourth down and a touchdown.
"Playing next to somebody I've known since I was a kid, that's unmatched," Sullivan said. "There are certain things where Justin and I just have that connection and we don't even need to speak or say anything."
That doesn't mean Hughes and Sullivan have stayed quiet on defense.
When K-State linebackers coach Steve Stanard arrived on campus for the first time, he didn't have any trouble getting to know the two oldest members of his position group.
"Both Justin and Eli are vocal leaders on this defense," Stanard said. "I asked Justin the other day, 'How old are you?' and he goes '24' and then I ask Eli and he goes '23,' and I was thinking man, when I was 24 I was coaching and I had my first child."
Hughes and Sullivan have spent five years together at K-State, with 22 starts between them.
But you have to go all the way back to Georgia, seven years ago, to find the last place where they walked on to the field together as linebackers.
Tucker High School, right outside of Atlanta, has earned a reputation for sending players to the NFL - five former Tigers ended last season playing on Sundays.
Hughes and Sullivan weren't the same year in school at Tucker, but they played next to each other at linebacker in 2013, alongside former Ole Miss linebacker Detric Bing-Dukes.
"I had moved from my old high school to Tucker. We were in camp and Elijah was hurt. So, he was actually in a boot when I first met him," Hughes said. "I have this picture of me, him and Detric and I was just looking at it, reminiscing about how dominant a linebacker core we had. Nobody can tell me they had a better group of linebackers in high school than that."
They also crossed paths with future K-State cornerback Duke Shelley, part of a Tucker defense that was full of D1 and NFL talent.
When Hughes was a senior, the Tigers went 14-1 and made it to the state championship game.
"Justin Hughes is a character. Two things I remember about Justin: ultra-athletic and super silly," Tucker High School head coach Bryan Lamar said. "Elijah, the one thing outside of him being athletic, he was just as physical a kid as we've had in terms of hip explosion and pop."
Lamar has coached at Tucker since 2012, leading the program on the field and helping his players navigate the Wild West of college football recruiting.
For Hughes, the road to Manhattan was about finding a program that believed in his potential, as the Wildcats beat out Syracuse and programs throughout the Southeast for the linebacker.
"When it came down to it, Justin had a skillset that fit what Kansas State was looking for," Lamar said. "K-State has been able to win games with players that they can develop in their system, guys that have the right kind of character and are coachable. That's the way Kansas State has been successful. Justin was athletic and he fit that mold."
Sullivan was committed to Auburn for most of his senior year, before he tore his ACL and the Tigers hired a new defensive coordinator. They would also need him to grayshirt – delay his enrollment until after the upcoming season – if he joined the team at Auburn.
"Growing up in SEC country, it's SEC or not at all, you know?" Sullivan said. "On signing day, I had trouble figuring out where I was going to go. I had an injury that put a lot of things on hold and people started to question if they wanted me. I was looking for a home."
Lamar remembers spotting Sullivan before signing day, wearing a hat from a mid-major school that he figured would be one of his only options if he decided to re-open his recruitment.
Sullivan didn't realize that while he was committed to Auburn, schools throughout the country had been calling his head coach, only to be told they were too late to get his signature.
"He had a K-State scholarship offer and I had been talking to one of their coaches every day," Lamar said. "I told him, 'The only reason K-State hasn't been talking to you is because I've been telling them that you're going to Auburn.' So, I got him on the phone with K-State and we got it done."
Sullivan called it "blind faith" that brought him to Manhattan, the first time he had ever lived so far from home. Heading to K-State would also mean an opportunity to team up with Hughes.
Along with Shelley and Isaiah Zuber, from nearby Stone Mountain, the Georgia Boys were born.
"Just that journey that we've been on, me, Duke, Zu, J-Ball, trying to get on the field at the same time," Sullivan said. "They started calling us the Georgia Boys. Just being able to see all these guys from my area go out and shine, it's what we always talked about."
The success that K-State has had recruiting players from Georgia is remarkable – Shelley was a sixth-round draft pick of the Chicago Bears in 2019 and Zuber signed with the New England Patriots this summer.
Both Sullivan and Hughes have had breakout seasons in Manhattan, but success has been accompanied by setbacks that kept both players from sharing the field together.
Three games into the 2018 season, Sullivan went down with a season-ending injury, just a few weeks before Hughes had a breakout game off the bench against Texas and started the final seven games of the season, finishing third on the Wildcats in tackles.
"It was sad not having Elijah out there with me," Hughes said. "I think I had a TFL against Texas, and the first person celebrating with me was Duke. That took me back to high school, and it was like man, I'm here now and we're finally doing it."
The next season, Hughes tore his ACL in spring camp, before Sullivan returned to the field and started every game for the Wildcats as part of an All-Big 12 Honorable Mention season in 2019.
Through every setback, Hughes and Sullivan have been able to rely on each other.
"Every week, he asked me how I was doing, how it was coming along, are you getting better and getting stronger, how are you moving?" Sullivan said. "Fast forward another year and it was unfortunate for that to happen to him too, but now it was my turn to step up and be that person for him, be that beacon of light."
After back-to-back season-ending injuries, the only thing left for Hughes and Sullivan to get through before they share the field together has been a global pandemic. Even that hasn't slowed them down.
"I just told them the other day how much I appreciated them and their willingness to be coached," Stanard said. "They've been around the block and they bring a lot of experience to the table both on and off the field."
With those injuries behind them and their senior season finally here, Hughes has a clear perspective on the opportunity that lies ahead for the last two members of the Georgia Boys.
"Maybe this is God's way of making sure we can go out with a bang together," Hughes said. "Elijah has been everything for me. He's my brother forever."
Before the crutches, the months of physical therapy and waking up injured on the kind of fall Saturdays in Manhattan that you would swear were made for college football, Justin Hughes looked at a text on his phone.
The sender was another one of the Georgia Boys.
"He was the first person I told, after my parents, that I wasn't going to be able to play that season," Hughes said. "And he was the first person to text me, this long paragraph and a Biblical verse, basically just telling me anything that comes, this too shall pass."
Make no mistake, the friendship between Justin Hughes and Elijah Sullivan has been forged in football.
But the game also has a way of only showing you the bond between teammates, and not the relationship that helped both players push forward after season-ending injuries at Kansas State.
When Sullivan and Hughes, both sixth-year seniors, take the field this season, it will be their first time lining up next to each other since high school.
"Just the journey that we've been on and trying to get on the field at the same time, we talked about that when we first came here," Sullivan said. "That's made our bond stronger, having similar injuries and going through the same things – he had to sit out for a whole year, and I had to sit out a whole year. Now that it's our last year, it's finally time to go get it."
With the exception of a few NFL veterans, most football players will never go seven years between starts alongside one teammate.
Every position group in the game can benefit from familiarity, but that unspoken communication is especially important at linebacker, where knowing the part of the field your teammate has covered can be the difference between fourth down and a touchdown.
"Playing next to somebody I've known since I was a kid, that's unmatched," Sullivan said. "There are certain things where Justin and I just have that connection and we don't even need to speak or say anything."
That doesn't mean Hughes and Sullivan have stayed quiet on defense.
When K-State linebackers coach Steve Stanard arrived on campus for the first time, he didn't have any trouble getting to know the two oldest members of his position group.
"Both Justin and Eli are vocal leaders on this defense," Stanard said. "I asked Justin the other day, 'How old are you?' and he goes '24' and then I ask Eli and he goes '23,' and I was thinking man, when I was 24 I was coaching and I had my first child."
Hughes and Sullivan have spent five years together at K-State, with 22 starts between them.
But you have to go all the way back to Georgia, seven years ago, to find the last place where they walked on to the field together as linebackers.
Tucker High School, right outside of Atlanta, has earned a reputation for sending players to the NFL - five former Tigers ended last season playing on Sundays.
Hughes and Sullivan weren't the same year in school at Tucker, but they played next to each other at linebacker in 2013, alongside former Ole Miss linebacker Detric Bing-Dukes.
"I had moved from my old high school to Tucker. We were in camp and Elijah was hurt. So, he was actually in a boot when I first met him," Hughes said. "I have this picture of me, him and Detric and I was just looking at it, reminiscing about how dominant a linebacker core we had. Nobody can tell me they had a better group of linebackers in high school than that."
They also crossed paths with future K-State cornerback Duke Shelley, part of a Tucker defense that was full of D1 and NFL talent.
When Hughes was a senior, the Tigers went 14-1 and made it to the state championship game.
"Justin Hughes is a character. Two things I remember about Justin: ultra-athletic and super silly," Tucker High School head coach Bryan Lamar said. "Elijah, the one thing outside of him being athletic, he was just as physical a kid as we've had in terms of hip explosion and pop."
Lamar has coached at Tucker since 2012, leading the program on the field and helping his players navigate the Wild West of college football recruiting.
For Hughes, the road to Manhattan was about finding a program that believed in his potential, as the Wildcats beat out Syracuse and programs throughout the Southeast for the linebacker.
"When it came down to it, Justin had a skillset that fit what Kansas State was looking for," Lamar said. "K-State has been able to win games with players that they can develop in their system, guys that have the right kind of character and are coachable. That's the way Kansas State has been successful. Justin was athletic and he fit that mold."
Sullivan was committed to Auburn for most of his senior year, before he tore his ACL and the Tigers hired a new defensive coordinator. They would also need him to grayshirt – delay his enrollment until after the upcoming season – if he joined the team at Auburn.
"Growing up in SEC country, it's SEC or not at all, you know?" Sullivan said. "On signing day, I had trouble figuring out where I was going to go. I had an injury that put a lot of things on hold and people started to question if they wanted me. I was looking for a home."
Lamar remembers spotting Sullivan before signing day, wearing a hat from a mid-major school that he figured would be one of his only options if he decided to re-open his recruitment.
Sullivan didn't realize that while he was committed to Auburn, schools throughout the country had been calling his head coach, only to be told they were too late to get his signature.
"He had a K-State scholarship offer and I had been talking to one of their coaches every day," Lamar said. "I told him, 'The only reason K-State hasn't been talking to you is because I've been telling them that you're going to Auburn.' So, I got him on the phone with K-State and we got it done."
Sullivan called it "blind faith" that brought him to Manhattan, the first time he had ever lived so far from home. Heading to K-State would also mean an opportunity to team up with Hughes.
Along with Shelley and Isaiah Zuber, from nearby Stone Mountain, the Georgia Boys were born.
"Just that journey that we've been on, me, Duke, Zu, J-Ball, trying to get on the field at the same time," Sullivan said. "They started calling us the Georgia Boys. Just being able to see all these guys from my area go out and shine, it's what we always talked about."
It's going to be a show
— K-State Football (@KStateFB) September 10, 2020
Tune in@justin_2201 is back#KStateFB ⚒ Pound The Stone pic.twitter.com/abd8dhSj8b
The success that K-State has had recruiting players from Georgia is remarkable – Shelley was a sixth-round draft pick of the Chicago Bears in 2019 and Zuber signed with the New England Patriots this summer.
Both Sullivan and Hughes have had breakout seasons in Manhattan, but success has been accompanied by setbacks that kept both players from sharing the field together.
Three games into the 2018 season, Sullivan went down with a season-ending injury, just a few weeks before Hughes had a breakout game off the bench against Texas and started the final seven games of the season, finishing third on the Wildcats in tackles.
"It was sad not having Elijah out there with me," Hughes said. "I think I had a TFL against Texas, and the first person celebrating with me was Duke. That took me back to high school, and it was like man, I'm here now and we're finally doing it."
The next season, Hughes tore his ACL in spring camp, before Sullivan returned to the field and started every game for the Wildcats as part of an All-Big 12 Honorable Mention season in 2019.
Through every setback, Hughes and Sullivan have been able to rely on each other.
"Every week, he asked me how I was doing, how it was coming along, are you getting better and getting stronger, how are you moving?" Sullivan said. "Fast forward another year and it was unfortunate for that to happen to him too, but now it was my turn to step up and be that person for him, be that beacon of light."
After back-to-back season-ending injuries, the only thing left for Hughes and Sullivan to get through before they share the field together has been a global pandemic. Even that hasn't slowed them down.
"I just told them the other day how much I appreciated them and their willingness to be coached," Stanard said. "They've been around the block and they bring a lot of experience to the table both on and off the field."
With those injuries behind them and their senior season finally here, Hughes has a clear perspective on the opportunity that lies ahead for the last two members of the Georgia Boys.
"Maybe this is God's way of making sure we can go out with a bang together," Hughes said. "Elijah has been everything for me. He's my brother forever."
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